Blackadder

Blackadder
Left to right: Tim McInnerny, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson and Hugh Laurie in Blackadder Goes Forth
GenrePeriod sitcom
Created byRichard Curtis
Rowan Atkinson
Written byRichard Curtis
Rowan Atkinson (series 1)
Ben Elton (series 2–4)
Directed byGeoff Posner (pilot)
Martin Shardlow (series 1)
Mandie Fletcher (series 2 and 3)
Richard Boden (series 4)
StarringRowan Atkinson
Tony Robinson
Hugh Laurie
Tim McInnerny
Miranda Richardson
Stephen Fry
Theme music composerHoward Goodall
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series4
No. of episodes24 (plus 4 specials) (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerJohn Lloyd
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time30 minutes approx
Production companyBBC
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release15 June 1983 (1983-06-15) –
2 November 1989 (1989-11-02)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Blackadder is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC1 from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, e.g., Melchett (Stephen Fry), Lord Percy Percy / Captain Darling (Tim McInnerny) and George (Hugh Laurie).

The first series, The Black Adder, was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent series were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows were produced by John Lloyd. In 2000, the fourth series, Blackadder Goes Forth, ranked at 16 in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, a list created by the British Film Institute. In a 2001 poll by Channel 4, Edmund Blackadder was ranked third on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.[1] In the 2004 TV poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom, Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses. It was also ranked as the 9th-best TV show of all time by Empire magazine.[2] Rowan Atkinson said Blackadder is "the thing he found the least stressful" to do.[3]

  1. ^ "100 Greatest TV Characters". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  2. ^ "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time – Number 20: Blackadder". Empire. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2009.
  3. ^ Pingitore, Silvia (5 July 2022). "The shortest interview ever with Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson". Retrieved 3 July 2023.