Queen Elizabeth: “So there’s definitely been no sign of Edmund?”
Lord Percy Percy: “I fear not, ma’am.”
Queen: “Why then he’s vanished, simply vanished.”
Percy: [poignantly] “…Just like an old, oak table.”
[Pause]
Queen: “…Vanished, Lord Percy. Not varnished.”
Blackadder II, “Chains”
Cate Blanchett was stunning, Dame Judy Dench was regal, and Quentin Crisp was touching, but my favorite Queen Elizabeth I is still Miranda Richardson in Blackadder II. Her Queen Bess was a spoiled, baby-talking brat, casually threatening to cut people’s heads off and spouting childish abuse at her devoted Nursie. But she was also charming and absolutely hilarious.
There were four Blackadder comedy series: The Black Adder, Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth; as well as several specials produced from 1983 to 1999. Rowan Atkinson and the other actors portray characters in the middle ages, the Tudor period, the Regency and the First World War. The same names crop up again and again, but the fortunes of the characters bearing them change. Atkinson’s Edmund Blackadder is by turns an idiotic prince, a clever Lord, a scheming butler and a self-centered army captain. Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Tim McInnerny all reappear throughout the ages with different ranks and characters, as well. Blackadder’s servant, Baldrick (Tony Robinson), however, is eternally dim and downtrodden.
Blackadder: “To you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn’t it?”
Blackadder II, “Bells”
Atkinson is an expert in withering sarcasm, but it takes great skill to play stupid as brilliantly as Laurie and Robinson do. Or to play selfish and silly as likeably as Richardson. If you enjoy Monty Pythonesque humor and have never seen Blackadder, try it. If you have seen it, maybe it’s time to go back and watch it again?
Available on DVD and in downloadable audiobook format from Library2Go
–Amy
