The Arsenio Hall Show: Siskel & Ebert and Miranda Richardson

The Arsenio Hall Show: Siskel & Ebert and Miranda Richardson
Syndicated
March 26, 1993
Talk Show
VHS
B-

Arsenio gets boxing gloves for Gene and Roger since this is right after the spoiler debate about The Crying Game, which Miranda has an opinion on of course.

Siskel & Ebert: Enchanted April

Siskel & Ebert: Enchanted April
Syndicated
August 8, 1992
Movie Review
VHS
B

Gene and Roger fall under the enchantment of the movie, which I gave an A-: http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/02/enchanted-april.html.

Blackadder's Christmas Carol

Blackadder's Christmas Carol
BBC
23 December 1988
Historical Comedy
VHS
B-

Curtis & Elton wrote this 42-minute holiday special where the current Blackadder is the "nicest man in England" (although he still insults people), but has a change (or loss) of heart and becomes rotten.  This inversion of the Dickens story is notable not only for revisiting the eras of Queen Elizabeth and the Prince Regent, as well as giving glimpses of two possible distant futures, but also for having three performers who'd go on to be Hogwarts professors.  Coltrane makes a very Hagrid-like entrance (wearing a beard and knocking down the door) as the Spirit of Chrismas, while Sprout and Slughorn (Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent) are Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Barbara Miller, who played the Wise Woman on the "Bells" episode, is Granny here.  Dennis Lill, who was Sir Talbot Buxomly in the "Dish and Dishonesty episode, is the Beadle.

Overall, of the five episodes I've reviewed of the Blackadder series, the range is C+ to B+, with an average (weighting this one as two) of a high B-.  I can see why I never collected the programme more seriously.  I enjoy it but I'm not a huge fan.

Blackadder II: Bells

Blackadder II: Bells
BBC1
9 January 1986
Historical Comedy
VHS
B+

Not only does this season-opener have a witty script, by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, but it has a great regular cast who play off each other well:

• Baldrick (Tony Robinson, dirty, stupid, and yet somehow adorable)
• Queen Elizabeth I (Miranda Richardson, playing her as a deadly but lovable ditz)
• Nursie (Patsy Byrne, babbling like a Shakespearean nurse, including revealing that her real name is Bernard)
• Lord Melchett (Stephen Fry, already statesmanlike at 28 and very dry)
• Lord Percy (Tim McInnerny, somehow both hapless and boastful)
• and of course our anti-hero, Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson looking disconcertingly dashing in his beard and Renaissance garb)

They're helped along by not only Rik Mayall as flashy Flashheart but particularly Gabrielle Glaister (who would return for Blackadder Goes Forth, which I don't own) as Kate AKA Bob.  She delivers almost every line like she's a Shakespearean heroine, and of course the girl-disguising-herself-as-a-boy-and-falling-mutually-in-love-with-her-employer plot is straight (so to speak) out of Shakespeare, here played for all its gender-bending worth.  (And, yes, Melchett's reactions are ironic, especially now that Fry is married to a younger man.)  Having the courtship play out as if it's a K-tel commercial (or whatever the British equivalent is) and having the offscreen consummation take two minutes, including lighting pipes afterwards, are great touches as well.

Wisewoman Barbara Miller would have an uncredited role as Granny in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, where Richardson and Byrne would return in these roles.  Director Mandie Fletcher would also do Blackadder the Third, which I have a few episodes of.

This is as good a place as any to note that I did watch Blackadder [I] but was unimpressed.  And I never really warmed up to Goes Forth.  I prefer these middle two series, and the Christmas special.