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 the Third: Ink and Incapability

Blackadder the Third: Ink and Incapability
BBC
24 September 1987
Historical Comedy
VHS
C+

This second episode, also written by Curtis & Elton, just isn't as funny or interesting.  Maybe it's that literature and writing don't lend themselves to satire as well as politics do.  I find it mainly notable for the guest cast, from Robbie Coltrane as Samuel Johnson (who besides becoming Hagrid down the road, would in '88 be the Spirit of Christmas who visits Blackadder) to the comedy team of Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen, later to be seen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, here playing Coleridge and Byron respectively.