Black Adder Video Showcase

The history one sees in Black Adder is wacky, but that does not mean that there aren't things to be learned. Don't use the historical facts in a term paper, but the insights could help get an 'A' on an essay question.

I have never seen this series on American television, which is a real shame. I first learned about it from a Brit that I was dating. He had to talk me into watching it, but I was soon hooked.

This is incredibly wacky, without, I think the slapstick of Monty Python. The history is made up, called a 'secret history', but actually may tell us more about what really happened than we have ever known before. Not being tied down to the 'facts' gives a freedom to look at the real issues. And this is exactly what Blackadder does. And it does it in a way that we don't know if we should laugh or cry and we end up doing both!

The main Character, Edmund, who in the first edition calls himself Black Adder, becomes Edmund Blackadder. As the seasons progress he goes from being part of the royal family, to the court, to a solicitor to just a guy in the army, trying to get by. As his relationship to the royal family becomes more distant, he becomes more intelligent and somewhat more decent, although he is always a man who is trying to survive an insane world. His wit is always intact.