Details

Release year: 1989

Storyline

Stuck in the middle of World War I, Captain Edmund Blackadder does his best to escape the banality of the war.

Top credits

Cast

Rowan Atkinson — Captain Edmund Blackadder
Tony Robinson — Private S Baldrick
Stephen Fry — General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett
Hugh Laurie — Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh

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Awards

2 wins & 0 nominations

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Did you know

• Tim McInnerny's character was originally named Captain Cartwright. Sir Stephen Fry had the idea to change it to Darling (named after a boy at his school) and created a running gag which is frequently used throughout the series.

• Tim McInnerny affected a nervous tick in his eye for the character of Captain Darling, but after the six-week rehearsal and shooting schedule was over, the tick had become second nature and it took him a further two months to get rid of it.

• During rehearsals, the script was exhaustively discussed and redrafted by the cast, with Richard Curtis having the final say on the content. Sir Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson were comic writers/actors themselves, and having worked together on previous Blackadder series were not afraid to question the script and make suggestions. However, this caused tensions to arise between the writers and the cast; in interviews Ben Elton felt that they had allowed the cast to question every aspect of the script, while Tony Robinson claims "the writers felt we were unilaterally altering the script for the worse; by the end, they felt we had run away with it." The ill-feeling between the writers and actors, coupled with the draining scripting and rehearsals led to everyone deciding not to make more Blackadder shows.