THE MOVIE

Blackadder 2 is touted as the historic second series. Written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, and set in England between 1558-1603, this series stars Rowan Atkinson as Lord Edmund Blackadder, Tony Robinson as Baldrick, Tim McInnerny as Lord Percy, Miranda Richardson as Queenie, Stephen Fry as Lord Melchett and Patsy Bryne as Nursie.

There are six episodes in total and each episode runs for approximately 30 minutes in length. The DVD offers the option to play all episodes, or alternatively you can choose individual episodes. The ‘Play In Order’ feature shows each episode in succession, and like Pride and Prejudice, you get opening and closing credits in between each episode, but they don’t interrupt the flow all that much.

Episode 1 - Bells
A girl by the name of Kate heads to London, pretending to be a boy, hoping to earn some money as a servant, Lord Blackadder fires Baldrick and hires her. Kate falls for Lord Blackadder, and he subsequently goes off to see a doctor when he also develops feelings for Kate, who he thinks is Bob. Once he finds out the truth, Lord Blackaddder then gets permission from the Queen to marry Kate. Lord Flashheart (Rik Mayall, The Young Ones) however, comes along and steals Kate away, leaving Lord Blackadder to marry Baldrick, who is dressed up as a bridesmaid, it’s a long story.

Episode 2 - Head
Lord Blackadder is the newly appointed minister of charge of religious genocide. He plans to run a fast and efficient operation. There are five scheduled executions, those being Drake and Ethingham on Monday, Lord Farrow on Wednesday, and Buckingham and Ponsonby on Friday, but so they can have the middle of the week off, Lord Blackadder decides they should move Lord Farrow’s execution to Monday. This is not such a great idea considering Lady Farrow wanted to see him before he was executed and this right was granted by the Queen.

Episode 3 - Potato
Sir Walter “Oh What a Big Ship I’ve Got” Raleigh (also known as Sir Walter “Rather a Wally” Raleigh) is back in town. He impresses the Queen, and Lord Blackadder is a bit jealous, so he tells the Queen he is embarking on a journey. Lord Blackadder seeks out Captain Redbeard (Tom Baker) and promises the Queen to bring her back a vegetable. Captain Redbeard is not much of a navigator though, so they get lost and return some two years later, with only a boomerang and a fine wine from the east, only it’s not wine at all.

Episode 4 - Money
The baby eating Bishop of Bath and Wells (Ronald Lacey) comes to see Lord Blackadder to retrieve a debt. It seems that the Bank of the Back Monks of St. Herod lent Lord Blackadder $1000 pounds exactly a year ago, and the Bishop has come to exact revenge if payment is not made. Lord Percy says that he has some money, but Blackadder has already stolen it and spent it. Lord Blackadder himself only has 85 quid, but then the Queen plays a trick on him and takes that money from him as well. In the end he sells his house to repay the debt, although the Queen and Lord Melchett play another trick on him, telling him that France is invading and that noblemen are required to pay $500, but he has to pay $1000 as Lord Melchett has no money.

Episode 5 - Beer
Lord Blackadder’s aunt Lady Whiteadder (Miriam Margolyes) is coming for dinner and all they have in the kitchen is turnips. Lord Melchett also has a hangover, Lord Blackadder is unsympathetic and the Queen suggests a drinking night to see who can handle their ale better, the winner gets 10,000 florins from the loser. So Lord Blackadder has to throw two parties at the same place at the same time, a drinking party for the lads, and a dinner party for his puritan aunt, who he is keen to impress, so he gets his inheritance.

Episode 6 - Chains
Lord Melchett and Lord Blackadder are kidnapped. Lord Blackadder spends most of the episode in shackles trying to communicate with a Spanish interrogator and the evil Prince Ludvig (Hugh Laurie, Stuart Little), who has a grudge against both Lord Melchett and Lord Blackadder. Ludvig has sent the Queen a ransom for one million corona and she must choose between them.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Blackadder is presented in 1.33:1 full frame (pan and scan). All six episodes have a reasonably good video transfer, and for the most part, there is a satisfactory level of detail. For the most part, the transfer is also free of grain, it is only the dark scenes and exterior scenes which sometimes look a little grainy. There is some aliasing though, observable in stain glass windows. There are also some strange glitches which occur in a number of the episodes, for example - when characters wearing black move rapidly across the screen, there is sometimes a green afterglow that seems to follow them. When the camera passes by light sources such as candles quickly, there is a similar effect where the light from the candle streaks across the screen. Colours appear natural and don’t show any signs of over-saturation. This is a dual layer disc (RSDL) although I couldn’t find any evidence of the layer change, so I imagine it has been placed in between Episode 3 and 4.

Audio:

This DVD has only one audio soundtrack, that being a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. As was the case with The Life of Birds, the packaging is somewhat misleading, because there is no mention of the number of channels, there is just a Dolby Digital logo. Not that the 2.0 channel soundtrack is a problem. A television series of this nature doesn’t really warrant a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Interestingly, this series is quite light on in the sound effects department, although from time to time there is some music. Nonetheless, dialogue is always clearly audible, so you can hear all the punch lines in this comedic series. The soundtrack also includes audience laughter as well, which I think is a good addition for a series such as this, don’t ask me why, but if you’ve ever watched a comedy series where there is no laughter, you’ll know what I mean.

THE EXTRAS

Unfortunately this DVD is devoid of extra features, nothing to speak of apart from the animated menus which also feature looped audio. The episode selection menu and the chapter selection menu for each episode are also animated. That’s about all you get though.

SUMMARY

Blackadder 2 will most likely appeal to those of you who are die hard fans of this series. Although, I might add that anyone else who likes British comedies will also no doubt find these episodes a bit of a laugh. This DVD has a reasonable visual transfer and while the audio transfer isn’t the greatest, it does the trick. Unfortunately, there aren’t any extra features.