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Cunning: The Blackadder Programme Guide
Blackadder has proved itself to be one of the funniest and most popular TV comedies ever shown in the UK. Caught up in a world where everyone else seems either stupid or inept, Blackadder - the central protagonist of the series - is at a loss to understand why problems and bizarre situations should follow him around like a bad smell (much like his sidekick Baldrick, in fact). The best of Blackadder's cutting comments, evil machinations, double entendres and opinions are examined in this detailed companion to this cult British comedy. This is the first and only complete episode guide to the Blackadder comedy phenomenon.
231 pages, Paperback
First published May 4, 2000
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About the author
Chris Howarth
6 booksChris Howarth was a writer for Doctor Who Magazine.
Howarth co-wrote The Completely Useless Encyclopedia with Steve Lyons in 1997. Howarth and Lyons updated the book in 2006 as The Completely Unofficial Encyclopedia.
Howarth co-wrote The Completely Useless Encyclopedia with Steve Lyons in 1997. Howarth and Lyons updated the book in 2006 as The Completely Unofficial Encyclopedia.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 21, 2008
From the writing team that bought us the hysterically funny The Completely Useless Doctor Who Enyclopedia, they've turned their attentions to another of those greatest shows of all time - Blackadder. Ostensibly a programme guide, it also has a few interesting essays about television in the 1980s and the shows that influenced and have been influenced by it, so we also get Up Pompeii, The Thin Blue Line, Maid Marian & Her Merry Men and Let Them Eat Cake under the microscope.
But is it any good? When writing about a show with the calibre of Blackadder one would hope for it to match the razor sharp wit and anarchic humour but alas Mssrs Lyons & Howarth have failed in the task like two miserable faily things failing in a torturous similie.
I couldn't help be dissapointed throughout. The overviews of each season don't really say anything new and the episode guides state the bleeding obvious. I suppose it's main plus point is having the best chunks of dialouge down though if you're enough of a fanatic of the show you probably know all the best lines already. (My personal favourite - "I'm not a German spy, I'm as British as Queen Victoria!" / "What you mean your father's German, you're half German and you married a German?")
Where it might have improved is if there'd been a section which threw some light on some of the historical gags. Granted the type of people who watch Blackadder aren't as thick as whale omlettes but the beauty of the show is the main character is a modern man with modern sensabilities trapped in a bygone era, so it holds up to viewing without having to have an indepth knowledge of the period. Two of my favourite jokes in the show work on another level because I knew the historical context. For example when Blackadder writes his novel under the nom de plum Gertrude Perkins he claims all the women writers are really men like Jane Austen ("A huge Yorkshire-man with a beard like a rhodedendron bush!") and Dorothy Wordsworth. But he then goes on to say that James Boswell is the only real woman writing and only then because she wants to sleep with Samuel Johnson. I think its a funny line on its own but I think its even funnier when you appreciate that Boswell was Johnson's biographer and companion. Likewise in the episode when they're trying to find a potential bride for Prince George, Blackadder dismisses the suggestion of Caroline Brunswick as she has "the worst personality in Germany. Which is certainly saying something". The line is funny in and of itself but again works on another level as in reality Caroline of Brunswick really was the wife of the Prince Regent. Those are just but two examples and I really think that was a section the book could have dealt with rather than just regurgitating Baldrick's silly plans or noting what other shows you might have seen guest actors in.
But is it any good? When writing about a show with the calibre of Blackadder one would hope for it to match the razor sharp wit and anarchic humour but alas Mssrs Lyons & Howarth have failed in the task like two miserable faily things failing in a torturous similie.
I couldn't help be dissapointed throughout. The overviews of each season don't really say anything new and the episode guides state the bleeding obvious. I suppose it's main plus point is having the best chunks of dialouge down though if you're enough of a fanatic of the show you probably know all the best lines already. (My personal favourite - "I'm not a German spy, I'm as British as Queen Victoria!" / "What you mean your father's German, you're half German and you married a German?")
Where it might have improved is if there'd been a section which threw some light on some of the historical gags. Granted the type of people who watch Blackadder aren't as thick as whale omlettes but the beauty of the show is the main character is a modern man with modern sensabilities trapped in a bygone era, so it holds up to viewing without having to have an indepth knowledge of the period. Two of my favourite jokes in the show work on another level because I knew the historical context. For example when Blackadder writes his novel under the nom de plum Gertrude Perkins he claims all the women writers are really men like Jane Austen ("A huge Yorkshire-man with a beard like a rhodedendron bush!") and Dorothy Wordsworth. But he then goes on to say that James Boswell is the only real woman writing and only then because she wants to sleep with Samuel Johnson. I think its a funny line on its own but I think its even funnier when you appreciate that Boswell was Johnson's biographer and companion. Likewise in the episode when they're trying to find a potential bride for Prince George, Blackadder dismisses the suggestion of Caroline Brunswick as she has "the worst personality in Germany. Which is certainly saying something". The line is funny in and of itself but again works on another level as in reality Caroline of Brunswick really was the wife of the Prince Regent. Those are just but two examples and I really think that was a section the book could have dealt with rather than just regurgitating Baldrick's silly plans or noting what other shows you might have seen guest actors in.
Displaying 1 of 1 review