If I had to sum up Blackadder's Christmas Carol, I'd say it was Dickens' traditional festive parable turned unashamedly inside out. We know of Edmund Blackadder's selfish, self-centred nature so what better way to approach the tale of seasonal personal epiphany than by turning the good man into an evil one.
Edmund is set to spend another year with no money at all - and this is the only Blackadder I've seen, incidentally, where Baldrick is nearly on the same social footing (Edmund calls him "Mr. Baldrick") - until he is visited by the Christmas Spirit (brilliantly played by Robbie Coltrane. I particularly like the way the Spirit's plan to praise Edmund by showing the evil deeds of his ancestors backfires so badly, but I will reveal no more.
It's not only Dickens' characters who get parodied here ("Mrs. Scratchit, Tiny Tim is seventeen stone and built like a brick privy! If he eats any more heartily he will burst") but that most iconic of nineteenth century figures, Queen Victoria herself. It is well known that she and her husband Albert truly loved each other and poor Albert is so enthusiastic about the presents he buys that he can keep nothing secret.
It is a great tribute to Rowan Atkinson and Ben Elton that I can think of few other writers and actors who can parody a certain time in history so well. Refreshingly entertaining in an entirely different way to most seasonal TV.
Edmund is set to spend another year with no money at all - and this is the only Blackadder I've seen, incidentally, where Baldrick is nearly on the same social footing (Edmund calls him "Mr. Baldrick") - until he is visited by the Christmas Spirit (brilliantly played by Robbie Coltrane. I particularly like the way the Spirit's plan to praise Edmund by showing the evil deeds of his ancestors backfires so badly, but I will reveal no more.
It's not only Dickens' characters who get parodied here ("Mrs. Scratchit, Tiny Tim is seventeen stone and built like a brick privy! If he eats any more heartily he will burst") but that most iconic of nineteenth century figures, Queen Victoria herself. It is well known that she and her husband Albert truly loved each other and poor Albert is so enthusiastic about the presents he buys that he can keep nothing secret.
It is a great tribute to Rowan Atkinson and Ben Elton that I can think of few other writers and actors who can parody a certain time in history so well. Refreshingly entertaining in an entirely different way to most seasonal TV.