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Blackadder's Christmas Carol

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Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Title screen
GenrePeriod, sitcom
Written byRichard Curtis
Ben Elton
Directed byRichard Boden
StarringRowan Atkinson
Tony Robinson
Stephen Fry
Hugh Laurie
Robbie Coltrane
Miranda Richardson
Miriam Margolyes
Jim Broadbent
Theme music composerHoward Goodall
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerJohn Lloyd
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time42 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release23 December 1988 (1988-12-23)
Related

Blackadder's Christmas Carol, a one-off episode of Blackadder, is a parody of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It is set between Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and is narrated by Hugh Laurie. Produced by the BBC, it was first broadcast on BBC1 on 23 December 1988.

Plot

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Ebenezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), the Victorian proprietor of a "moustache shop", is the nicest man in England.[1] He is everything that Ebenezer Scrooge was by the end of the original story: generous and kind to everybody, and sensitive to the misery of others. As a result, people take advantage of his kindness – Mrs. Scratchit and a young boy take all his money, his god-daughter Millicent takes his presents and Christmas tree, and a beadle takes his food. All but Mr. Baldrick (Tony Robinson) view him as a victim. His business turns no profit, all his earnings go to charity and con artists, and despite his positive attitude, he lives a lonely, miserable life.

One Christmas Eve, Blackadder's destiny changes when the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) visits him to congratulate him for his ways. The Spirit lets him see two shades of the past: his Blackadder ancestors (the protagonists of Blackadder II and Blackadder the Third). Instead of providing positive reinforcement that Ebenezer is better than his forefathers, these visions lead him to admire them and their wit. He asks the Spirit to show him what could happen if he became like them. He sees a vision of a distant future where his descendant, Grand Admiral Blackadder, is a successful and ruthless official of a galactic empire, about to marry the similarly ruthless and insanely ambitious Queen Asphyxia XIX (Miranda Richardson) after murdering her "triple husbandoid" (Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Patsy Byrne). The future Baldrick, wearing a loincloth, is Blackadder's slave. Blackadder asks the Spirit what will happen if he stays as he is. He is shown an alternative future in which his descendant is the loincloth-clad slave of the incompetent Admiral Baldrick.

Contrary to the Spirit's intended point, Blackadder takes "the very clear lesson that bad guys have all the fun". On Christmas morning, he wakes up a different man: bitter, vengeful, greedy, and insulting to everyone he meets, including Baldrick. Now feeling in control of his life, he misses an opportunity when he insults two strangers who claim to be Queen Victoria (Miriam Margolyes) and Prince Albert (Jim Broadbent) and throws them out of his home. The episode ends on Blackadder's extravagant Christmas dinner, which is ruined when Baldrick shows him the royal seal left behind by the strangers, proving Baldrick's story that the Queen and Prince Albert had planned to award Blackadder a gift of £50,000 and the title of Baron Blackadder for being the "nicest man in England".[1]

Edited version

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Most versions of this special edit an early scene when Baldrick discusses a dog used as Jesus for the Nativity play, removing one line in which Baldrick says the dog would be nailed to a cross for a repeat Easter performance.[2] The earliest known case of this edit was on its first rerun in December 1989. The same version was used for later terrestrial broadcasts when the special aired at Christmas in the years 1998, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2017 and 2019 until 2023. The edited version is also seen in the Blackadder Ultimate Edition DVD set, on the UK channel Gold since 2018 (the uncut version was screened until 2017) and, as of 2016, is on Hulu Plus. The original uncut version can be seen on the Region 1 U.S. DVD set, and on the U.S. and UK versions of Netflix.[citation needed]

Cast

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Blackadder's Christmas Carol". Blackadder Hall (transcript). 12 October 2011. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. ^ Censored Line in Blackadder's Christmas Carol on YouTube
  3. ^ a b Blackadder's Christmas Carol [1988] [DVD]. Amazon.co.uk (Media notes). BBC. 18 November 2002. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020.
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