Blackadder Back & Forth (1999)

At a New Millennium Eve party Blackadder and Baldrick test their new time machine and ping pong through history encountering famous characters and changing events rather alarmingly....

Director:

Paul Weiland

Writers:

Richard Curtis, Ben Elton,

Stars:

Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Rowan Atkinson	...	Lord Edmund Blackadder / King Edmund III / Blackaddercus (All Blackadders)
Tony Robinson	...	Sod-Off Baldrick / Baldrickus (All Baldricks)
Stephen Fry	...	Bishop Flavius Melchett / Melchett / General Melchecus (All Melchetts) / Wellington
Hugh Laurie	...	Viscount George Bufton-Tufton / Georgius
Tim McInnerny	...	Archdeacon Darling / Duc de Darling / Duke of Darling (All Darlings)
Miranda Richardson	...	Lady Elizabeth / Queen Elizabeth (All Elizabeths)
Tyrannosaurus Rex	...	Dinosaur
Patsy Byrne	...	Nursie
Colin Firth	...	William Shakespeare
Rik Mayall	...	Robin Hood
Kate Moss	...	Maid Marian
Crispin Harris	...	Friar Tuck
Simon Russell Beale	...	Napoleon (as Simon Russell-Beale)
Hordes of Scots	...	Scottish Hordes
Jennie Bond	...	Royal Reporter (as Jenny Bond)

Storyline

It's Millennium Eve and Blackadder is hosting a dinner party for a few select friends, Lady Elizabeth, Viscount George, Archbishop Melchett and Archbishop Darling. Baldrick devises yet another of his infamous cunning plans to help his ever greedy master Edmund Blackadder con money from his gullible friends. The pair build a "time machine" from empty cereal packets and place bets with their friends as to when in history they will travel, retrieving various artifacts from their travels as proof, items which Blackadder already owns! However, in a strange twist of fate the time machine actually works and the pair are thrown back in history initially to the Jurassic period. Gradually the pair start to return to their own time stopping off at various famous times in history such as Sherwood Forest and the Battle of Waterloo but will they make it home?

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Plot Keywords:

friend | time machine | millennium | con | gullible | 

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Taglines:

The final episode in the saga of the Blackadder family, who have forever been at the very center of British history and society.

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Genres:

Short | Comedy | History | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 December 1999 (UK)

Also Known As:

Untitled Blackadder Millennium Project

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Millennium Experience Company, Sky, Tiger Aspect Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

33 min

Sound Mix:

DTS 70 mm (as dts Digital Sound)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the dinner party at the beginning, a portrait of Captain Blackadder from Blackadder Goes Forth is positioned on the wall behind the present Blackadder.

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Goofs

When Blackadder walks down the stairs showing Leonardo Da Vinci's sketchbook, we hear him talking about it, but his lips don't move.

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Quotes

Consul Georgius: I say, this is interesting! There seems to be a large orange hedge moving towards us.
Centurion Blackadder: Uh, thats not a hedge Consul. That's the Scots.

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Crazy Credits

There is a statement at the end of the closing credits: "Blackadder Back and Forth 2... Coming Summer 3000!"

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Connections

Follows Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)

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Soundtracks

"Robin Hood"
Written by Carl Sigman (as Carl Stigman)
Published by Memory Lane Music Ltd.

User Reviews

Great reunion, for actors and fans.

Blackadder Back and Forth was, or seems to be, meant as a collector's film for fans of Blackadder, and also as a fun reunion for the actors at the millennium. That is, it started out with the same motif as the other Blackadder series: just to have fun and be funny. Though Back and Forth is only funny as an addition to the other Blackadder's, not by itself. All the other series' could be funny on their own. This movie isn't a disappointment if you realize that it's just a wrap up put together for fun at the turn of the millenium, it wasn't meant to be like the other Blackadders, and it certainly isn't. It's a mere following of some of the characters throughout time, which is funny in itself, especially the part with the Romans and the short skirts.

The only real disappoint I had was the loss of Percy Percy. Even in the "Making of a Blackadder" they seemed to avoid talking about Percy Percy deliberately. I think it's great to see Tim McInnerny as more than one role in the series: Darling and Percy (and Smedly), because he's such a terrific and underrated actor, but I loved him the most as Percy and I miss that character. I know he doesn't want to be pigeon-holed as just one character, and he shouldn't be, but it would have been great to see both Percy and Darling in one film.