Black Adder the Third 

In the Regency era, Mr E. Blackadder serves as butler to the foppish numskull Prince George amidst the fads and crazes of the time.

Stars:

Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Hugh Laurie

Top Rated TV #103 | 3 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Rowan Atkinson	...	Edmund Blackadder, butler to the Prince / ... 6 episodes, 1987
Tony Robinson	...	Baldrick, a dogsbody 6 episodes, 1987
Hugh Laurie	...	The Prince Regent, their master 6 episodes, 1987
Helen Atkinson Wood	...	Mrs. Miggins, a coffee shoppekeeper 6 episodes, 1987

Storyline

During the Regency period, the insane King George III's stark raving mad son, George, is the Prince Regent of Wales. Vulgar and staggeringly slow-and-dim-witted, George exhausts the country's money and would surely be dead by know were it not for his dry, angry, bitter, arrogant and cynical butler, Edmund Blackadder, Esq. Blackadder is an ex-aristocrat who has lost his family fortune and been reduced to servant-hood, and full of loathing knowing he should have a better position then serving a lunatic. Sod-Off Baldrick is his dirty, smelly peasant servant, and Mrs. Miggins is an annoying cheerful coffee-shoppe owner who is too stupid to understand most of Mr. Blackadder's insults.

---

Plot Keywords:

period | british humour | georgian era | regency era | king george iv | 

---

Taglines:

Sausage!

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1987 (UK)

Also Known As:

Blackadder III

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min 30 min (6 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was the only series of Blackadder where Rik Mayall doesn't appear.

---

Goofs

Although purportedly set during the British Regency (1811-1820), there are appearances by, and contemporary references to, historical figures who were dead before that time, such as Samuel Johnson and Admiral Nelson. Characters use expressions not developed until later, such as "prince and the pauper" or "roller coaster."

---

Quotes

Baldrick: [Blackadder slams the door] Something wrong, Mr. B?
Blackadder: Oh, something's *always* wrong, Balders... the fact that I'm not a millionaire aristocrat, with the sexual capacity of a rutting rhino, is a constant niggle.

---

Crazy Credits

Among the books that Blackadder peruses during the opening credits are:

• (Morte D'Edmund?)
• The Blackadder's Progress
• Rise and Fall
• Bath on 5p a Day
• Encyclopaedia Blackaddica Vol XIX FUN to HUG
• Chelsea Arts Club (...)
• Blackadder Unbound
• Landscape Gardening by Capability Brownadder
• From Black Death to Blackadder
• Blackadder's Bedside Cockfighting Companion
• The Blackadder of Calcutta
• (...)
• Blackadder Book of Martyrs
• The Blackobite Rebellion
• Old Blackamore's Almanac Second Edition
• Sir Francis Blackadder (Letters?)

---

Connections

Referenced in House M.D.: Known Unknowns (2009)

User Reviews

Absolute Class

The 3rd and in my view the best of the Blackadder series.

The only downside is that there is no Lord Percy who was the funniest character from the previous series but Hugh Laurie's Prince Regent is suitably madcap laugh a line.

As a package it's quality through and through with convincing regency sets, superb cutting sarcasm and little bits of the wacky, the 'macbeth' actors standing out and Prince Georges 'lucky us' chicken impression, and the missing words from Dr Johnson's dictionary.

Few comedies have been quite as both clever as they are funny, okay the odd lame observation or line gets in but mostly it's a scream.