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, first billed only:
Rowan Atkinson	...	All Blackadders
Tony Robinson	...	All Baldricks
Stephen Fry	...	All Melchetts
Hugh Laurie	...	Viscount George Bufton-Tufton / Georgius
Tim McInnerny	...	All Darlings
Miranda Richardson	...	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:

time machine | black adder | time travel comedy | time travel | friend | 

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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:

GBP3,000,000 (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

"Blackadder Back & Forth" takes place on 31 December 1999, 82 years after Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) which took place in 1917.

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Goofs

Georgius is called a consul. This would make him one of the highest ranking magistrates in the Roman empire. However, general Melchicus does not address him as a superior.

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Quotes

[first lines]
George: Well isn't this splendid and absolutely tufty? New years eve 1999. A new century and a new millennium. Let's drink a great big slurpy toast to peace and understanding around the globe.
Melchett: Bravo! After all, if history teaches us anything, its that in in the words of St. Burt, what the world needs now is love, sweet love.
Blackadder: Total codswallop. If history teaches us anything, it's that the story of man is one long round of death and torture. And burning people as witches just because they've...

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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

a delightful old favorite gets a makeover

Old BBC shows are lovely, so low-budget and witty and strange.

To a lover of literature and history like myself, Blackadder stands as possibly the funniest sitcom of all time. Like Doctor Who, it was cheap, but I didn't give a fig...it was simply ten times cleverer than anything on American television, and I loved it. At first, I was dubious about this millennium special - I didn't think that Blackadder really needed a big-budget makeover, special effects, etc. But in the end, "Back and Forth" served its purpose for me. I laughed. Lots. Maybe I would've liked a little more wit and a few less sight gags, but so what? It's been ten years since the original Blackadder went off the air, and it's unreasonable to expect that a new special will emulate the old show exactly. And in addition to the new material, there's plenty of nostalgic jokes on hand (e.g. "I have a cunning plan"...why do people complain that this was recycled here? Can you image Blackadder WITHOUT this line?).

Like the recent big-budget Doctor Who and Asterix films, this was criticized by fans who were disappointed that it wasn't 4 stars all the way...but a general audience can forgive the odd flaw and accept this for what it is, a delightful reunion of great British comics for one last episode of a great show.