Edmund looks to dispose of this father's comrade in arms McAngus.
I enjoyed this episode for the wicked plot, funny dialogue and excellent performances.
The story is an amusing example of Edmund's greedy ambition going badly wrong whilst providing some background on lineage. It's presents a number of comical situations that work well with the characters involved.
I found the humour to be stronger than The Foretelling with characters and dynamics a bit more settled and the dialogue quite a bit stronger. Right from Brian Blessed's hilarious opening line, for me there were a lot more moments when I experienced involuntary laughter. I particularly enjoyed Edmund's reaction to the prospect of handing over some of his land to McAngus and the banter between the Queen and her Lady In Waiting.
Rowan Atkinson mixes silliness and nastiness to great effect and shows signs of the sharper, cynical and more contemptuous character he becomes in later series. Other strong performances include Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny and Alex Norton.
For me this is an 8.5/10 as the punchlines are delivered with better timing than usual for series 1.