Blackadder's Christmas Carol

I don't know how many versions there are of the famous Christmas Carol. The oldest versions and the one from Disney are the best I think. Some more recent versions are all terrible, but this one from 88 is an excellent one. Of course, it seems that there is a group of fans devided into two. Fans of American humor, fans of Brittis humor. I tend to prefer the last one. This version of Blackadder is Brittish humor at its best, and I never can get enough of it.

Blackadder's Christmas Carol makes for exceedingly good comedy. It is memorable because it turns Dicken's tale of the Victorian holiday season on its head. So, rather than a mean old miser repenting his evil ways, Ebeneezer Blackadder, the kindest man in England, repents his kind ways and turns into a nasty loner. The writing is sublime and it is good to see past Blackadders, but not the futuristic version. That just rings hollow with its over use of incomprehensible jargon and silly costumes.

This is one of two individual "film episodes" of Blackadder, separate to the series, although each of the two films has references to the series.

Out of Blackadder Back and Forth and this, I prefer Back and Forth, but this is still a hilarious delight to watch. At the beginning, Ebenezer Blackadder is the opposite of Ebenezer Scrooge, being nice to everyone - even Baldrick, surprisingly enough. He is so kind he ends up giving away all their Christmas presents and food for the next day - and their mini Christmas tree (the people who do this include Queen Victoria and Albert, who dress up as peasants to meet Blackadder). That night, the ghost of Christmas past, present and future comes to meet Blackadder and congratulates him for being very nice - unlike his ancestors. The ghost shows Blackadder some things that have happened and will happen, transforming Blackadder in unusual ways...

The cast:

The lovely, kind Blackadder (:-O ???): Rowan Atkinson. The sweet, brainless Baldrick: Tony Robinson. Lord Melchett: Stphen Fry. The happy, bumbling Queen Vicky: Miriam Margoyles. The silly Albert: Jim Broadbent. The jolly, magical ghost of Christmas past, present and future: Robbie Coltrane. + people from the second and third parts of the series.

I recommend this to anyone who likes Blackadder, anyone who likes good humour and people who like Christmas! Enjoy! :-)

8 and a half out of ten.

I find that hard to believe! Anyone, allow me to rectify this. Blackadder's Christmas Carol has some of the funniest material of all the Blackadders. Set in Victorian times (Jim Broadbeat looks stunningly like Prince Albert), there's a neat turnabout this time - Ebenezer Blackadder is the nicest, most entirely selfless man in the whole of England! A visit from Robbie Coltrane, hilarious as the ghost of Christmas who decided to visit someone who's all ready nice for a change, shows Blackadder the naughty behaviour of some of his ancestors, not to mention the future. But Ebenezer draws the wrong conclusion. You can sense the relish in Rowan Atkinson's voice as he proclaims "Bad guys have all the fun!" - what he means is, playing bad guys is all the fun. Don't miss this one.

Blackadder is back and Dickens has him! Join us as we look in on kind-hearted Ebenezer Blackadder and his assistant Baldrick. He is the biggest patsy in London, until he is visited by a Chrismas spirit (who has been imbibing in a few spirits of his own!). A look at his past and future sets Blackadder on his true course.

The gang is all here for this one, with all of our favorite haracters and actors back for the fun. The only bad part is Baldricks costume in the future. Boy, that'll give you nightmares on Christmas!

If you're tired of false sentiment and prefer the Grinch before his heart grows, catch this one. Bah, humbug, indeed!