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March 28, 2024, 05:41:07 PM

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Re-Watchin' Blackadder 2020

Started by Pink Gregory, June 19, 2020, 02:32:56 PM

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dead-ced-dead

I think the only reason they prioritised coffee over pie in season 3 is that coffee was a hyooooooge fad in the early-mid 18th century. Coffee places were the place to be seen.

Marner and Me

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on June 25, 2020, 01:41:10 PM
I think the only reason they prioritised coffee over pie in season 3 is that coffee was a hyooooooge fad in the early-mid 18th century. Coffee places were the place to be seen.
Sounds like a Starbucks today for a hipster.


marquis_de_sad

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on June 25, 2020, 01:41:10 PM
I think the only reason they prioritised coffee over pie in season 3 is that coffee was a hyooooooge fad in the early-mid 18th century. Coffee places were the place to be seen.

Well, yes, obviously. The discussion was about the significance of the pie shop:

Quote from: evilcommiedictator on June 22, 2020, 03:37:41 AM
I'm not British, but I'm guessing there was a bigger external reference to Mrs. Miggins' pie shop somewhere in culture? It seems awfully important and directly referenced to me


here4glinner

'They' reckon coffee houses were one of the things that pushed us from the Age of Discovery to the Age of Enlightenment. Rather than sitting around getting drunk, we would sit around drinking a stimulant that aided thought. The rulers used to hate coffee and think it sowed discord and revolutionary fervour.

I'm not sure who 'they' is, probably a blog I read 7 years ago. Or perhaps that wikipedia page.

Pink Gregory

On to Forth.

Again, enjoying it more than I expected.  Blackadder seems to fail in his schemes a lot more openly, and his deflated, cynical reactions reflect the theme well.

As has been mentioned, probably too many ' as x as an x that x i  an x ' format lines.  Counted 4-5 in the first 20 minutes

Pink Gregory

I do still like Baldrick at this point, but he is stupid to the point of brain damage at this point, and that's the extent of the joke.

3 × 'cunning plaaaaan' s in the first two episodes.

Oh and here's Jeremy Hardy.  That's nice.

Gurke and Hare

I'm watching Amy & Amiability at the moment, and it's wonderful.

"I come as emissary of the Prince of Wales with the most splendid news. He wants your daughter Amy for his wife."

"Well his wife can't have her!"

idunnosomename

almost as funny as anything in Blackadder is the fact that William Hogarth's dad (Richard) had a coffee shop in the former gatehouse of the priory of St John, Clerkenwell (which is still there today) where you could only speak Latin. it went bust.

Pink Gregory

Sort of a shame that they repeated the 'Miranda Richardson is an unassuming woman leading a double life' thing between III and Goes Forth, especially because the one in Forth doesn't do a lot with her.

Virgo76

Would I be right in thinking there was some sort of copyright issue with the Nob and Nobility episode of Blackadder The Third? It was shown on it's original run but not repeated for some years?
I literally LOVE Blackadder, particularly Blackadder II.
If I HAD to make any negative points, these would be them:
1. Chains - love it. Some of it looking a bit xenophobic as the years roll by though? Why is Hugh Laurie's Mary Queen of Scots impression dubbed over - and who by? Can he not do a Scots accent? (the accent point isn't a criticism, just a question).
2. Nurse refers to ointment being used after Elizabeth's sister Mary was beheaded. She wasn't beheaded though - that was Mary Queen of Scots, not Mary I, who died fairly young but of natural causes. A hilarious bit of dialogue but I am very pedantic and the mistake annoys me.
3. Tony Robinson is absolutely perfect in BII, then overdoes it more and more. In B4, he sounds like he's been deafened by the constant gunfire. Realistic but does make him slightly annoying.
4. Helen Atkinson Wood as Mrs Miggens. I'm not sure about her sometimes..
5. The last bit of BII where they all lie dead. I usually skip this bit. It slightly spoils an otherwise near perfect episode for me. I just don't like it. Should  have ended with Edmund's 'pointless' line!
But I am nitpicking about one of the most perfect TV shows ever produced.

mobias

'Someone named George Stevenson has invented a moving kettle and wants someone to help with the marketing'

Thats one of my favourite gags ever.

Personally I think the fourth series is the weakest (though its still very, very good). The Baldrick jokes were all a bit of a cliche by that point and that character was just quite annoyingly stupid in a slightly over the top kind of way.

Shout out to the Christmas Carol special. It hits the mark very well.

Petey Pate

Quote from: Virgo76 on July 07, 2020, 07:19:12 AM
Would I be right in thinking there was some sort of copyright issue with the Nob and Nobility episode of Blackadder The Third? It was shown on it's original run but not repeated for some years?

It was not shown in the USA because of the references to the Scarlet Pimpernel, which was somehow a character under copyright.

Another historical blunder is Edmund mentioning the police in Blackadder II which is an anachronism that someone really should have spotted.

Gurke and Hare

I don't think they were really going for historical accuracy. As I think someone mentioned already in this thread, Dr Johnson died in 1784, but the Regency didn't start until 1811.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Petey Pate on July 07, 2020, 09:58:17 AM
It was not shown in the USA because of the references to the Scarlet Pimpernel, which was somehow a character under copyright.

Another historical blunder is Edmund mentioning the police in Blackadder II which is an anachronism that someone really should have spotted.
well i mean you still had people who kept public order on behalf of a sheriff. It's just a slight anachronism of language. Mixing up Queen Mary of England with Queen of Scotland was dumb. You could just take sister to mean blood relative I guess. She had of Scots executed (or didnt mean to, whatever) so it's pretty obvious who the joke is about

Autopsy Turvey

Also: "It is so often the way, sir, too late one thinks of what one *should* have said. Sir Thomas More, for instance, burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism, must have been kicking himself, as the flames licked higher, that it never occurred to him to say, 'I recant my Catholicism'." Sir Thomas More was beheaded. The joke wouldn't work any less well with "as the axe swooped down" or what have you, and this info would have been in any basic reference work.

That's the only Blackadder error that rankles for me (possibly because I once repeated it in history class with total conviction). Ben Elton's Uncle Geoffrey must have been appalled (that may have been the point; I shouldn't imagine Red Ben had much time for this "staunch admirer of Margaret Thatcher": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Elton)

thenoise

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 07, 2020, 01:17:20 PM
I don't think they were really going for historical accuracy. As I think someone mentioned already in this thread, Dr Johnson died in 1784, but the Regency didn't start until 1811.

As pre Horrible Histories, Blackadder was the standard end of term video for history teachers, I'm sure they delighted in pointing out any inaccuracies.

Virgo76

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 07, 2020, 01:17:20 PM
I don't think they were really going for historical accuracy. As I think someone mentioned already in this thread, Dr Johnson died in 1784, but the Regency didn't start until 1811.

I think they made a decision to be a bit flexible there.
But as idunnosomename says, mixing up Mary Queen of Scots and Bloody Mary was obviously just a cock up.

Also, the Scarlet Pimpernel never existed...

gilbertharding

Quote from: Virgo76 on July 07, 2020, 07:19:12 AM

1. Chains - love it. Some of it looking a bit xenophobic as the years roll by though? Why is Hugh Laurie's Mary Queen of Scots impression dubbed over - and who by? Can he not do a Scots accent? (the accent point isn't a criticism, just a question).

I haven't seen the episode for AGES so might be making a mistake - but could that be a joke? They dub a Scottish accent onto Mary Queen of Scots because (and you can correct me, I'm sure I'm wrong) she only spoke French in real life?

Meanwhile, mixing up your Marys has been a trope in historicist comedy since 1066 and all that.

neveragain

Was it not more to make him sound like an actual woman?

Virgo76

He'd already impersonated a woman in that episode.

neveragain


TheMonk


Gurke and Hare

Rowan Atkinson's solo shows are good, albeit slightly cancellable in places, they'd have a definite message about different eras if they were on any streaming services. I've got at least one of his albums ripped I think - I'm about to head out, but I'll have a look later and upload anything I can find somewhere.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 10, 2020, 06:12:46 PM
Rowan Atkinson's solo shows are good, albeit slightly cancellable in places

The Indian waiter? Bloody funny though.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 10, 2020, 06:12:46 PM
Rowan Atkinson's solo shows are good, albeit slightly cancellable in places, they'd have a definite message about different eras if they were on any streaming services. I've got at least one of his albums ripped I think - I'm about to head out, but I'll have a look later and upload anything I can find somewhere.

Would you expand on that?

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 10, 2020, 06:32:44 PM
Would you expand on that?

There's a sketch in which he plays an Indian waiter where he does a very sterotypical white man doing an Indian accent accent, and I've an idea he browned up for it on stage. As Ignatius says, it is very funny, and the butt of the jokes are the (presumably) white customers.

kalowski

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 10, 2020, 08:45:11 PM
There's a sketch in which he plays an Indian waiter where he does a very sterotypical white man doing an Indian accent accent, and I've an idea he browned up for it on stage. As Ignatius says, it is very funny, and the butt of the jokes are the (presumably) white customers.
I don't think he browned up, from memory, and even the voice isn't too stereotypical. Probably still cancel the rubber faced funnyman.

TheMonk

His timing on stage is the very best. Shame he hasn't continued doing live comedy in recent years.
This is still so entertaining.
https://youtu.be/-hJQ18S6aag