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Shopperworld - Blackadder - The Complete Collection
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List Price: £59.99
Our Price: £29.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie
Directed By: Martin Shardlow, Mandie Fletcher, Richard Boden
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5014503174620
Format: Box set
Label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
Number Of Items: 6
Publisher: 2 Entertain Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2005-10-03
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
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Editorial Reviews:
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One of the best comedy series ever to emerge from England, Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of World War I. In his pre-Mr Bean triumph, British comic actor Rowan Atkinson played all five versions of Edmund, beginning with the villainous and cowardly Duke of Edinburgh, whose scheming mind and awful haircut seem to stand him in good stead to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury -- a deadly occupation if ever there was one. Among tales of royal dethronings, Black Death, witch-smellers (who root out spell-makers with their noses), and ghosts, Edmund is a perennial survivor who never quite gets ahead in multiple episodes. Jump to the Elizabethan era and Atkinson picks up the saga as Lord Edmund, who is perpetually courting favour from mad Queen Bess (Miranda Richardson) and is always walking a tightrope from which he can either gain the world or lose his head. Subjected to bizarre services for her majesty (at one point, Edmund is asked to do for potatoes what Sir Walter Raleigh did for tobacco), Edmund -- like his ancestor -- can never quite fulfill his larger ambitions. The next incarnation we encounter is in late-18th-century Regency England. This time, Blackadder is a mere butler to the idiotic Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie in a brilliantly buffoonish performance) and is caught in various misadventures with Samuel Johnson, Shakespearean actors, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and William Pitt the younger. With a brief stop in Victorian London for a Christmas special, the series concludes with several episodes set during the Great War. The new Edmund is a career army officer, but a scoundrel all the same. Shirking his duties whenever possible and taking advantage of any opportunity for undeserved reward, this final, deeply sour, and very funny Blackadder negotiates survival among a cadre of fools and dimwits. No small mention can be made of Atkinson's supporting cast, easily among the finest comic performers of their generation: besides Laurie and Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, and Tim McInnerny. --Tom Keogh
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: I have a cuning plan!!!
Comment: This box set is excellent and well worth the money to have all of the series in one box. Each series being on individual discs.
The picture quality is not as bad as some people make out. you have to remember that Blackadder has not been digitally remastered, therefore, expect the quality to be the same as when you watched them all those years ago. I find the quality to be great and does not spoil viewing.
I great buy for anyone!
Customer Rating:
Summary: More cunning than a sack full of weasels
Comment: Delighted to get this for Christmas - and brilliant to have all episodes, if only to see how Atkinson's character becomes more and more sophisticated through the generations.
Pure pleasure. From the strangely shaped turnips through to Baldrick's special capuccino.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Funny what ever the year!
Comment: THis is the height of british humour, an all star cast of comicgenius with comedic heritage thrown in bucket loads!!
The complete collection is fantastic, all of the series ann of the plans, the failures and baldricks cunning plans. To viewers young and old blackadder is funny! IT bounces through history like a bunny on nitrous oxide and what ever the scenario blackadders failure is funny!
I was always tought not to laugh at someone failing but black adders like telling a starving childnot to eat cake! physically impossible!
A great collection of typically british laughter great any time of the year!and an even better christmas present!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Appalling DVD transfer
Comment: The complete collection, almost minus a few sketches and trailers which could have been included. Series one is the worst of the series, but still better than most "comedy" that is churned out now. Back and forth is pretty pointless, but then it was only intended for the Millennium Dome to promote Sky anyway.
The extras? Only back and forth has any extras which are much better than the episode.
The biggest problem is the picture quality is somewhat worse than watching them on You Tube. Blurring, artefacts even pixellation absolutely appalling. If you have them on VHS transfer them yourself to DVD the quality will be fantastic compared to this abomination.
If you don't own them it is a bargain for such great comedy, just don't expect a high quality picture.
5 stars for the content minus 20 stars for the DVD transfer
Customer Rating:
Summary: Three seasons are EXCELLENT; one is disappointing
Comment: Though it's nice to have the entire Blackadder collection in one neat DVD-set, there's no comparison between Season One (1983) and the subsequent three seasons.
The 1983 series was directed by Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder) and Richard Curtis. Though Brian Blessed is a superb actor, the dialogue is mildly amusing at best. It simply can't hold a candle to the 1985, 1987 and 1989 seasons - all directed by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. Season 2 is set in the first Elizabethan Era (late 16th century). Miranda Richardson is hilarious as Queen Elizabeth and it also features a young(ish) Stephen Fry as Lord Melchett. Season 3 is probably my favourite; it's set in the Regency period (early 19th century) where Hugh Laurie excels as Prince George. In one classic episode called "Ink and Incapability" Dr. Samuel Johnson is convincingly played by the talented Robbie Coltrane. Sheer quality! Season 4 is set in trenches of World War I. It's in that series that Stephen Fry really comes of age as the outlandish and eccentric "General Melchett". There's also some once-off, bonus episodes. "The Cavalier Years" is entertaining enough. It's set during the English Civil War, with Fry as King Charles I (though he sounds more like the current PRINCE Charles than King Charles of the 1640s!). "Black Adder Back & Forth" is disappointing. It's set on 31 December 1999 and is only marginally more amusing than the 1983 Series.
Blackadder doesn't light everyone's candle. But if you're into mid-80s Ben Elton satire as I am, this boxed-set is well worth owning.
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