  |
|
|
|
It's amazing what a bit of re-writing, and re-casting, can do. If I'd been a network executive viewing the initial pilot episode for the Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder series I would have had serious reservations about it. Not that it wasn't somewhat clever, there are inspired bits here and there, most of which would reappear later on in the series, but something about it just didn't quite work. Clearly someone most have thought as much at the time since the Blackadder we all grew to know and love bares only a slight resemblance to his very first incarnation.This week I'll take a look at this first Blackadder.
The opening credits have a different look but the same familiar, Howard Goodall, theme tune. We're told, via a short text introduction, that the story takes place 400 years in the past. Rather later than the setting of the first full series. The first scene introduces us to 3/4 of the British Royal family, the King, Queen and eldest of two princes. Only Elspet Grey, as the Queen, would be retained and her character here has to deliver some rather atrocious lines including a weak bit of business about receiving Shropshire as a birthday present.Robert Bathurst,as Prince Henry is dim and, unfortunately, quite dull.Bathurst is a fine comic actor (witness Joking Apart) but here he is lost, no wonder he didn't reprise the role later on. The role of the King is performed by John Savident who does the best he can with an underwritten part but is hardly a patch on the marvelous Brian Blessed. "The Eunuchs have cancelled" These are the very first words spoken by our proto-Black Adder as he plans the entertainment for his mother, the Queen's, birthday. Rowan Atkinson, thank heaven, is here as Prince Edmund and though his characterization is more Black Adder the second he is still head and shoulders above the proceedings around him. Another bright spot is Tim MciInnerny as Percy but Tony Robinson's superior Baldrick was still just a glimmer in the casting directors eye. As you may have guessed the story at hand is the Series one favorite featuring Blackadders nemesis the Scot MacAngus whom Edmund hopes to use to discredit his older, hopefully illegitimate, brother and move himself one step closer to the throne. MacAngus is played by Alex Norton, who would do virtually the same performance when given the chance in the first series The basic plot remains the same though many of the jokes suffer at the hands of the supporting cast and a lot of time and energy is wasted on an extended bit of slapstick as Edmund and his crew Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Blackadder the Pilot in British Television is owned by Hunter Peters. Permission to republish Blackadder the Pilot in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
