John Thaw | Patricia Routledge | BlackAdder DVD | Celeb Castaway
nothing but a BBC camera crew, I suppose, to keep them company. Premiering Sundays July 8, 15, and 22 Celebrity Castaway strands Scottish funnyman Billy Conolly at the Arctic Circle, Joanna Lumley in the Cook Islands and Lenny Henry - well I couldn't find out where they dumped poor Lenny but I'm certainly looking forward to finding out.
BlackAdder DVD
Delayed for a couple of months the BlackAdder DVD collection has finally
been released and it is more than worth the extra wait. The BlackAdder DVD collection
rivals the spectacular League of Gentleman Set released last year as top
UK telly DVD set in North America. Available in separate discs broken down by series
(BlackAdder, BlackAdder II, BlackAdder the Third, BlackAdder Goes Fourth and BlackAdder ::Back
and Forth) or in a "Complete Collector's Set" that bundles all
five discs in one nifty collector's case.
The first thing you'll notice about these discs is the astounding attention to detail and
fine craftsmanship that's gone into making them. The transfers are nearly perfect. You
have not seen BlackAdder look this good unless you were part of the
original production team. The menus are nicely Adder'd up and even the standard
performer's biography section has been enhanced with original audio from none other than Baldrick
himself - Tony Robinson. This is the first set of DVDs I've seen with
this feature and having the bio read out loud is much better than having to squint to read
the fine print on your TV screen.
Each disc contains a full series and an assortment of extras. Here's a disc by disc
review...
BlackAdder: The original BlackAdder, an alternate history where
Richard the Third is murdered by his cowardly, bumbling nephew Edmund
who then unwittingly aides in Henry Tudor's escape and becomes a Prince
of the Realm when his father Richard the Fourth, ascends the throne.
These days this first series gets it's share of stick and it's easy to see why. The
production is raw, the script sometimes overreaches and falls flat and Edmund BlackAdder
is a sniveling, conniving coward.However these episodes also have more than their share of
brilliant comedy, great guest shots by the likes of Peter Cooke, Frank Finlay,Jim
Broadbent, and Miriam Margolyes. BlackAdder also has a secret
weapon - Brian Blessed - whose full blooded and unabashed performance as
King Richard IV is a delight Had there never been a BlackAdder two or three then this
first series would surely still have been considered, in time,a terrific and well loved
one-off , luckily sanity prevailed and the further adventures eventually followed..
Extras on the disc are limited
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