How can you not love Blackadder II (1986)? All editions of Rowan Atkinson’s comedic romp through British history are hilarious, but this one’s my fave because, of course, the 16th century is my happy place. The whole series is proof you can take the piss out of history and still wear wonderfully accurate historical costumes, and to me, this one is the peak. The costumes are so gorgeously detailed and several are clearly inspired by period imagery. It doesn’t much matter that each character basically wears the same outfit throughout all six episodes. Even with this small wardrobe, there’s enough detail that I feel a deep-dive is in order.
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Find this frock flick at:
I remain deeply sad that the BLACKADDER II/UPSTART CROW crossover remains limited to a cameo appearance by a certain cross-dressing ‘gentleman’ of the Law (One would have loved to see Edmund Blackadder do his best to wriggle out of paying Master Will for … well, anything and everything … not to mention doing his best to outlive Good Queen Bess*).
*Bonus points if we can smuggle in the suggestion that Blackadder absolutely brings out the Worst in ‘Queenie’ (Not sure whether to to bring back Dame Emma Thompson and let her cut loose a little or show Ms. Miranda Richardson go from Gloriana to despot in an instant … ideally one could get them both and switch between them, depending on Edmund’s proximity, but I suspect that might rather break the bank).
Hah! Refreshing my memory of the last BLACKADDER II episode, it now occurs to me that having Master Will bump into Blackadder while the latter is cooling his heels over a small misunderstanding – you know, the sort of thing that happens when you claim Queen Elizabeth is actually King Ludwig – and the former is having kittens over being caught up with the Earl of Essex’s folly might be best of all.
Especially if the punchline involved Queen Elizabeth showing up as played by Mr Hugh Laurie.