Blackadder is unusual among classic sitcoms because it changes century, setting and much of its supporting cast while keeping a familiar comic relationship at its centre. Across four main BBC series, Rowan Atkinson plays different Edmund Blackadders and Tony Robinson plays successive Baldricks. The names recur, but the balance between them changes. What begins as a medieval comedy of a schemer scrambling for position becomes a sharper study of a clever man trapped beneath people with more power and less sense.

Four series, four worlds

The Black Adder arrived in 1983 with Edmund in a medieval royal household. The first series is broader and more sprawling than its successors, and its Edmund is far from the assured wit many viewers associate with the name. That difference makes it a useful starting point: it shows the programme before its best-known formula had fully formed.

Blackadder II moves to the Elizabethan court. Edmund is now a more controlled, sardonic figure serving Queen Elizabeth I, played by Miranda Richardson. The setting is tighter, the exchanges faster and the threat of royal displeasure ever present. In Blackadder the Third, Edmund becomes butler to the Prince Regent, played by Hugh Laurie. The late eighteenth-century setting gives him a different kind of master, but the same problem: intelligence is not necessarily rewarded by the social order.

Blackadder Goes Forth places Captain Blackadder in a First World War trench. Its military hierarchy gives the familiar clashes over rank and survival a grave background. The comedy still turns on verbal agility and outrageous schemes, but the setting changes what those schemes mean. A plan to escape an awkward court appointment is one thing; a plan to avoid the front line is another.

Edmund and Baldrick

Atkinson’s Edmund is the thread through these changing worlds. From the second series onward, his composure and cutting language suggest a man convinced he sees through everyone around him. Yet his cleverness rarely gives him lasting control. That gap between confidence and circumstance is central to the joke.

Robinson’s Baldrick is more than a convenient target for insults. His stubborn optimism, strange suggestions and loyalty keep Edmund engaged with somebody he cannot simply dismiss. Their relationship is flexible enough to suit a palace, a prince’s household or an army dugout. Around them, performers including Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, Laurie and Richardson bring distinct forms of vanity, authority and absurdity to each period. The ensemble lets the show satirise systems as well as individuals.

How the writing changed

Rowan Atkinson co-wrote the first series with Richard Curtis. Curtis then wrote the later three main series with Ben Elton. That change coincides with the programme’s move towards the compact, quick-fire style most closely associated with Blackadder. Historical details provide the setting, but the scripts are not lessons in history. They use the past to expose familiar habits: flattering superiors, protecting status, blaming subordinates and pretending a bad idea is a brilliant one.

The recurring hierarchy gives the jokes shape. Edmund may be smarter than a prince, a courtier or a general, but those people can still command him. His language is a weapon that wins individual exchanges while seldom winning the larger contest. Baldrick’s supposedly foolish ideas can be just as revealing, because they remind us that official intelligence and practical sense are not always the same thing.

Why the final series feels different

The First World War setting gives Blackadder Goes Forth a moral weight that the earlier series do not carry in quite the same way. Its jokes about bureaucracy and command still work as comedy, but the characters’ desire to survive is never trivial. The final episode, “Goodbyeee”, is remembered because the series has made the people in the trench familiar before asking viewers to confront where their situation leads.

This does not erase the pleasure of the earlier series. Together, the four show a rare ability to keep a comic idea recognisable while changing its form. The medieval Edmund and Captain Blackadder are not interchangeable; watching the difference is part of the appeal.

Where to start

For a view of the programme’s evolution, begin with The Black Adder and follow the main series in order. If you want the faster style first, try Blackadder II, then return to the beginning. Either route makes the same point clear: the show’s “cunning plans” are entertaining because Edmund is always negotiating with a world that refuses to be as rational as he thinks he is.

Featured image: existing site promotional artwork for Blackadder Goes Forth; it depicts one series, while this guide covers all four.

Sources: British Comedy Guide: series and episode guide; BBC Programme Index: Blackadder Goes Forth premiere listing and credits; BBC Programme Index: Blackadder the Third credits.