"Blackadder" сериалының бірінші маусымы

First series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder

The Black Adder is the first series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Martin Shardlow and produced by John Lloyd. The series was originally aired on BBC 1 from 15 June 1983 to 20 July 1983, and was a joint production with the Australian Seven Network. Set in 1485 at the end of the British Middle Ages, the series is written as a secret history which contends that King Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth Field, only to be unintentionally assassinated by his nephew's son Edmund and succeeded by said nephew, Richard IV, one of the Princes in the Tower. The series follows the exploits of Richard IV's unfavoured second son Edmund (who calls himself "The Black Adder") in his various attempts to increase his standing with his father and, in the final episode, his quest to overthrow him. Conceived while Atkinson and Curtis were working on Not the Nine O'Clock News, the series presents medieval issues in Britain in a humorous and often anachronistic manner—witchcraft, royal succession, European relations, the Crusades and the conflict between the Crown and the Church. The filming of the series was ambitious, as it featured a large cast and required extensive location shooting. Shakespearean dialogue is sometimes adapted for comic effect. Despite winning an International Emmy, The Black Adder is regarded by its creators and most critics as the weakest Blackadder series. King Richard IV of England and XII of Scotland and his Queen Gertrude of Flanders have two sons: Harry, Prince of Wales and his younger brother Prince Edmund. Though Harry is by far their father's favourite, the King barely acknowledging his second son's existence, he is often depicted as simple minded and easy to fool unlike Edmund, though he still treats Edmund with kindness and respect. It is a running gag throughout the series that Edmund's father cannot even remember his name. However, despite his mostly dismissive attitude toward his second son, the King actually loves Edmund very dearly, partially due to their father son relationship; in the third episode, when Edmund becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury and helps his father to secure some land from a dying noble before the church can, the King proudly acknowledges Edmund as his son, embraces him and even mentions to the Queen that Edmund has "turned out well", and in the series' finale, on Edmund's deathbed, the King does his best to console him, assuring him that his soul will go to Heaven, and has the entire court drink a toast in his honour. Using this premise, the series follows the fictitious reign of Richard IV (1485–1498) through the experiences of Prince Edmund, who styles himself as "The Black Adder", and his two sidekicks: the imbecilic Lord Percy Percy, the Duke of Northumberland (Tim McInnerny); and Baldrick (Tony Robinson), a more intelligent servant who Edmund takes on as his squire. By the end of the series, events converge with accepted history. King Richard IV and his entire family are accidentally killed with wine poisoned by Percy meant for the Black Seal who had actually arrived to overthrow Richard IV, allowing Henry Tudor to come out of hiding and take the throne as King Henry VII. He then rewrites history, presenting Richard III as a monster, and eliminating Richard IV's reign from the history books. In reality, Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, was only twelve years old (and perhaps two years dead) when the Battle of Bosworth Field took place in 1485, and thus too young to have had two adult sons. Henry Tudor seemingly also falsified the history of Scotland and Ireland: Richard IV is said to be king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Prince Edmund has the title of Duke of Edinburgh, whereas in reality Ireland was not a kingdom until 1542 and Scotland continued to have a separate royal house until 1603.

The budget for the series was considerable, with much location shooting particularly at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and the surrounding countryside in February 1983. Brinkburn Priory, an authentic reconstruction of a medieval monastery church, was used for the episode "The Archbishop". The series also used large casts of extras, as well as horses and expensive medieval style costumes. Filming at the castle was hindered by bad weather – snow is visible in many of the outdoor location shots.

The title sequence included stock shots of Edmund riding his horse on location, interspersed with shots of him doing silly things (and, usually, a shot of King Richard IV to go with Brian Blessed's credit). The closing titles were a similar sequence of Edmund riding, eventually falling off his horse, after which the camera continues following the horse as it goes on running. All the credits of the first series featured eccentric orderings of the cast list (such as "order of precedence", "order of witchiness" and "order of disappearance") and included "with additional dialogue by William Shakespeare" and "made in glorious television". The series used the first incarnation of the Blackadder theme by Howard Goodall (with the exception of the unaired pilot, which featured a different arrangement). For the opening theme, a trumpet solo accompanied by an orchestra was used. For the end titles, the theme gained mock heroic lyrics sung by a baritone (Simon Carrington, a member of the King's Singers). In the final episode, the theme was sung with altered lyrics by a treble, in a more reflective style. The series' incidental music was unusually performed by pipe organ and percussion.

The series won an International Emmy award in the popular arts category in 1983. The four series of Blackadder were voted into second place in the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004 with 282,106 votes, although the series' advocate, John Sergeant, was not complimentary of the first series, suggesting it was "grandiose, confused and expensive". Members of the cast and crew, looking back for the documentary Blackadder Rides Again, are also not particularly complimentary of the first series. John Lloyd recalls that a colleague commented at the time that the series "looks a million dollars, but cost a million pounds", although he admits that they were proud of the result at the time. Due to the high cost of the first series, the controller of BBC1 when the second series was commissioned, Michael Grade, was reluctant to authorise a second series without major improvements and cost cutting, leaving a gap of three years before Blackadder II was broadcast, on the condition that it remained largely studio bound.

The complete series of The Black Adder is available as a Region 2 DVD from BBC Worldwide, as well as in a complete box set with the other series. The series is also available in Region 1 DVD in a box set of the complete series. "The Complete Collected Series 1, 2, 3, 4 and Specials", a 15 disc complete set of audiobooks published by BBC Audiobooks Ltd, was released in 2009. A selection of one off episodes, documentaries and other appearances by "Blackadder" are featured, with some of this extra material being released on audio for the first time.

On 5 February 1990, BBC Enterprises Ltd released all 6 episodes of The Black Adder on two single videos and on 7 September 1992 all 6 episodes of The Blackadder were re released on 'Complete' double VHS releases. All 6 episodes were re released on a single video release on 2 October 1995.