Cert:

Cat.no: BBCDVD 1019

Running time: 175 minutes

Year: 1985

Pressing: 2001

Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 36 plus extras

Sound: Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: None

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Director:

Mandie Fletcher

Producer:

John Lloyd

Screenplay:

Richard Curtis and Ben Elton

Music:

Howard Goodall

Cast:

Lord Blackadder: Rowan Atkinson
Baldrick: Tony Robinson
Lord Percy: Tim McInnerry
Queenie: Miranda Richardson
Lord Melchett: Stephen Fry
Nursie Patsy Byrne

Black Adder II was, IMHO, the best series made and this disc comes just over a year after the first release and I look forward to the BBC being rather more prolific with their DVD schedule, taking the opportunity to bring out more recent titles day-and-date with the VHS equivalent, as opposed to primarily back-catalogue fare.

Once again there are six episodes, starting with Bells in which Edmund gets a new 'man'-servant (Gabrielle Glaister) named Kate ("it's short for Bob") and is set to marry him/her with Lord Flashheart (Rik Mayall) as his best man; Head sees Edmund as the newly-appointed Minister in Charge of Religious Genocide and Lord High Executioner, leaving him in a pickle when Lord Farrow is offed; and Potato send Blackadder off with Captain Redbeard (Tom Baker) onto the high seas in search of a great discovery - and an even greater present on their return...

In Money, Blackadder is blackmailed out of £1000 by the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells - failure to pay will result in a red-hot spike up his bottom, while Percy makes a brooch of purest green; Beer brings the arrival of Lady Whiteadder (Miriam Margolyes), the greatest piss-up in the world ever and an encounter with a turnip that's shaped exactly like a thingy; and in Chains, Hugh Laurie plays Ludwig, a master of disguise, attempting to overthrown the Queen and her entire staff.

Like the first series DVD, the picture here is by no means perfect but it's certainly watchable. There's no artifacts on view but it does look a little hazy from time to time. It's presented in its original fullscreen ratio, being a TV series from the 1980s and the average bitrate falls between 5-6Mb/s, depending on which episode you're watching.

The mono soundtrack is purely functional, giving clear dialogue.

36 chapters spread out the series, the menus have some animation showing clips from the episodes but only the main one has the theme tune, while English-only applies to both the dialogue and subtitles.

There are no extras, but twenty notes is certainly worth it for this high quality series.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS	0
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.

The following is a list of all the Black Adder DVDs reviewed online to date :