Dom Robinson reviews
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Distributed by
Producer:
Screenplay:
Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
Music:
Cast:
Blackadders: Rowan Atkinson
Baldricks: Tony Robinson
Queens Elizabeth I/Asphyxia XIX: Miranda Richardson
Lords Melchett/Frondo: Stephen Fry
Princes Regent/Pigmot: Hugh Laurie
Spirit of Christmas: Robbie Coltrane
Queen Victoria: Miriam Margolyes
Prince Albert: Jim Broadbent
Nursie/Bernard: Patsy Byrne
Beadle: Denis Lill
Mrs Scratchit: Pauline Melville
Lord Nelson: Philip Pope
Millicent: Nicola Bryant
Ralph: Ramsay Gilderdale
Enormous Orphans: David Barber, Erkan Mustafa and David Nunn
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
was a long time coming to DVD, but worth the wait as Blackadder prepares
for the big day, while Baldrick can't spell "Christmas" on the cards with
any of the letters spelt correctly and his nativity play was a shambles due
to the high infant mortality rate signaling the end and not the beginning
for the baby Jesus.
Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) and Baldrick (Tony Robinson) did
have £17 and a penny to spend on the festive season, until Mrs Scratchit
(Pauline Melville, Vyvyan's mum in
The Young Ones)
turned up with a tale of hardship and conned them into paying £17 for
a box of matches, then a street urchin begged a penny off them. They soon lose
their presents to goddaughter Millicent (Nicola Bryant) and nuts
to a bunch of greedy Enormous Orphans, one of which played by Grange Hill's
Ro-land, Erkan Mustafa. That just leaves the turkey... and a visit
from Queen Victoria (Miriam Margolyes) and Prince Albert (Jim Broadbent).
Then, in a series of three visions from the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie
Coltrane), Blackadder gets to see how being bad can actually be quite
good when he's shown how Blackadder II, Blackadder III and a futuristic
alternative get to spend their yuletide, all featuring the usual suspects,
Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Patsy Byrne as
Nursie and Who Dares Wins' Philip Pope Lord Horatio Nelson.
The picture is as good as the third and fourth in the DVD series. There are
no visible print scratches but it can occasionally look a little soft.
The soundtrack is in stereo like the last disc, but again it's purely
functional, giving clear dialogue.
Just a mere 8 chapters are here for this special, the menus are silent and
static, there are English subtitles and as for the extras... Bah humbug! Sod
all there. Why do the BBC get so selective with these? A few DVDs get loads
while most others, particularly back catalogue titles, get nothing.
Given that all we have here is a single episode - and "Scene Selection" is
NOT an extra, BBC, this should've been an extra itself on one of the previous
DVDs.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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0
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.
The following is a list of all the Black Adder DVDs reviewed online to date :
1999 The Black Adder
2001 Black Adder II
2001 Black Adder The Third
2001 Black Adder Goes Forth
2001 Black Adder: Back And Forth
2002 Blackadder's Christmas Carol
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
