Blackadder

Cast

Main article: List of characters in Blackadder

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The main recurring members of the cast were:

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• Prince/Lord/Sir/Mr./Captain Edmund Blackadder; Macadder; Ebeneezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson)
• Sodoff (sic) Baldrick (a dim and ragged dogsbody), Alsatian (Tony Robinson)
• Lord Percy Percy; Captain Kevin Darling; Lord Topper and "Le Comte de Frou Frou"; Archdeacon Darling; Duke of Darling; Duc de Darling (Tim McInnerny)
• Queen Elizabeth I; Amy Hardwood; Nurse Mary Fletcher-Brown; Queen Asphyxia; Lady Elizabeth (Miranda Richardson)
• Prince George; Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Bartleigh; Prince Ludwig the Indestructible; Prince Pigmot; Simon "Farters Parters" Partridge a.k.a. Mr Ostrich; Viscount George Bufton-Tufton; Georgius (Hugh Laurie)
• Lord Melchett; General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett; The Duke of Wellington; Lord Frondo; King Charles I; Bishop Flavius Melchett; General Melchecus (Stephen Fry)

Patsy Byrne received huge plaudits for her crucial role as Nursie in all six episodes of Blackadder II but never featured in either of the subsequent series', either as a regular character or one-off. Her only future role in Blackadder was in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, when she briefly reprised Nursie during the plot's flashback to Blackadder II, and then as one of the "triple husbandoid" to Queen Asphyxia as the plot fast-forwarded to Christmas future. Similarly, Helen Atkinson-Wood was a welcome addition to the cast for the role of Mrs Miggins in all six episodes of Blackadder the Third, but did not appear again in the programme.

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Ben Elton's arrival after the first series heralded the more frequent recruitment of comic actors from the famed "alternative" era for guest appearances, including Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall (who had actually appeared in the final episode of the first series as Mad Gerald), Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Mark Arden, Stephen Frost, Chris Barrie and Jeremy Hardy. However, aside from the regular cast listed above, only one actor - Lee Cornes - appeared in an episode of all three Curtis-Elton series'. He appeared as a guard in the episode Chains of Blackadder II; as the poet Shelley in the episode Ink and Incapability of Blackadder the Third; and as firing squad soldier Private Fraser in the episode Corporal Punishment of Blackadder Goes Forth.

Related Topics:
Ben Elton - Robbie Coltrane - Rik Mayall - Adrian Edmondson - Nigel Planer - Mark Arden - Stephen Frost - Chris Barrie - Jeremy Hardy - Lee Cornes - Shelley - Private

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More 'establishment'-style actors, some at the veteran stage of their careers, were also recruited for roles. These included John Grillo, Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Paddick, Kenneth Connor, Bill Wallis, Ronald Lacey, Roger Blake, Denis Lill, Warren Clarke, Miriam Margolyes and, perhaps most famously, Geoffrey Palmer who played Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in Goodbyeeee..., the final, fatal episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.

Related Topics:
Tom Baker - Jim Broadbent - Hugh Paddick - Kenneth Connor - Warren Clarke - Miriam Margolyes - Geoffrey Palmer - Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig

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Unusually for a sitcom based loosely on factual events and in the historical past, a man was recruited for one episode essentially to play himself. Political commentator Vincent Hanna played a character billed as "his own great-great-great grandfather" in the episode Dish and Dishonesty of Blackadder the Third. Hanna was asked to take part because the scene was of a by-election in which Baldrick was a candidate and, in the style of modern television, Hanna gave a long-running "live" commentary of events at the count (and interviewed candidates and election agents) to a resident through the town hall window.

Related Topics:
Vincent Hanna - By-election - Town hall

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