Black Adder-The Complete Black Adder: All Four Series (1983)

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    If you are a fan of Black Adder and don't yet own any of the series on DVD, then The Complete Black Adder may well be exactly what you are looking for, although "The Complete" is a little bit of a misnomer when you consider that Black Adder's Christmas Carol is not included in this four disc box set. Nonetheless, given that the cost of the individual discs of all 4 series comes up to just under $140, the sub-$100 asking price of this compilation is very reasonable indeed.

    Included in this box set are exactly the same discs as were found in the individual releases of Seasons 1 - 4 of this marvelous comedy series. There are no additional extras at all. The box set is presented as a gatefold package, never my favourite package, but one which seems to be popular for compilation box sets.

    So, if Black Adder is your cup of tea, and you don't yet own it on DVD, this compilation is a very good way to acquire the series.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Black Adder, The: Historic First Series (Remastered) (1983)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	194:38 (Case: 190)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Martin Shardlow
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Brian Blessed Tim McInnerny Elspet Gray Robert East
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Howard Goodall

    The Black Adder is another entry in the BBC's archives of television shows that should have been recorded and treated with a great deal more care than what they have received over time. Series One in particular was an excellent comedy with all of the right elements in place, although the comedic value tends to wear off with repeated viewings. The six episodes are all set in England during the late fifteenth century, or the time known as the War Of The Roses, and no stone is left unturned in picking the accepted conception of Medieval Europe's history apart. A total of six episodes are presented on this disc:

• The Foretelling (33:30)
  This episode explains exactly where Prince Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) fits into the British monarchy, and how Richard IV (Brian Blessed) became the King. This particular episode is particularly hilarious because of its explanation of how Richard III (Peter Cook) died in battle on the fields of Bosworth.
• Born To Be King (33:32)
  Richard IV departs the castle on a crusade against the Turks, much to the relief of the Queen (Elspet Gray). Prince Harry (Robert East) is left to rule as Regent in his stead, while Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and Lord Percy (Tim McInnerny) give Edmund an idea that may unseat Harry from the throne. King Richard's best friend, Dougal McAngus (Alex Norton), drops around for a visit.
• The Archbishop (32:36)
  The battle between the royal family and the church for land is in full swing, with Lords dying, and having King Richard trying to talk them into leaving their lands to him, while the Archbishop uses the old fire and brimstone routine on them. Naturally, Archbishops are being killed left and right, and speculation begins about who the newest Archbishop will be.
• The Queen Of Spain's Beard (33:49)
  Marriages between Lords of the British court and royalty from other lands are the big thing in Europe at the moment. With Prince Harry married to a list of Princesses that reads like a shopping list, King Richard IV decides to marry off Edmund to the Princess Maria of Spain (Miriam Margoyles). In my ever so humble opinion, this is the weakest episode of this series.
• Witchsmeller Pursuivant (30:07)
  The Black Death is raging through Western Europe, and the hysteria sweeping through the people has prompted the monarchy to contract the services of the Witchsmeller Pursuivant (Frank Finlay). Of course, with everyone out to get poor Edmund Blackadder, I'm sure you can tell what's going to happen when the Witchsmeller and Edmund cross paths. The real fun is in seeing him try to worm his way out.
• The Black Seal (31:04)
  Edmund finally gets tired of his lot in life and departs to find the seven most evil men in the British Empire to lead a revolt against his own family. When he finds the most evil man in England, however, he is locked in a dungeon with nothing but snails for food and Mad Gerald (Rik Mayall) for company. Will he get out in time to save the royal family from the seven most evil men in the British Empire?

    To be brutally honest, I far prefer the first series of The Black Adder to any of its successors, thanks in no small part to the fact that there is no involvement from Ben Elton, whom I've found distasteful ever since I managed to catch one of his stand-up routines on television. Here, the humour is very mature and kept firmly out of the gutter, most of the time at least. Anyone with a taste for British comedy will be well-advised to pick up this disc.

Video

    Readers will recall that The Black Adder was originally released in November 1999, with a video transfer that exhibited copious amounts of every film and video artefact you care to imagine. This re-release has had the Dolby Digital trailer and all but one of the subtitle options removed, and it appears that the video has been recompressed. Having said all of those things, this is still not a particularly good transfer, but a real improvement over the original release.

    The transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of this transfer is somewhat improved compared to the original transfer, with objects that are close to the camera having a good level of detail, while objects that are distant to the camera are indistinct. The shadow detail is poor, and low-level noise is occasionally a problem. Grain is also a problem in this transfer, although it is generally confined to the backgrounds.

    The colours in this transfer are variably saturated. Most of the time, they are well saturated without any bleeding or smearing, but composite artefacts, usually in the form of cross-colouration, are present. You can see this in Episode 2 at 26:42, where trails of blue can be seen extending to the right of Brian Blessed's armour.

    The bitrate of this transfer varies up and down between five and seven, sometimes even eight or nine megabits per second, which has eliminated some of the more distracting problems from the previous transfer. MPEG artefacts are easy to find in this transfer, however: just freeze-frame the picture at any moment and you will see blocky pieces of grain extending off the sides of objects. Examples can be found at 3:35 in Episode 1, and 11:55 in Episode 2. Since this is not how we usually watch films, however, I am willing to overlook this particular effect in light of the source material. The macro-blocking in the flames when Frank Finlay burns at 27:25 in Episode 5 is gone, with this entire sequence having much greater resolution. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of the occasional minor aliasing, but this artefact was quite well controlled, considering how much chain mail and other such metallic objects there are in the programme. Film artefacts consisted of some nicks and scratches on the picture, which were found throughout all six episodes, although more of them were found in Episode 1 than the others.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles defaulted to on with my Toshiba SD-2109, while I had to engage them manually with the Grundig GDV 100D. They are only really about seventy-five percent faithful to the actual dialogue, making them of limited use.

    This disc is Dual-Layered, but no layer change was detected in any of the episodes. I presume that each layer contains three episodes, as was the case with the previous release.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only the one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a bitrate of 256 kilobits per second. It seems to be something of an improvement upon the original release, but not by much.

    I found the dialogue clear and easy to understand most of the time, in spite of the methods used to record the dialogue and the quality of the master used to create this transfer. Brian Blessed and several other actors shouted all of their dialogue, and the recording techniques occasionally caused these shouted passages to sound somewhat limited in frequency. Aside from this problem, the dialogue seemed pretty easy to understand, except for Rik Mayall's lisping in the final episode, which made him sound like he was speaking through water. There were no discernable problems with audio sync.

    The score music in this film is the work of Howard Goodall. It is infrequently present, and it seems to be based around the same few bars of music played on strings or horns. Aside from the mournful theme that closes the final episode, it is not particularly remarkable.

    The surround channels are not used by this soundtrack, which is fair enough given that the series itself was intended for broadcast on televisions that were mostly monaural at the time. The subwoofer was not specifically encoded into the soundtrack, but it did receive some redirected signal to support the music, a lot of which made use of bass drums.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is static, not 16x9 Enhanced, and silent. The good side is that it takes very little away from the data space used for the video transfer.

    There is a boxed set of Black Adder DVDs available in Region 1 with all five of the serials on five discs, in a case type that I was unable to verify. The boxed set also contains extras such as a Who's Who of the Black Adder series, an interactive guide to historical figures and events, the Black Adder's Christmas Carol special, and an archival interview with Richard Curtis, an episode called The Cavalier Years, and a sing-along. Obviously, this five disc set is the version of choice for dedicated fans, although anyone who can tell me about the transfer quality is welcome to email me.

    The Black Adder, Series One, is one of my favourite comedies.

    The video transfer is rather average, but a definite improvement over the original release.

    The audio transfer is also rather average, but also a definite improvement over the original release.

    The extras are non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Blackadder II: Historic Second Series (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Scene Selection Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	175:16
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mandie Fletcher
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Tim McInnerny Miranda Richardson Stephen Fry Patsy Byrne
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$34.95	Music	Howard Goodall

    Those familiar with Blackadder will know the type of humour on offer. The silly situations, biting insults and put-downs don't let up. The pathetic characters of Baldrick and Lord Percy are frequently victims of some of the most vicious insults ever seen on TV.  Many purchasers of this DVD are likely to be very familiar with the plots and will be able to recite favourite lines from each episode, such is the high regard that this BBC series has been held in. Fans of the series will look forward to seeing Blackadder 2 without commercials and on their favourite format.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Unfortunately, the transfer is not exceptional.  Those who have seen the first series will have to put up with similar problems for the second. The first series featured considerable compression artefacts such as macro-blocking appearing in the background parts of the picture. If anything, Black-Adder II contains even more macro-blocking.

    Dark scenes are problematic. This is most notable in the first episode when Edmund visits the wise woman. At 15.36 and for the next couple of minutes extensive low level noise, grain/pixelization and macro-blocking dominate the picture. Although the rest of the disk does not look as bad as this, background macro-blocking is the most objectionable problem with the transfer. Fortunately, the disc contains few really dark scenes.

    The transfer does not have problems with videotape artefacts and handles the fine detail of the colourful costumes quite well with problems such as colour bleeding being completely absent.

    Black-Adder II is shot on video with the exception of the opening titles featuring the snake on the black and white tiles, the garden scenes that accompany the credits at the end of each episode and the brief scene shot outside for the romance of 'Bob' and Edmund in Episode One. Film artefacts can be found during these sequences. This is also the case for the first series which was shot on video for the interior scenes but outside sequences were shot on film and contain all the classic artefacts associated with film. The format used outside was most likely 16mm.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio track for Black-Adder II is unspectacular mono. It is delivered through the front left and right channels but both channels contain the same signal. The sound is at least clean and free of distortion. There was incidental music in the first series, often coming from an organ. It provided at times a bit of bass extension which was quite pleasant. In the second series there is virtually no music at all apart from 'Greensleeves' which accompanies the romance of 'Bob' and Edmund. The Blackadder theme is used for the opening credits and vocals accompany the same theme over the end credits. Apart from that, there is just the sound of laughter mixed into the soundtrack. For material like Blackadder, though, the important thing is dialogue clarity so that every muttered snide remark can be picked up, and in this regard the soundtrack does its job.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras at all on this disc. There is a 4x3 static main menu with animated 'tiles' containing action from some of the episodes. One can choose to play the episodes in order or select an episode or a particular scene within that episode and watch with or without subtitles. Apart from the animated tiles in the menu system, there are no extras.

    A boxed set of the whole Blackadder series has just been released in the States and it looks to have a whole heap of extras - where is our version?

    Those who loved the Blackadder series will enjoy the DVD. It is a pity there are no extras. An amazing soundtrack and reference quality transfer will not make you laugh any harder than with the efforts made for this release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Blackadder the Third: Entire Historic Third Series (1987)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1987
Running Time	176:16
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mandie Fletcher
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Hugh Laurie
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Howard Goodall

    Once again we laugh at the smugness of Edmund. The know-it-all, now a mere butler, still hurls insults with the best of them. Believing so strongly in his own intellectual gifts, yet failing to realise that his continued reliance upon the terminally stupid Baldrick leads to his continual undoing is what we love about this character. We like the absolutely pathetic qualities found in the Prince Regent and Baldrick. The acting is also of a high standard. The quality of the writing is just as high in this series as in the previous one.  The situations that this mob get into are always very silly and funny. The use of words is one of the things that sets the Blackadder series apart from many others and Blackadder 3 should not disappoint.

Video

    The picture was sharper than the previous series. Shadow detail and low level noise were also improved resulting in no real problems of note. Whether this is the result of better condition of the source, the transfer or both, the improvement was welcomed. 

    Colours were a little muted as they have been throughout much of the series, but at least there were no problems with this part of the transfer.

    Occasional MPEG artefacts such as pixelization were noticed briefly, but again were less of a problem than with the earlier discs. They were not severe enough a problem to warrant listing them here.

    This was a dual-layered disc but I think the layers separate Episodes 3 and 4 as no layer change is evident.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Dialogue quality was never a problem. Audio sync was also not a problem.

    There is almost no music apart from the opening theme.

    Being mono there is no surround presence and activity. Ditto for the Subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Blackadder Goes Forth: Entire Historic Fourth Series (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	174:19 (Case: 173)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Richard Boden
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Stephen Fry Hugh Laurie Tim McInnerny
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$32.95	Music	Howard Goodall

    Usually by the time you get to the final series of a comedy the laughs are too forced, or the cast is too jaded and it just doesn't quite sit right. BlackAdder Goes Forth could have become another of those comedies except for one thing - the time period it was set in. World War One is the perfect theatre in which to base a comedy one last time. The desperation, the mud, disease, endless casualties, inept leaders and the almost insane optimism these men had is the stuff that defies logic but offers fertile ground for the comic. It is therefore a fitting finale for one of the most memorable of British comedy series and one which has stood the test of time.

    This time around, Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is a Captain in the army, stuck in the trenches in World War One. With him are his faithful retainer, now Private Baldrick (Tony Robinson), and alongside him Lt. George Barleigh (Hugh Laurie), the typical gormless fool with no brains and endless bravado. Also along for the duration are General Melchett (Stephen Fry), Blackadder's corps commander who is constantly trying to get him killed and Captain Darling (Tim McInnerny) who is always looking out for himself at everyone else's expense. Some of the old regulars make appearances, including Rik Mayall as Lord Flasheart, Adrian Edmondson as Baron von Richthoven and Miranda Richardson as Nurse Mary.

• Captain Cook - 29:15, 'I smell something fishy and I don't mean the contents of Baldrick's apple crumble' - Blackadder receives a new pistol he didn't ask for and realises that General Haig is planning a new offensive, so he cons his way into becoming the official war artist for King and Country, only to be duped by Captain Darling and General Melchett.
• Corporal Punishment - 29:27, 'No sir we didn't receive any orders and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot this plump-breasted pigeon' - A series of miscommunications lands Blackadder under arrest and facing a court-martial when he shoots General Melchett's favourite pigeon and makes a meal of it. Baldrick in the meantime sends the wrong letters off and Blackadder ends up with a sponge bag from the greatest legal mind in Britain and being defended by George.
• Major Star - 29:07, 'We're in the stickiest situation since Sticky the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun' - The Russians have revolted and General Melchett is worried about morale so decides to hold a concert party. He co-opts Blackadder, but things go astray when Melchett falls for his 'leading lady', George dressed in drag.
• Private Plane - 28:59 'Have you got any idea what it's like to have the wind rushing through your hair? (breaks wind) He has, lucky devil!' - A false air-raid leaves Blackadder of the opinion that all pilots are gits, but after Lord Flasheart lands in his trench he decides to volunteer for the 'twenty minuters' only to discover that that's the life expectancy of new pilots, not the time they spend in the air.
• General Hospital - 28:06 'What about you, have you got a man? Some fine fellow in an English country village? A vicar, maybe? Quiet, gentle, hung like a baboon!' - George gets injured by a falling bomb and is sent to hospital. General Melchett wants Blackadder to find a spy also in the hospital and Captain Darling doesn't trust Blackadder so Melchett shoots him in the foot.
• Goodbyeee - 29:25 'Gentlemen our long wait is nearly at an end. Tomorrow morning General 'Insanity' Melchett invites you to a mass slaughter' - The big push is on and Blackadder and his command must go 'over the top' at dawn. Attempting to claim insanity he puts his underpants on his head and two pencils up his nose and goes 'wooble'. Unfortunately, the Hero of Umboto Gorge hasn't counted on General Melchett who knows all the tricks and fails in his attempt to be repatriated. Just before dawn they are joined by Captain Darling who has been given a front line commission and over the top they go.

    The last episode is a fitting finale to a fabulous series that deserves a better treatment than offered on this disc. The humour is still as fresh today as it was all those years ago.

Video

    Most of this series comes from video footage and it shows. Occasionally, there is some film footage edited in, but for the most part you are confronted with the inadequacies of video.

    Originally made for TV, this is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced.

    There is only one way to describe this transfer: blurry. Edge enhancement has been used throughout but the basic lack of clarity makes it almost unnoticeable (13:28 in Captain Cook is a good example). A low grade master tape looks as if it was used for this transfer and the general darkness of all the episodes is a real shame. There was no noise evident, but that could simply be that it was hidden by all the other little problems. Shadow detail suffers from the lack of brightness as well, although the set for Captain Darling's office was less of a problem. All-in-all though, shadow detail could be called little more than average. Little grain is in evidence due to the use of video rather than film stock. Only during Private Plane can you see any grain, and during the opening credits.

    The colour is pretty abysmal throughout. Colour bleed is endemic and every episode exhibits so much of it it is hard to miss it (see Captain Cook - 3:01, 8:00 and Corporal Punishment - 19:07 for three prime examples). During the last episode, Goodbyeee, Blackadder's suspenders have a prominent red line of colour bleed throughout the episode. I thought I saw some occasional cross colouration, but I couldn't nail them down with any degree of accuracy, probably due to the oversaturation of red which made all the other colours look washed-out, except for the browns and sepias which didn't look totally natural as a result.

    Your normal film artefacts are restricted to the opening credits which have a fair few little nicks in them and the odd black and white fleck missing. Apart from this, only the flying footage in Private Plane has any other of the normal film artefacts on show. All episodes exhibit ghosting throughout which was very annoying and there appeared to be a constant haze over the picture.

    The subtitles were interesting and very precise, although whoever did them obviously doesn't know an aubergine from an oberjine, or floury from flowery. Neat little font, very readable, with only a few minor missed words in unobtrusive places.

    This is a dual layered disc, with the layer change separating the episodes and hence not at all obtrusive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is slightly better than the video in that it has fewer problems and remains consistent throughout the disc.

    The only audio track on this disc is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track at 192 kilobits per second. For most of the time, the sound is concentrated in the centre speaker, although the laugh track can definitely be heard from both left and right channels.

    The dialogue was very clean throughout although there was one obvious overdub in Corporal Punishment during Blackadder's monologue about his defense lawyer, Bob Massingbird (7:35). Apart from this, the rest was easy to understand and the syncing looked spot-on.

    The musical score was by Howard Goodall, the same as on previous series and was infrequently heard, except for the opening and closing credits.

    There was no use of the surrounds or the subwoofer on this disc.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Scene Selection Animation & Audio

    The only version available in Region 1 is a super boxed set with all 4 series, plus the Christmas special, the Cavalier Years and some other tidbits.

    Blackadder is a classic British comedy that gets better with repeated viewings. Although not as funny as Series 2 or 3, the use of WW1 as a backdrop gives it a biting edge that brings it back on a par. It's just a pity that it isn't given a better presentation.

    The video is awful - not much better than VHS quality and a damned pity.

    The audio is a lot better - crisp, clean and without any major blemishes.

    Menus do not extras make!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall