Blackadder's Christmas Carol
| Blackadder's Christmas Carol | |
|---|---|
Title screen of Blackadder's Christmas Carol.
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| Genre | period comedy, sitcom |
| Written by |
Richard Curtis Ben Elton |
| Directed by | Richard Boden |
| Starring |
Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Stephen Fry Hugh Laurie Robbie Coltrane Miranda Richardson Miriam Margolyes Jim Broadbent |
| Theme music composer | Howard Goodall |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | John Lloyd |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 42 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Picture format | PAL (576i) |
| Audio format | Mono |
| First shown in | 23 December 1988 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Blackadder: The Cavalier Years |
| Followed by | Blackadder Goes Forth |
Blackadder's Christmas Carol is a one-off episode of Blackadder, a parody of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is set between Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and is narrated by Hugh Laurie. Produced by the BBC, it was first broadcast on BBC1 on 23 December 1988.
Ebenezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), the Victorian proprietor of a "moustache shop", is the nicest man in England. He is everything that Ebenezer Scrooge was by the end of the original story: generous and kind to everybody, and sensitive to the misery of others. As a result, people take advantage of his kindness—Mrs. Scratchit and an orphan take all his money, and a beadle takes his food. All but Mr. Baldrick (Tony Robinson) view him as a victim. His business turns no profit, all his earnings going to charity and to con artists, and he lives a lonely, miserable life.
One Christmas Eve, Blackadder's destiny changes when the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) visits him to congratulate him for his ways. The spirit lets him see shades of the past: his ancestors Lord Blackadder and Mr. E. Blackadder, Esq. Instead of being convinced that he is better than them, he grows to admire them and their wit. He asks the spirit to show him what could happen if he became like them. He sees a vision of a distant future where his distant descendant Grand Admiral Blackadder is a successful and ruthless official of a Galactic empire (with Baldrick as his semi-naked slave) who is about to marry the similarly ruthless and insanely ambitious Queen Asphyxia XIX (Miranda Richardson) after murdering her "triple husbandoid". Blackadder asks the Spirit what will happen if he stays as he is. He is shown an alternative future in which his descendant is the semi-naked slave of the incompetent Admiral Baldrick.
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