Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC One period British sitcom, along with several one-off instalments.

Although each series is set in a different era, all follow the " misfortunes " of Edmund Blackadder ( played by Atkinson ), who in each is a member of a British family dynasty present at many significant periods and places in British history.

It is implied in each series that the Blackadder character is a descendant of the previous one, although it is never mentioned how any of the Blackadders manage to father children.

Each Blackadder and Baldrick is also saddled with the company of a dim-witted aristocrat whose presence Blackadder must somehow tolerate.

Blackadder II is set in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I ( 1558 – 1603 ), played by Miranda Richardson.

The principal character is Edmund, Lord Blackadder, the great-grandson of the original Black Adder.

Blackadder the Third is set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period known as the Regency.

In the series, E. Blackadder Esquire is the butler to the Prince Regent, the Prince of Wales ( the prince is played by Hugh Laurie as a complete fop and idiot ).

Blackadder is joined by his batman Private S. Baldrick ( Tony Robinson ) and idealistic Edwardian twit Lieutenant George ( Hugh Laurie ).

The final episode of this series, " Goodbyeee ", is known for being extraordinarily poignant for a comedy – especially the final scene, which sees the main characters ( Blackadder, Baldrick, George, and Darling ) finally going " over the top " and charging off into the fog and smoke of no man's land to presumably die.

Another significant difference is that the character of Prince Edmund presented in the pilot is much closer to the intelligent, conniving Blackadder of the later series than the snivelling, weak buffoon of the original.

In a twist on Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Blackadder is the " kindest and loveliest " man in England.

It is set on the turn of the millennium, and features Lord Blackadder placing a bet with his friends – modern versions of Queenie ( Miranda Richardson ), Melchett ( Stephen Fry ), George ( Hugh Laurie ) and Darling ( Tim McInnerny ) – that he has built a working time machine.

While this is intended as a clever con trick, the machine, surprisingly, works, sending Blackadder and Baldrick back to the time of the dinosaurs, where they manage to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs, through the use of Baldrick's best, worst and only pair of underpants as a weapon against a hungry T. Rex.

* Baldrick is a character in the BBC comedy series Blackadder played by Tony Robinson.

* Freddie Frobisher, the flatulent hermit of Lindisfarne, is featured in Blackadder the second, episode Beer.

Richardson is known for her role as a comedic Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy Blackadder II.

In the television comedy series Blackadder, Richard III is portrayed by Peter Cook in an alternative version of history as a doting, kindly man who treats his nephews with affection.

He is unintentionally killed by Edmund, the titular " Blackadder " ( Rowan Atkinson ), when Edmund thinks he is trying to steal his horse.

Later series ( Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third, Blackadder Goes Forth ) moved the duo through history and switched the relationship: the Edmund Blackadder of Blackadder II was a brilliant schemer, whereas Baldrick had devolved into a buffoon whose catchphrase was " I have a cunning plan " ( which he rarely had ).

When Blackadder asks them whether they've known him to play practical jokes, Darling remarks that Blackadder had at one point pretended to be dying of kidney failure.

Upon returning to Sherwood Forest, Blackadder asks Robin " There's something I've always wanted to ask you.

Unfortunately Blackadder asks Lord Flashheart to be the best man ( even though Lord Percy wanted to be the best man ), and within seconds of meeting Kate, Flashheart gives her a searingly passionate kiss directly in front of Edmund, winning her heart.

In the Blackadder the Third episode " Dish and Dishonesty ", Blackadder mockingly asks if William Pitt the Younger's little brother is called " Pitt the Toddler ", " Pitt the Embryo " or " Pitt the Glint in the Milkman's Eye ".

Some of the most successful examples include As Time Goes By, Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army, Keeping Up Appearances, The Likely Lads, Fawlty Towers, Allo Allo, The Good Life, Are You Being Served ?, Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses, Absolutely Fabulous, Red Dwarf, The Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted, Blackadder, One Foot in the Grave, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Porridge, The Thin Blue Line, The Office, The Young Ones, Coupling, Outnumbered and Game On.

* In the episode Major Star of the British sitcom Blackadder, Captain Blackadder parodies the poem " The Soldier ", warning George ' If I should die, think only this of me, ' I'll be back to get you!

Captain Blackadder claims to have joined the army in 1888, when " if you saw someone in a skirt, you shot him and nicked his country ".

At the end of the episode, Lord Flashheart, a squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps, tells Blackadder, " Remember, if you want something, take it.

" Blackadder smugly retorts, " I'll tell him you said that, and I think he'll be very hurt!

Throughout each series, Blackadder is a self-serving, cynical opportunist concerned solely with increasing his own influence and status within his society ( and, usually, gaining a lot of money along the way ) rather than serving any idealistic goals.

On his way back to the machine, Blackadder literally runs into William Shakespeare ( Colin Firth ).

However, Blackadder often gets some sort of revenge, for example feeding Darling, along with Melchett, with one of Baldrick's banquets ( each dish consisting of unsavory ingredients ), getting him to eat Baldrick's " Charlie Chaplin " moustache ( in reality a dead slug ) by telling him it's liquorice, watching as Lord Flashheart headbutts him out cold, interrogating him until he bursts into tears and protests that he's not a German spy, or serving Darling some of Baldrick's " coffee "— made from mud, using dandruff as sugar and saliva as cream ( Blackadder did not take up Baldrick's offer of ' chocolate sprinkles ').

In the series ' first episode, " Bells ", Blackadder almost marries his manservant Kate, but the wedding is called off when Kate runs off with the best man, Lord Flashheart.

Lord Flashheart is the name of two fictional characters who appeared in two episodes of the popular BBC sitcom Blackadder.

The first Lord Flashheart appeared in a single scene of the first episode of the second series of Blackadder.

Rik Mayall as Lord Flashheart in Blackadder II

After Baldrick and Blackadder are shot down and captured by the Imperial German Army, Flashheart and Lieutenant George mount a rescue mission.

As soon as Flashheart is gone, however, Blackadder mutters, " Git!

It was the following insult directed at Lord Percy by Edmund Blackadder: " The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?

Poetry in Persian life is far more than a common ground on which -- in a society deeply fissured by antagonisms -- all may stand.

He is too deeply steeped in William Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren.

A need so deeply planted, asking for direction, so to speak, is likely to be gratified by the vivid examples and heroic proportions of literature.

It is as if we, in our center of human observation, from time to time penetrate more deeply into the unknown.

His very honest act called up the recent talk I had with another minister, a modest Methodist, who said: `` I feel so deeply blessed by God when I can give a message of love and comfort to other men, and I would have it no other way: and it is unworthy to think of self.

The President is deeply concerned over this problem and its effect upon the `` vitality of the nation ''.

Freddy is deeply committed to our plans already.

However, it is true that Albertus was deeply interested in astrology, as has been articulated by scholars such as Paola Zambelli.

It is such a character that she portrays in Edward Weston, and that her heroine Agnes Grey finds deeply appealing.

Because the base is deeply affixed to the chest, the weight of the breast is distributed over a greater area, and so reduces the weight-bearing strain upon the chest, shoulder, and back muscles that bear the weight of the bust.

This apparition is also deeply unsettling to Macbeth, who not only wants the throne for himself, but also desires to father a line of kings.

The number of molars and premolars is variable between carnivoran species, but all teeth are deeply rooted and are diphyodont.

It was probably in Rome that Catullus fell deeply in love with the " Lesbia " of his poems, who is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri and sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher.

It is deeply influenced by, but not identical with, the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties.

Brahma Kumaris ' concept of identifying the self as a soul, different from physical body, is deeply linked to the philosophy of celibacy.

Claudius has been portrayed in film on several other occasions, including in the 1979 motion picture Caligula, the role being performed by Giancarlo Badessi in which the character was depicted as an idiot, in contrast to Robert Graves ' portrait of Claudius as a cunning and deeply intelligent man who is perceived by others to be an idiot.

The problem is that these materials tend to be deeply buried, at least for simple craters.

The word play on λόγος and αλόγον is characteristic of Clement's writing, and may be rooted in the Epicurean belief that relationships between words are deeply reflective of relationships between the objects they signify.

It is presently acknowledged by most of Christianity that these uses of capital punishment were deeply immoral.

It is quite evident in the words of this statement, which was adopted by the attendees of the 2001 youth conference held at the Unitarian Church of Montreal: " We the youth of Canada are deeply concerned about the direction the CUC seems to be taking.

Like the other X-Men he is deeply saddened by Kurt's death and anxious about the arrival of Cable and Hope.

The idea of data compression is deeply connected with statistical inference.

Cardenio relates the first part of his story, in which he falls deeply in love with his childhood friend Luscinda, and is hired as the companion to the Duke's son, leading to his friendship with the Duke's younger son, Don Fernando.

This is generally reckoned the most successful and deeply considered compilation of open problems ever to be produced by an individual mathematician.