This fifteen minute short is set at the end of the Civil War; Cromwell is victorious and he and his men are searching the country for the fugitive King Charles. The king is hiding in the house of Sir Edmund Blackadder who has instructed his servant Baldrick to deny all knowledge of the King's presence should Oliver Cromwell come looking for him
inevitably Cromwell does turn up and Baldrick lets slip that the king is there and he is captured. Blackadder assures his friend that nobody in the land would accept the job of beheading the king. Baldrick takes the job and Blackadder is disgusted; until he learns how much money he is being offered!
While this episode is only fifteen minutes long it manages to pack in plenty of laughs and a good story; of course it helps if viewer is familiar with this part of English history I don't think it is essential. In many ways this feels like the conclusion of a series one has somehow missed; no time is wasted introduced introducing characters and the situation is very quickly explained. As one might expect Rowan Atkinson is great as Blackadder; as greedy and conniving as ever and Tony Robinson is a lot of fun as Baldrick. Stephen Fry, who plays the doomed king, is rather amusing him; playing him as a caricature of the latest royal Charles the current Prince of Wales! I'm not sure why he referred to himself as 'King Charles the First' though monarchs only get regnal numbers when a second of the same name takes the throne. Warren Clarke is decent enough as Cromwell although he isn't given lines to make the character particularly interesting. Overall this was a really good little episode which left me wishing this era had been given an entire series.
While this episode is only fifteen minutes long it manages to pack in plenty of laughs and a good story; of course it helps if viewer is familiar with this part of English history I don't think it is essential. In many ways this feels like the conclusion of a series one has somehow missed; no time is wasted introduced introducing characters and the situation is very quickly explained. As one might expect Rowan Atkinson is great as Blackadder; as greedy and conniving as ever and Tony Robinson is a lot of fun as Baldrick. Stephen Fry, who plays the doomed king, is rather amusing him; playing him as a caricature of the latest royal Charles the current Prince of Wales! I'm not sure why he referred to himself as 'King Charles the First' though monarchs only get regnal numbers when a second of the same name takes the throne. Warren Clarke is decent enough as Cromwell although he isn't given lines to make the character particularly interesting. Overall this was a really good little episode which left me wishing this era had been given an entire series.