Blackadder: Back & Forth
by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, directed by Paul Weiland
Rowan Atkinson’s historically funny Blackadder character comes to the big screen for a
final 30-minute episode. Each of the earlier TV series followed one of Lord Edmund
Blackadder′s many ancestors in a famous time period, but now the modern-day Blackadder
announces to his dinner party that he’s just built a time machine based on da Vinci’s
specification, after which he wagers each of guests ÂŁ10,000 that he can use the machine
to retrieve any named object from history. Of course, Blackadder himself thinks it’s
all going to be nothing more than the best New Year’s Eve prank ever, but the
dinosaurs, Queen Elizabeth I, Will Shakespeare, Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Napoleon,
Wellington, Hadrian, and others have different ideas.
Now, if only we could get Mr. Bean into a time machine.
— Michael Main
Elizabeth: How on Earth can one look at the past? You can’t
see something that’s already happened.The Bishop: Unless you’re on the lavatory.
The Viscount: Uh! Good point, Bish!
Blackadder: Yes, or . . . or unless one’s got a time machine.
Blackadder: Back and Forth by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, directed by Paul Weiland
(premiered at the Skyscape Cinema at the Millennium Dome, London, 6 December
1999).