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CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Friday 23/12/88, BBC1
by Ian Jones
December 2000
 

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In the middle of the 1840s, deep in the heart of the city of London, one Ebeneezer Blackadder is preparing for Christmas. A descendant of both a butler to the Prince Regent, and an Elizabethan lord, this Blackadder is oblivious to the wily ways of his ancestors - indeed, he has made his reputation being nice. Proprietor of a respectable moustache boutique, he goes about his business with his apprentice Baldrick, being shamelessly ripped off by clients and taken advantage off by thieving relatives. Such is his generosity that on Christmas Eve he gives away all his presents and food - albeit through his own naïveté (exchanging his year's profits of £17 for a single box of matches from Mrs Scratchett so she can feed her "starving" 15 stone son Tiny Tom).

That night, however, he is visited by a hairy bearded apparition, the spirit of Christmas, who shows Blackadder glimpses of his predecessors' lives. This accidentally plants the idea in Ebeneezer's head that greed is good and there's far more fun to be had playing bad. Come Christmas morning, Blackadder has completely changed his ways - and is back to the familiar abusive, selfish, cynical ways of his forefathers.

Such is the plot that Richard Curtis and Ben Elton came up with for this special festive one-off featuring the best TV comic creation of the 1980s. And it's an imaginative premise - but there lies the problem. In theory, on paper, it's amusing and clever. On screen, the conceit quickly becomes tiring and boring, a one-joke device that is fatally overplayed and plundered for almost the first 15 minutes of the show. What's more, the writers still give this "nice" Blackadder the sort of traditionally cutting insults his elders were famed for; and this wisecracking sits so at odds with the "nice" characterisation as to further compromise this whole opening section.

Things get much better, thankfully, when the flashbacks begin. All the familiar cast - Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson - slip into their old roles effortlessly, though of the two scenes the one from the Blackadder the Third era marginally outshines that from Blackadder II, simply because the acting is so assured and convincing. First, Edmund almost loses his head to Queen Elizabeth (who, on a whim, has banned Christmas) before utilising a novelty death warrant from a cracker to deflect the threat onto his old rival Lord Melchett. He then almost manages to steal all the Prince Regent's presents, tricking the stupid George (still played brilliantly by Laurie) in the process.

These are both fine throwbacks to two superb series. But because this specific Christmas special is so poorly structured (Curtis and Elton never really get the hang of the 45 minute format) this section is followed by a dreadful sequence set in the future - way into the future, several centuries ahead of our time.

In a pathetic Hitchhiker's Guide-esque routine involving stupid names, dated special effects and ridiculous costumes (both Tony Robinson and Rowan Atkinson appear virtually nude) we see Blackadder become ruler of the universe via more deceit and scheming. Here again the episode falls down and goes awry - for Blackadder the concept is at heart a historical comedy, playing on the contrast between authentic recreations of former ages and Blackadder the character's late 20th-century style mannerisms and sensibilities. Remove the historical context and, as with the recent Blackadder Back and Forth revival, everything falls flat.

The closing section is mercifully an improvement. Ebeneezer becomes the Blackadder we know and love, and that familiar dialogue crackles once again: "Ill-conceived love is like a Christmas cracker: one massively disappointing bang and the novelty soon wears off." And true to form, events conspire to not quite let our hero get his way at the end - for when none other than Queen Victoria and Prince Albert come visiting with a money and a title in honour of Blackadder's former generosity, the host rounds on them, letting fly a stream of insults and sending them away, completing misunderstanding their intentions. Realising his mistake, Blackadder is once more left to try and come up with another cunning plan.

Blackadder's Christmas Carol contains some cracking jokes, amusing characterisations and ingenious twists - but ultimately it's flawed because of three elements: inconsistency, an unusually poor supporting cast (Jim Broadbent as Albert is woeful) and the whole one-joke nice/bad plot. None of these are charges you could level at the proper Blackadder series - nor the one-off Blackadder: The Cavalier Years which had appeared earlier in 1988 as part of the first Comic Relief evening which was also a stronger and better paced effort than Christmas Carol (though at 15 minutes it obviously benefited from a tight structure and brevity).

Instead of building constructively on the well-established format and conventions of the Blackadder series, this one-off special finds Richard Curtis and Ben Elton just messing about and abusing a winning formula. Thankfully, though, their best work was still to come: in the shape of Blackadder Goes Forth the following year. "Care for a liquorice allsort, Darling?"