Blackadder: The Complete Collected Series

By: Ben Elton, Richard Curtis

Narrated by: full cast, Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnery, Rik Mayall, Miranda Richardson

Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

The complete soundtracks of all four Blackadder series, plus over three hours of specials and extras. 

Through the ages of Britain, from the 15th century to the 21st, Edmund Blackadder has meddled his way along the bloodlines, aided by his servant and sidekick, Baldrick, and hindered by an assortment of dimwitted aristocrats. Now the complete history of Blackadder is collected together, including the four TV series: The Black Adder, Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth plus the special TV and radio episodes Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, Blackadder: The Cavalier Years, Blackadder: Woman’s Hour Invasion, The Shakespeare Sketch, Blackadder: Back and Forth, Blackadder: The Army Years (Royal Variety Performance) and Blackadder: I Have a Cunning Plan. Even included is the Blackadder instalment of the TV series Britain's Best Sitcom.

Starring Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny, Rik Mayall and Miranda Richardson. Written by Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson. This is history at its grubbiest and funniest.

©2019 Richard Curtis, Ben Elton (P)2019 BBC Worldwide Ltd

If you know the show well, You'll Love its Audio.

Not an audio adaption. It is just the audio from the show.

---If you do NOT know the show very well, you won't find this funny.

---If you DO know the show very well, you will be delighted!

Recording of the tv show with extras

It’s true that this is the audio track from the tv show and some of the visual gags fall flat, but for a fan it’s like an old friend. Still lots of laughs and some great rare extras too, including a mini making-of.

A comment

Narrating a TV series is difficult if there are no pictures, sorry, not for me.

interesting listening

first off. this is the audio of the shows. so sight gags don't work. unless you are like me and know them by heart.

love these shows.

Simply the best.

Blackadder has long been known as one of the funniest shows ever done in the English language. In 2000, the fourth series, Blackadder Goes Forth, ranked at 16 in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, a list created by the British Film Institute. In a 2001 poll by Channel 4, Edmund Blackadder was ranked third on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In the 2004 TV poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom, Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time. The list of people involved are literally a "Who's Who" of British Film and comedy, Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson, Brian Blessed, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tom Baker, and a pre Dr. House, Hugh Laurie. (Yes it IS the same Hugh Laurie.) A small fraction of the jokes rely on some knowledge of English history (Season 3 has a number of "Lady Hamilton" references) but the rest of the show is highly accessible to anyone.

Given that the show did not rely heavily on sight gags, this audio only version loses very little. All the wit, sarcasm, and farcical dialog, are still in tact. About the only thing harmed by the lack of video is the legendary ending of the final episode of Series 4, ("Goodbyeee") . This scene is known for being extraordinarily poignant for a comedy – and for bringing people to tears.

Can not recommend highly enough.

Not a Radio Play! TV Recording

This is a recording of the audio from the assorted Blackadder TV series. A lot of the gags are written, but many more are sight gags which make no sense. The laugh track gives you some idea of how it is supposed to go, but as an audio series this is a failure.

Unless you’re a fan. Then you’ll enjoy this. But you’re better off rewatching the series in a visual medium. I ultimately had to return this after the first arc; it is really just un-listenable.

If you know and loved watching the show....

This is the audio track from the series.

If you've watched the show so often you see each scene in your mind's eye and can recite the dialog, you'll love this.

If you haven't seen the TV series, watch it first. You don't know what your missing.
Seasons 2 through 4 are British sitcom at its best.

SOMETIMES HILARIOUS

i think the beginning and the final hour or so - Season 1 and the bonus extras - can be skipped because they only detract from the fun once the cast got going with Season 2. These are the soundtracks of the TV series so much visual comedy is lost but the wit of the dialogues comes through and make these an entertaining earful.

Great BBC Comedy

Granted us Yanks may have a problem w historical references, it's still great comedy. I do no5 know when I got into BBC comedy. I'm glad I did. This has great acting. I'm glad this has all the episodes.

Best of the best!

I relived all the episodes and remembered the nuances of the characters... Brilliant show!
When I saw it the first time, my favorite one was the episode with turnips! Still laughed hard...
Now listening it..I understood how the characters developed into completely different ones they started out to be.

Doesn't work so well as an Audiobook

This presentation is taken verbatim from the brilliant television series and doesn't really work as an audiobook, especially as it was written for Atkinson who is a very visual comic (think Mr.Bean who is actually silent).
Often, the script itself isn't particularly funny but the audience are howling with laughter so you know something visual is going on but frustratingly, you are not in on it.
There is also more cross talk, sound effects and music than you would usually expect in an audio only production and although you can follow the plot, the sound of a horse galloping or a sword sweeping, doesn't really let you know what's going on.
It's a shame it isn't a radio adaptation because as it is, it's a pale version of the Black Adder we all loved.

So funny

I read a review here that said this was not suitable for an audiobook and that you would need to see visuals to understand what is happening every now and then. I do not agree with that, those "scenes" were few and far between and I could perfectly understand what was happening from the context. I really enjoyed this, and laughed out quite a few times. Rowan Atkinson really is a master of humour, and the only downside to this is that there is no more material to purchase.

This doesn’t date

I can’t believe Blackadder dates from the eighties. It is still clever and funny. Wonderful cast.

Great Comedy. Shame about the info available

Love Blackadder and a great listen. But as a product it loses stars due to the information available.
No episode / program titles. Just listed as Chapter 1, 2 etc.

Even if they just added a voice recording of each title I would bave been ok

Brilliant collection.

Brilliant collection, would be better with chapter titles added to easier navigate between episodes for relistening.

Extremely disappointed

There are no titles for any of the 32 "chapters", so finding an episode or a special is a matter of guesswork. I know most episodes backwards, but lesser fans that me will struggle. Poor work and I expected far better for the price.

Does not work

Black Adder is great to watch but, as so much of the humour is in the visual aspect, it just does not work on Audible.
Sorry to say, I will be returning this title

Loved it, but........

A lot of what makes the tv show so great are Rowan's facial expressions and the show's comic observations and while I found it easy to visualise the shows scenes, listening to each episode can't compare to what is one of the best comedy shows ever produced

great book

I would highly recommend this book if your a fan of Rowan Atkinson a great book.

The truly brilliant blackadder without the visual

I love Blackadder, so I thought this would be a good listen. Unfortunately this is the audio of the series, it hasn't been adapted merely lifted from the series. Unfortunately you cant help but feel short changed as you know the series, you've memorized the excellent acting. Its just without the visual screenplay, it simply does not work.
Of course if you've never seen the series it might be brilliant, who knows. definitely a waste of a credit for me.