Blackadder appeared in more than one of the Blackadder series and/or specials. These are: Ben Elton's arrival after the first series heralded the more frequent recruitment of comic actors from the alternative comedy era for guest appearances, including Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall (who had appeared in the final episode of the first series as "Mad Gerald"), Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Mark Arden, Stephen Frost, Chris Barrie and Jeremy Hardy. Elton himself played an anarchist in "Blackadder the Third". Gabrielle Glaister played Bob, an attractive girl who poses as a man, in both series 2 and 4. Rik Mayall plays Lord Flashheart,
Edmund Blackadder There is a Clan Blackadder in reality. Dr Eric Blackadder, Chief Medical Officer at the BBC at the time of the first programme, claims that the series is named after him. Among historical members of the Clan, in 1502 Robert Blackadder Archbishop of Glasgow presided over a botched ceremony where James IV of Scotland swore to keep perpetual peace with England. At the first attempt the King read his oath from a paper where "France" was written instead of "England." George Buchanan introduced a real Edmund Blackadder in his "Rerum Scoticarum Historia", writing that Mary, Queen of Scots embarked on