Beer (Blackadder) Beer (Blackadder) "Beer" is the fifth episode of the BBC sitcom "Blackadder II", the second series of "Blackadder", which was set in Elizabethan England from 1558 to 1603. In the episode, an embarrassing incident with a turnip, an ostrich feather and a fanatically Puritan aunt leads to a right royal to-do in the Blackadder household. The episode marks Hugh Laurie's first ever "Blackadder" appearance, and Miriam Margolyes's second. Laurie would go on to appear in every subsequent episode of the show. Blackadder is having breakfast with Lord Percy when he receives a letter informing him that his fanatically Puritan but
Blackadder meeting between Richard Curtis and comedian Ben Elton led to the decision to collaborate on a new series of Blackadder. Recognising the main faults of the first series, Curtis and Elton agreed that "Blackadder II" would be a studio-only production (along with the inclusion of a live audience during recording, instead of showing the episodes to an audience after taping). Besides adding a greater comedy focus, Elton suggested a major change in character emphasis: Baldrick would become the stupid sidekick, while Edmund Blackadder evolved into a cunning sycophant. This led to the familiar set-up that was maintained in the following