The Prince and the Pauper BBC TV comedy series "Blackadder the Third" has an episode, "Duel and Duality," where the Prince Regent believes that the Duke of Wellington is after him. The prince swaps clothes with Blackadder (who is his butler) and says, "This reminds of that story 'The Prince and the Porpoise'." Blackadder corrects him: "Pauper. The Prince and the Pauper." Since "Blackadder the Third" is set during the early 1800s, this is an anachronism. In 1996, PBS aired a "Wishbone" adaptation titled "The Pooch and the Pauper" with Wishbone playing both Tom Canty and Edward VI. The BBC produced a six-part dramatization of
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