Blackadder from this series ranked number three in a list of the top 25 television "putdowns" of the last 40 years by the "Radio Times" magazine: "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?" "Blackadder the Third" is set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period known as the Regency. In the series, Edmund Blackadder Esquire is the butler to the Prince Regent, the Prince of Wales (the prince is played by Hugh Laurie as a complete fop and idiot). Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no
Blackadder the Third the Duke of Wellington. The series aired for six episodes broadcast on Thursdays at 9.30 on BBC One. The titles of the episodes are always a noun paired with another, derived from an adjective beginning with the same letters, based on the Jane Austen novel "Sense and Sensibility" ("Pride and Prejudice" is a similar example). On the first broadcast, "Amy and Amiability" was billed in the "Radio Times" under its working title of "Cape and Capability". <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Although this series reduced the size of the show's cast, the programme featured a number of guest appearances in each episode. Tim McInnerny