The Black Adder ambitious, with a large cast and much location shooting. Shakespearean dialogue is sometimes adapted for comic effect. Despite winning an International Emmy, "The Black Adder" is generally regarded as the weakest series of "Blackadder", even by its creators. Set in the Middle Ages, the series is written as an alternative history. It opens on 21 August 1485, the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which in the series is won not by Henry Tudor (as in reality) but by Richard III. Richard III, played by Peter Cook, is presented as a good king who doted on his nephews, contrary
Blackadder George, respectively. Each series was set in a different period of British history, beginning in 1485 and ending in 1917, and comprised six half-hour episodes. The first series, made in 1983, was called "The Black Adder" and was set in the fictional reign of "Richard IV". The second series, "Blackadder II" (1986), was set during the reign of Elizabeth I. "Blackadder the Third" (1987) was set during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the reign of George III, and "Blackadder Goes Forth" (1989) was set in 1917 in the trenches of the Great War. "The Black Adder", the