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
Blackadder the Third the period of the Age of Enlightenment between 1755 (the publication of Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary") and 1805 (just before the Battle of Trafalgar). In the series, E. Blackadder Esquire (Rowan Atkinson) is the head butler to the Prince of Wales (Hugh Laurie), a spoiled, foppish idiot. Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no personal fortune to speak of. On the other hand, given the ease with which he is able to manipulate the Prince, he is generally in good financial straits. According to Edmund he has been serving the Prince Regent all of his life, ever since the