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
Beer (Blackadder) during the visit of the King of Austria, during which Blackadder wandered naked around the grounds of Hampton Court singing "I'm Merlin, The Happy Pig". Blackadder challenges his rival to a drinking bout, with 10,000 florins at stake. After Blackadder leaves, Queenie conspires to somehow gain entry to the party. Upon arriving back home, Blackadder begins to draft a guest list for the drinking party, with Percy's assistance. The guests include Simon Partridge, a perpetually drunken aristocrat nicknamed "Mr. Ostrich" who according to Percy, is a fearful oik, Sir Geoffrey Piddle, a deranged civil servant, and Freddie Frobisher, "the flatulent