Bells (Blackadder) marks the first appearance of the Bob/Kate and Flashheart archetypes that appear again in "Blackadder Goes Forth". Rik Mayall, who played Lord Flashheart, allegedly designed the character's costume himself. John Lloyd has said that Mayall virtually rewrote his part to feature "loads of jokes", which annoyed the writers, Curtis and Elton. It was the only episode of the series to feature location filming, at Wilton House in Wiltshire. The music performed as Blackadder courts "Bob" is Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on Greensleeves". In 1993, in conjunction with Comic Relief, this episode was given away free on cassette tape with boxes of
Edmund Blackadder Variety Performance, Atkinson performed a short monologue called "Blackadder: The Army Years" as Captain Lord Edmund Blackadder of Her Royal Highness's Regiment of Shirkers.It is possible that Captain the Lord Blackadder is the same modern day Lord Blackadder seen in "Back and Forth", although no mention of military rank is made there. In 2002, during the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II trailers for the Party at the Palace featured the Keeper of Her Majesty's Lawn Sprinklers, Sir Osmond Darling-Blackadder, who was against the idea. Sir Osmond also co-hosted the light-hearted documentary on the celebrations "Jubilee Girl". He is notable for