Miranda Richardson she prefers new work rather than the classics because of the history which goes with them. In 1985, Richardson made her film debut as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, in the biographical drama "Dance with a Stranger". Around the same time, Richardson played a comedic Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy "Blackadder II". Following "Dance with a Stranger", Richardson turned down numerous parts in which her character was unstable or disreputable, including the Glenn Close role in "Fatal Attraction". In this period, she appeared in "Empire of the Sun"
Edmund Blackadder nearly all subsequent Blackadders in the series were modelled after Edmund, Lord Blackadder, the exception being Ebenezer Blackadder, who initially began as the nicest man in England to the point of naivete but who gradually fell back into the standard persona after being abused by almost everyone around him. Sir Edmund Blackadder appears in the Comic Relief special "". Set after the English Civil War, Sir Edmund is (apparently) a loyal royalist and friend of Charles I of England, played by Stephen Fry. This Blackadder also appeared in an introductory sequence for Charles, Prince of Wales' fiftieth birthday Gala Performance,