Blackadder Blackadder Blackadder is a series of four BBC1 pseudohistorical British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired in the 1980s. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the anti-hero Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, for example Melchett (Stephen Fry) and Lord Flashheart (Rik Mayall). The first series, "The Black Adder", was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent episodes were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows
Blackadder Goes Forth there are left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths." Robinson responded "to categorise teachers who would introduce something like "Blackadder" as left-wing and introducing left-wing propaganda is very, very unhelpful. And I think it's particularly unhelpful and irresponsible for a minister in charge of education." Tristram Hunt also criticised Gove's comments, but Andrew Murrison compared the series to "Oh, What a Lovely War!" as a take on history that had "sadly been in the ascendant for the past 50 years." Esther MacCallum-Stewart of Sussex University noted in her essay "Television Docu-Drama and The First World War" that ""Blackadder