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
Blackadder the Third and the Christmas special are also available for download on iTunes. The complete scripts of the four television series were released in 1998 as "Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty 1485–1917", and later reissued by Penguin Books in 2009. Blackadder the Third Blackadder the Third is the third series of the BBC sitcom "Blackadder", written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 17 September to 22 October 1987. The series was set during the Georgian Era, and saw the principal character, Mr. E. Blackadder serve as butler to the Prince Regent and have to contend with, or cash in