Blackadder is the generic name that encompasses four series of an acclaimed BBC One historical sitcom, along with several one-off installments. The first series was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent episodes were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows were produced by John Lloyd, and starred Rowan Atkinson as the eponymous anti-hero, Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as his sidekick/dogsbody, Baldrick.

In 2000, Blackadder Goes Forth ranked at 16 in the "100 Greatest British Television Programmes", a list created by the British Film Institute. Also in the 2004 TV poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom", Blackadder was voted the second best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses

Blackadder was a clipper ship, a sister ship to Hallowe'en, built in 1870 by Maudslay, Sons & Field at Greenwich for John Willis.

Blackadder was dismasted on her maiden voyage due to failures in the mast fittings and rigging. John Willis took legal action against the builders which dragged on to such an extent that her sister ship, Hallowe'en, was not handed over to Willis until nearly 18 months after her launch. After John Willis died in 1900, Blackadder was bought by J Aalborg of Kragero in Norway. On 5 November 1905 she was wrecked whilst on passage from Barry to Bahia loaded with coal.

Set in England at the end of the War of the Roses, we soon find out that the history we know is a Tudor fiction. In fact, Henry VII did not actually win the battle of Bosworth Field; he lost and though Richard III died in the battle, his nephew King Richard IV (who certainly was not smothered while still a boy in the Tower of London) reigned on for some years. The story focuses on Richard IV's younger son Prince Edmund, a sniveling coward who calls himself the 'Black Adder'. Assisted by his grungy servant Baldrick and the moronic Lord Percy, Edmund plots his rise to greatness. Written by Reid Gagle

King Richard IV is the insane monarch ruling England during the really dark part of the Dark Ages. He has two sons: one, Harry, his elder son and the Prince of Wales. Although highly respected by the court and overly favored by his father, Harry is rather looney, as well... and two, Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh, who is loathed by his family and detested by the court. Despite this, the slimy, cocky, foolish and sarcastic Edmund, donning a costume and the alias of "The Black Adder", is out to inherit the throne, assisted by two sidekicks: Percy, the only nobleman stupid enough to respect him, and Baldrick, a street-wise peasant with inspired "cunning plans". Written by Bloggers!