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Is the Season 2 of Black Adder, in any way a continuation of the season 1? I have just finished watching the First episode of the Season 2 and not able to relate it to Season 1.

The main character is still played by the same actor and has the same name but his characterization is very different. The body language and personality is totally changed.

Why are there these changes between seasons?

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Each season is set in a different time, therefore it's not the same character:

  • The Black Adder: An alternate history set during the period of the Wars of the Roses
  • Blackadder II: Elizabethan London
  • Blackadder the Third: During the Regency Period
  • Blackadder Goes Forth: World War I, in the trenches of the Western Front

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There are also Blackadder Specials:

  • Blackadder: The Cavalier Years: Set during the English Civil War
  • Blackadder's Christmas Carol: Victorian era
  • Blackadder Back & Forth: The 21st Century Blackadder and Baldrick trip through time in a time machine


Regarding the changes after the first season:

Due to the high cost of the first series, the then controller of programming of BBC1, Michael Grade was reluctant to sign off a second series without major improvements and cost cutting to be made to the show, leaving a gap of three years between the two series.

Blackadder II was therefore to be a studio-only production.

Besides adding more jokes, new writer Ben Elton suggested a major change in character emphasis: Baldrick would become the stupid sidekick, while Edmund Blackadder evolved into a cunning sycophant. This led to the familiar set-up that was maintained in the following series.

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All the series of Blackadder are related in the sense that the main character is meant to be a descendent of the previous Blackadder, but in each case several generations apart - they are not the same person. Each generation is hundreds of years apart:

  • Blackadder is set in the Middle Ages. The Prince Edmund character lives 1461–1498.
  • Blackadder II is set in the Elizabethan age. Elizabeth lived 1533 - 1603 and she is young woman in the series, so we are looking at 1550-1570 period.
  • Blackadder III is set in the English regency period. George ruled as Prince Regent from 1811-1820.
  • Blackadder Goes Forth is set in the First World War on the Western Front in 1914-1918

The character differences are most striking between season 1 and 2, as the writers changed and the budget was reduced, forcing less on-location shooting and a more on-set situation comedy approach, which IMHO dramatically improves the series. The last 3 seasons were all developed by the same team, and Blackadder is substantially the same character in the different eras.

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