"Blackadder II"
Potato (1986)

Director:

Mandie Fletcher

Writers:

Richard Curtis (written by) &
Ben Elton (written by)

TV Series:

"Blackadder II" (1986)

Original Air Date:

23 January 1986 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Edmund attempts to impress the Queen by embarking on his own voyage of discovery to the New World.

Plot Keywords:

Drinking Urine | Coward | Potato | Cannibal | Explorer

Cast

Rowan Atkinson	...	Lord Edmund Blackadder
Tim McInnerny	...	Lord Percy Percy
Tony Robinson	...	Baldrick
Miranda Richardson	...	Queen Elizabeth I
Stephen Fry	...	Lord Melchett
Patsy Byrne	...	Nursie
Tom Baker	...	Captain Rum
Simon Jones	...	Sir Walter Raleigh

Trivia:

The little girl who is heard outside chanting insults at Blackadder, is voiced by Miranda Richardson.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: You can see the coat-of-arms backdrop moving behind Queeny during the opening scene. It's supposed to be a solid wall behind her.

Quotes:

[Blackadder shows Baldrick a potato]
Blackadder: I mean, look at this. What is it?
Baldrick: I'm surprised you've forgotten, my lord.
Blackadder: I haven't forgotten; it's a rhetorical question.
Baldrick: No, it's a potato.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Little Britain: Hard-Boiled Egg Eating (#1.3)" (2003)

Potato - another corker for Series 2!

Potato is another great Series 2 episode - Tom Baker appears in this, and his role as Captain Redbeard Rum is absolutely hilarious. The humour is once again strong, Baldrick is once again on stupid form (he is much funnier this way), and there are more endlessly quotable lines to be found in this. From the start to the end - Potato is an absolutely cracking episode.

Yes, the budget is still remarkably cheap for this episode - there should have at least been some fancy visuals on Blackadder's boat. However, Tom Baker's legs were hidden quite well during this episode (he is meant to be a legless captain, after all) and the effects aren't to be snorted at. Blackadder 1 may have had a higher budget than this, but this is Blackadder at its very best - clever, cheap, and cheerful. Potato is the last 10/10 episode of this series - the others are good, but they just can't recapture its heights.

On the whole, Potato is a great Blackadder episode - not to be skipped! 10/10