Blackadder II is the second series of the sitcom written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired on the BBC over thirty years ago. Set in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) it sees the principal character, Edmund, Lord Blackadder, as a Tudor courtier attempting to win the favour of the Queen whilst being thwarted at every turn by rivals and incompetent friends. In this second series Ben Elton replaced Rowan Atkinson as co-author with Richard Curtis and was particularly keen on the Elizabethan setting as he saw it as “a sexy age that people could relate to”.

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In our production we present three episodes of Blackadder’s attempts to better his position and restore his fortune… only to be de-railed in every case! In ‘Bells’ his marriage plans take an unexpected turn whilst in ‘Beer’ his chance of an inheritance falls foul of a drinking competition. In ‘Chains’ his heroism is short-lived in a fi nal showdown with an evil Prince.

Harlow Theatre Company’s production seeks to pay tribute to this highly acclaimed series without trying to reproduce the television episodes faithfully. An attempt at an impersonation of the original actors would surely not do them justice. Why try to improve on perfection? Rather, we seek to present the originality of the characters in the script and to bring to stage the fun of this ‘mock Tudor’ classic.