Top 10 Blackadder Moments That Aged Like Wine

#10: The Young Crone

The second series kicks off with “Bells,” which does a remarkable job of establishing the Tudor setting. Edmund ends up falling head over heels for his new servant Kate, who is disguised as a man. This confuses Blackadder so much that he decides to head to the wise woman for assistance. Along the way, he meets the Young Crone, who is essentially her receptionist. She easily gets on Blackadder’s nerves, written as a satirisation of overly dramatic tour guides and entertainers, who care more about creating an atmosphere rather than telling you what you need to know.

#9: Blackadder's Escape Kit

“Corporal Punishment” is the second episode of the final series, which sees Edmund nearly executed by the jolliest firing squad in history. Thankfully, Baldrick has a plan as cunning as ever, which involves giving him this comically pathetic escape kit. We feel this moment hits harder now than it used to, on account of how common random products like this have become. Now, you don’t even know what a lot of these kits even contain, with things like monthly loot boxes becoming relatively popular. Many of these kits feel about as useful to us as the escape kit felt for Blackadder, plus it can often be cheaper to buy the products individually.

#8: Sean's Survival

The conclusion to the first series is spectacular, with Edmund finally becoming king, but only for a few seconds before poisoning himself. The poison in question ends up killing basically the entire court, on account of Percy poisoning the entire wine batch. The wine takes everyone’s lives almost immediately, except for Sean the Irishman, a daggerman who is considered one of England’s most evil men. He manages to miraculously survive, a joke about Irish people having exceptionally high substance tolerances. Despite this, he foolishly opts to take a second sip, which this time proves fatal.

#7: The Scarlet Pimpernel

Sometimes, trends and fads can completely perplex us, with people becoming suddenly obsessed with random things for no clear reason. The series 3 episode “Nob and Nobility” sees Blackadder experience this, with him becoming bemused by his peers’ sudden obsession with France. This also includes the vigilante and celebrity, the Scarlet Pimpernel, who feels like the Regency equivalent of a modern-day influencer. The Pimpernel turns out to be 2 men, and despite their reputation, they’re pretty dim-witted. Both of them end up drinking poison with virtually no hesitation, leading to two of the most sidesplitting deaths in comedy history.

#6: Macbeth & Actors

The Scottish King is the main character of The Scottish Play, which is what superstitious actors call Macbeth to avoid bad luck. This is because of a variety of historical tragedies that involved the play. For instance, Chris Rock was slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars only a few minutes after Denzel Washington said “Macbeth.” In the episode “Sense and Senility,” we see Edmund make a mockery of this superstition, constantly saying the play's name just to see the actor’s ridiculous reactions. Not only is the Macbeth bit gold, but the entire episode’s commentary on actors feels just as relevant today as it was at release.

#5: The Dictionary

Samuel Johnson famously published a dictionary in 1755, which became one of the English language’s most significant historical documents. In “Blackadder the Third”, we see Baldrick take this dictionary, then quickly lose it. To save face, Blackadder rewrites it, alongside making up a plethora of nonsense words. It still feels relevant today, with people online constantly coming up with new phrases and words that often appear nonsensical. Sadly, decades later, none of Edmund’s words have entered the mainstream. A highlight of this episode has to be Robbie Coltrane, who does a brilliant job playing Samuel Johnson.

#4: Seventeen Square Feet

The fourth series might be simultaneously the funniest and saddest 6 episodes of television. It features constant jokes about the horrors of war, like this comical one-to-one scale map. The high command uses it to show off the pitiful amount of land they’ve captured. While it’s a direct satirisation of World War 1 tactics, it feels like still relevant commentary on how wars are conducted. Thousands died for those seventeen square feet, and the high command doesn’t seem phased by the tragedy of the situation. While we’ll never have another war fought the same way World War 1 was, it’s still completely relevant. For example, in 2025, Russia lost almost half a million soldiers to capture approximately 1% of Ukrainian territory.

#3: Sir Bob Massingbird

Lawyers can often be so talented they can get their clients to walk free, despite people believing they had tons of evidence stacked against them. This aspect of our legal system is hilariously satirised in the series 4 episode where Captain Edmund is nearly given a court-martial. He hopes to land Bob Massingbird as his lawyer, a man famous for getting a murderer freed, despite 13 people seeing him do the deed, and him admitting to it. It’s been almost 4 decades since it was written, but it still feels like a relevant satirisation on the British legal system favoring the wealthy and powerful.

#2: Baldrick Becomes an MP

Series 3 kicks off with a super memorable episode, where Blackadder manages to successfully land Baldrick a job as a member of parliament. It’s a brilliant satirisation of UK politics, which feels even more relevant today than it did at release. Sadly for Blackadder, his scheme fails as Baldrick is too stupid to remember what he was told to do. In the end, Baldrick gets a substantial bribe to vote against Edmund’s wishes. He spends the entire thing on a comically large turnip, which feels inspired by the parliamentary expenses scandal, except it couldn’t have been, as that happened over 20 years later.

#1: Going Over the Top

Calling this one of the greatest endings in TV history might be the least contentious thing you can say about “Blackadder”. It captivated us when it released, and decades later, it’s just as poignant. It’s likely to forever remain relevant, unless humans give up war entirely. Few pieces of media can have you crying tears of laughter one moment, to tears of sorrow the next. The final episode does exactly that, and we feel the standout way in which it manages this improves the moment with time. Few endings can compare to it, and the ones that can are few and far between.

What “Blackadder” moment do you think has become better with age, and did we mention it today? Let us know in the comments below!