Last updated 2/24/01

Was shown in the US on PBS during March  2001 (national date of the 6th).
Accompanied by a fascinating  behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of the program,
interviews with the cast, and amusing clips from other Blackadder programs.



So Blackadder got out of the room alive...only to bump into a hairy playwright in need of a hefty hiding.


Scene Six:  Elizabethan Corridor
Blackadder exits into the corridor, rushes round the corner and runs straight into a fellow with a ruff—papers go everywhere.

Blackadder
Oh, I’m so sorry...

Blackadder makes a token effort at helping—picks up a couple of sheets.  The frontispiece says ‘Macbeth’.

I am sorry.  Wait a minute—you’re not...?

Shakespeare
Will Shakespeare, yes.  Don’t say it!  I know—you hated Two Gentlemen of Verona.  This one’s much better.

 
Blackadder
Well, bugger my giddy aunt.  You couldn’t just sign something for me, could you?

Shakespeare
Certainly.

He looks around for a pen. Blackadder produces one from his jacket.

Blackadder
Sorry, it’s just a biro.

Shakespeare, though puzzled by the pen, signs the Macbeth frontispiece.

Thank you.

Blackadder moves away—then has a thought.

Oh, and just one more thing...

Shakespeare
Yes?

Blackadder turns and knocks Shakespeare down with one clean punch. 

Blackadder
This is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next four hundred years.  Have you any idea how much suffering you are going to cause.  Hours spent at school desks trying to find one joke in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?  Years wearing stupid tights in school plays and saying things like ‘What ho, my lord’ and ‘Oh, look, here comes Othello, talking total crap as usual’.  Oh, and...

He kicks Shakespeare, who’s still on the ground.

...that is for Ken Branagh’s endless uncut four-hour version of Hamlet.

Shakespeare
Who’s Ken Branagh?

Blackadder
I’ll tell him you said that.  And I think he’ll be very hurt.

Blackadder leaves.  Shakespeare is devastated.
 

 

Later in our story....

Blackadder and Baldrick escaped for the final time and, due to a cunning plan to do with drowning Baldrick, made it back home.  Tragically, home turned out to have been drastically changed due to their adventures.  So they set off once more, to put everything right.
Scene Twenty:  Elizabethan Corridor


Blackadder
I’m a very big fan, Bill.

Shakespeare
Thank you.

Blackadder
Keep up the good work.  King Lear—very funny.
 

Read a review of Blackadder Back and Forth at the Shadows on the Wall website   Click here

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