Blackadder’s Christmas Carol at 30: how it flipped Charles Dickens’ famous tale on its head Thirty years ago, Blackadder brought us a brilliantly subversive take on the Charles Dickens classic – and it’s still inspired

Many will happily swear that the Muppet Christmas Carol is their favourite festive thing to watch. But if you want a cleverly subversive take on the iconic Dickensian tale rather than a charming one – look no further than Blackadder’s Christmas Carol.

Beholding Michael Caine’s bitter Scrooge melting like Boxing Day snow may bring a tear to the eye. But watching Rowan Atkinson’s mild-mannered Ebenezer Blackadder turn thoroughly nasty over one fateful night is as funny as it gets.

Thirty years ago this Christmas, Blackadder’s creators flipped the famous tale on its head with this sublime one-off special. And it remains an inspired concept.

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From angelic do-gooder – to absolute git

From the moment Ebenezer Blackadder enters his Victorian-era shop yelling “humbug”, only to then kindly offer Baldrick a stripy sweet from a paper bag, it’s clear this is not your usual take on the Charles Dickens classic.

The main protagonist of this Christmas Carol is, at least to begin with, actually “the kindest and loveliest man in all England”. A generous, warm push-over of a business owner, rather than a tight-fisted misanthrope.

So much of a generous push-over in fact, that he is taken advantage of by all and sundry, leaving Baldrick and Blackadder with no gifts, money or food over the festive season. Their shop is simply stripped bare.

That night, however, Blackadder is visited by a jolly, drunken bearded ghost – played brilliantly by Robbie Coltrane (doing all his own ripply-vision sound effects, and over-the-top phantom wails) – who accidentally sets Ebenezer on a much darker path.

By showing him glimpses of his evil, conniving ancestors’ pasts, and of his lineage’s future should he end up acting more like them, the ghost unintentionally induces Ebenezer Blackadder to turn his back on goodwill to all men, and become a scheming, selfish git instead.

The ironic punchline, of course, is that his reversal of personality comes at precisely the wrong moment…

Some classic Blackadder quips and insults from the Christmas episode: “You wouldn’t recognise a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing ‘subtle plans are here again’.” “I want you to go out and buy a turkey so large you’d think its mother had been rogered by an omnibus.” “Unless I’m very much mistaken, you’re the winner of Britain’s ‘Shortest Fattest Dumpiest Woman Competition’. And for her to be accompanied by the winner of this year’s Stupidest Accent Award is really quite overwhelming.” “I’m afraid the only way you’re likely to get a wet kiss at Christmas, or indeed at any other time, is to make a pass at a water closet.” “Mrs Scratchit, Tiny Tom is 15-stone and built like a brick privy. If he eats any more heartily, he’ll turn into a pie shop.”

Blackadder’s past, present and future

There are many reasons why Blackadder’s Christmas Carol is a genuine treat for fans. From the knowingly saccharine lyrics accompanying the opening theme tune, to the usual dry quips at the expense of the period setting (“this high infant mortality rate is a real devil when it comes to staging quality children’s theatre”).

But there’s something genuinely special about the way Richard Curtis and Ben Elton utilise the Christmas Carol structure. It allows for an ensemble of the series’ most beloved regular and guest stars to re-appear, including Atkinson, Coltrane, Tony Robinson, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, the late Patsy Byrne, and Hugh Laurie – not to mention Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent as a certain undercover couple.

It takes in both the Elizabethan antics of Blackadder II and the Regency pratfalls of Blackadder the Third – allowing the cast to reprise their famous roles from those classic series, with all their assorted delights, for what is essentially two new entertaining mini-episodes within the wider story.

But it also, in a brilliant break from historic tradition, hops forward into the distant, intergalactic future in a hilarious segment which operates like a sci-fi version of Queen Elizabeth’s court.

In this far-flung sequence, a robot-like Nursie, typically sneering Melchett and toga-wearing Laurie (sporting what looks like a doughnut on his head) serve as the Queen’s “triple-husbandoid”, while Blackadder and Baldrick are her pair of marauding space pirates.

Following all the delightful Jabberwocky-esque talk of “foul Marmydons”, “the Sheepsqueezers of Splatticon Five” and “a Qvarnbeast’s nobbo”, Blackadder realises that if he turns evil, his descendants will rule the universe.

If he does not, Baldrick’s will – and it’ll be him in the leather posing pouch.

Breaking bad

The highlight, of course, is seeing the previously meek lead character descend into the nasty, acid-tongued anti-hero we all know and love once he awakens from his visitation on Christmas Day.

Blackadder is re-born as the b**tard to beat all b**tards. And it is wonderful.

Watching Ebenezer break bad is a cathartic hoot; as he knocks a gin-soaked street urchin off his bedroom window, gives short shrift to the local Beadle and his obese, carol-singing charges (“utter crap”), and offers Baldrick the Christmas gift of a fist (“it’s for hitting”).

Not content with that, he rudely dismisses his insufferable relatives (“Who, my dear, is the large halibut in the trousers?”), and advises that Tiny Tom’s mother, pleading poverty, “scoop him out and use him as a houseboat”.

Of course, in typical Blackadder style, it ends with the title character undone by his own ‘cunning’ barbed antics after all, as his greatest insults are reserved for the very people he shouldn’t offend.

This leaves us with a wry climax befitting the sitcom, and with a neat, gift-wrapped Christmassy moral to boot.

God bless us, every one!

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol is available to watch on Netflix UK

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