Prince Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) is haunted by the headless ghost of Richard III (Peter Cook) after mistakenly decapitating him in battle
Episode no.
Series 1 Episode 1
Written by
Rowan Atkinson
Richard Curtis
(with additional dialogue from
William Shakespeare)
Original air date
15 June 1983 (1983-06-15)
Guest appearances
Peter Cook, Peter Benson
Episode chronology
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"The Foretelling" is the first episode of the BBC sitcom The Black Adder, the first series of the long-running comedy programme Blackadder. It marks Rowan Atkinson's debut as the character Edmund Blackadder, and is the first appearance of the recurring characters Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and Percy (Tim McInnerny). The comedy actor Peter Cook guest stars as King Richard III.
The Black Adder is a historical comedy set in late Medieval England on the cusp of the Tudor Period, and centres on the eponymous "Black Adder", the pseudonym adopted from this episode onwards by Edmund Plantagenet, Duke of Edinburgh. The premise is that Henry Tudor did not become king in 1485, but instead rewrote history to portray himself as the man who killed Richard III. The show sets out to rectify the situation by telling the "real story" and presents the alternate history of King Richard IV.
The script of this episode contains many lines and situations which borrow from or parody William Shakespeare's plays Richard III and Macbeth.[1][2]
^Hatchuel, Sarah; Vienne-Guerrin, Nathalie, eds. (2005). Shakespeare on screen, Richard III : proceedings of the conference. Mont-Saint-Aignan (Seine-Maritime): Publications de l'Université de Rouen. p. 94. ISBN 9782877753890. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
^"The Foretelling". BBC Comedy. March 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
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