Blackadder II

The second series of the Blackadder saga (now one word rather than the original two!) was co-written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, with Rowan Atkinson dropping the writing to concentrate on bringing the devious and slimy Edmund Blackadder to life.

Old faces from series 1 remain - Tim McInnerny (as Lord Percy Percy), and Tony Robinson (Baldrick - now rather stupid and not at all smart: 'what's four beans plus one bean?' 'some beans'). Edmund himself is an oily creep who flirts with the bird-brained Queenie (Miranda Richardson); goes out on the high seas with a mad legless sailor (Tom Baker); and gets tortured by a master of disguise with a bad scar (Hugh Laurie). There's also the splendid Stephen Fry as Lord Melchett, the pompous ass chamberlain who is always at the sharp end of Blackadder's jests.

'Bells', 'Head', 'Money', 'Beer' (where Miriam Margolyes comes back as a scarily religious nut), and 'Chains' (and one other which slips my mind) were all great fun. The second Blackadder was perhaps the most interesting of the whole dynasty, and this series stands up the best of all the four. Great falsetto theme tune too, and lots of the quips we'd come to know and love from Edmund.