Blackadder's Christmas Carol

TV Movie
1988
43m

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

14K

YOUR RATING

Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)

Dark Comedy Comedy History

After a genial spirit shows the benevolent Ebenezer Blackadder visions of his unscrupulous ancestors, he resolves to mend his generous ways.After a genial spirit shows the benevolent Ebenezer Blackadder visions of his unscrupulous ancestors, he resolves to mend his generous ways.After a genial spirit shows the benevolent Ebenezer Blackadder visions of his unscrupulous ancestors, he resolves to mend his generous ways.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

14K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Ebenezer Blackadder is the only incarnation of Blackadder who is not named Edmund.

Goofs
Queen Victoria is depicted wearing her stereotypical black clothing; however, Victoria did not actually begin to dress all in black until after her husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861.

Quotes
Baldrick: Well, it went all right until the shepherds came on. See, we haven't been able to get any real sheep, so we had to stick some wool...
Ebenezer Blackadder: On some other dogs!
Baldrick: Yeah. And the moment Jesus got a whiff of them, he's away! While the angel's singing "peace on earth, good will to mankind," Jesus scampers across and tries to get one of the sheep to give him a piggy-back ride!
Ebenezer Blackadder: Scarcely appropriate behavior for the Son of God, Mister Baldrick! Weren't the children upset?
Baldrick: No, they loved it! They want us to do another one at Easter. They want to see us nail up the dog!

Crazy credits
After the list of the cast and crew at the end of the movie, we see the words "A Merry Messy Kweznuz" scribbled, "Kweznuz" replacing "Kwelfnuve" which is stricken out. As Blackadder correctly had noted this is spelling Christmas without getting a single letter right.

Alternate versions
In some copies, Baldrick's line "Nah, they loved it. They want us to do another one at Easter - they want to see us nail up the dog" (at 3:23) has been cut.

Connections
Featured in The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments (2004)

User reviews38

Review

Featured review

8/10

A wonderful satire of 'A Christmas Carol' and heartwarming Christmas stories in general

A very funny inversion of both 'A Christmas Carol' and the other Blackadder shows. Here, "Ebenezer Blackadder" is as kind and generous as a man can be, the opposite of every Scrooge (and other Black Adder) we've seen. But then he gets a visit from the ghost of the Christmas spirit, who shows him how awful and selfish his various ancestors were.

On the other hand, they don't seem to be taken advantage of quite the way he is...

A spirited, funny, and black satire, with terrific work as usual from the whole group; Rowan Atkinson. Tony Robinson, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Robbie Coltrane, Miriam Margolies and Jim Broadbent. Quite a cast! It doesn't all work, and the very ending is a bit predictable, but there lots of laughs and twisted humor along the way.