Potato

Sir Walter Raleigh is in town and everyone has gone sea-faring mad.

This is another excellent episode with a funny story, tremendous amount of razor-sharp banter and hilarious performances.

The plot presents Edmond in full swagger when jealous of Queen Elizabeth's whimsical fancy for Raleigh. In true alpha-male style he wants to get one over on famous sailor by achieving something he has yet to pull off. Then comes a bit of adventure on the high seas which is nowhere near as dangerous as trying to amuse her majesty.

It is a wonderfully written episode with fantastic banter, cynicism and some great satire of royal courtiers, patriotism, conformity and explorers.

Rowan Atkinson, Tim McInnery, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry, Tom Baker, Miranda Richardson and Patsy Byrne are all on top form.

For me it is a 9.5/10, but I like to round upwards.

This is a great episode. I won't give it away but something really funny happened at the end

In 1986 Tom Baker made over the the top appearances in two television series. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and Blackadder II.

In Potato, Baker plays the Captain Rum the only sailor mad enough to venture round the Cape of Good Hope.

All because explorers are flavour of the month since Walter Raleigh returned from New World, bringing the potato and stories of adventure.

Blackadder plans to go one better as the Cape of Good Hope is regarded as extremely hazardous. Blackadder does not have the sea legs then again neither has Captain Rum.

They only scheme to sail to France, wait a bit and then head back to port only Rum cannot even find France and they are lost for months.

It's a mad and loud performance from Baker as the fat bottomed loving sailor who everyone reminds him of having some part of a woman's anatomy.

At least they bring gifts for the Queen's court. A stick that comes back and bottles of fine wines which smells familiar exclaims Melchett. Another gloriously rude and funny episode.

Simon Jones guest stars as Raleigh but he should had played the part in a dressing gown.

Blackadder is not impressed by the return of the famous explorer 'Sir Walter Raleigh,' he's even shown up in the Queen's Court. Not to be outdone by the arrogant Sir Walter, Blackadder plans a trip to the deadly Cape of Good hope, a treacherous and deadly journey, Queenie is suitably impressed. Edmund enlists Captain Redbeard Rum, the only Captain crazy enough to attempt the journey, as well as Baldrick and Lord Percy. When they return they gift Queenie... A boomerang.

'Ma'am isn't that a little rash,' 'well it wouldn't be your first little rash would it?' haha.

'You have a woman's purse m'Lord, I'll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing boat, I'll wager it's never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it.' I don't think it can get any funnier.

Potato has me in fits of laughter every time, it's possibly the most surreal episode of the series, but it is crammed full of laughs, the humour is a little more trashy and outlandish, but it is hilarious.

I am a little biased as I'm an enormous fan of Tom Baker, but his performance is just glorious, he is such a funny man, the mix of his natural eccentricity and the wonderful script was only ever going to equal one thing, brilliance. His lines of 'you have a woman's......etc etc were perfection.

If I was stuck on a desert Island I'd want this to watch. 10/10

Potato is another great Series 2 episode - Tom Baker appears in this, and his role as Captain Redbeard Rum is absolutely hilarious. The humour is once again strong, Baldrick is once again on stupid form (he is much funnier this way), and there are more endlessly quotable lines to be found in this. From the start to the end - Potato is an absolutely cracking episode.

Yes, the budget is still remarkably cheap for this episode - there should have at least been some fancy visuals on Blackadder's boat. However, Tom Baker's legs were hidden quite well during this episode (he is meant to be a legless captain, after all) and the effects aren't to be snorted at. Blackadder 1 may have had a higher budget than this, but this is Blackadder at its very best - clever, cheap, and cheerful. Potato is the last 10/10 episode of this series - the others are good, but they just can't recapture its heights.

On the whole, Potato is a great Blackadder episode - not to be skipped! 10/10