Given the gap between Blackadder and Blackadder II.
I was surprised to see Blackadder the Third return so quickly to the television screens. Just over a year after the broadcast of the second series.
Set in the Regency period. Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is the butler to the foppish and idiotic Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie) who is only slightly more intelligent than Baldrick.
The first episode sees Blackadder trying to rig a by-election. All to stop petulant teenager William Pitt the Younger's plans to stop the government giving money to the Prince.
Unfortunately for Blackadder. He has picked the turnip obsessed Baldrick as the candidate.
Rather topically this episode was broadcast just a few months after the 1987 General Election. So Ben Elton and Richard Curtis get to have a bit more fun with their political jokes especially the ones about corrupt politicians.
Even Vincent Hanna who was then the BBC's by-election correspondent appears at the count. He gets to interview the sole voter in the rotten borough, Mr Blackadder.
The comedy is more subtle this time but again it is very witty and at times with biting satire. It is also more noticeable that Blackadder gets more intelligent and more cunning in each new series.
There has also been some cast changes with Hugh Laurie and Helen Atkinson-Wood having main roles.
Some years later Ben Elton gave an interview where he talked about writing for the series. He mentioned that Rowan Atkinson had the right to veto one joke in each episode of Blackadder on the grounds that his mother would not like it.
He only ever exercised that right once. It was in this episode where he had to wear a robe with fur that was made out of cats. Something about being up to his neck in Mrs Miggins pussy!