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From 1 January 2000, as part of the Dome entry ticket, 50,000 visitors a day will exclusively see the special- ly commissioned time-travel comedy in Skyscape, the live events venue- hosted by Sky TV at the Dome.
Ten years after the last, and much-lamented, BBC TV series, audi- ences will be able to witness the latest incarnation of the infamous Blackadder clan continuously in 70mm (blown from Super 35mm) on 20 metre screens in Skyscape’s twin auditori- ums , each capable of seating 2,500.
Written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis, Blackadder Back And Forth re- unites not only Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson but also other regular cast members, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Tim McInnerney, Miranda Richardson and Patsy Byrne.
“It was very interesting having Richard [Curtis] and Rowan around. They’ve both been on this project since the beginning and are both amazingly successful people. If they’ve got a point, you listen to them. There were no kind of ego problems. They are perfectionists and it’s really good to be around that.
EXPOSURE • 25
TIME FOR BLACKADDER
TIME FOR BLACKADDER
Now it can finally be told... the course of pre-history was changed by Baldrick’s underpants. This startling revelation is just one of the many comic bombshells in Blackadder Back And Forth, the new 35-minute feature film designed for a remarkable futuristic showcase at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich.
Adding guest star glitter are Colin Firth and supermodel Kate Moss.
Shot on Fuji by Tony Pierce- Roberts BSC, the story revolves around a crafty scam by the present- day Lord Blackadder to fleece his New Year’s Eve 1999 party guests of £10,000 each by claiming he can retrieve historical mementos via his new Da Vinci-inspired time machine.
To his and servant Baldrick’s huge surprise, the craft actually works and before they know it the unlikely duo are defying death, swapping insults and altering histo- ry in a series of historic visits to,
variously, the Jurassic age, Sherwood Forest, the court of Elizabeth 1, the Battle of Waterloo and Roman- Occupied Hadrian’s Wall. All this plus a wickedly regal twist in the tale.
Though a self-confessed Blackadder fan, director Paul Weiland had never been involved with the television series. “So I could,” he said, “see the project simply as a job of putting Blackadder on the big screen, not of repeating the situation come- dy.” Weiland, a long-established com- mercials king - “I’ve sold everything from crisps to telephone calls” - has also combined television, notably Mr Bean, with occasional features like City Slickers 2 and Roseanna’s Grave.
“It had to be different from the TV programme which had essentially been a three-waller with a studio
audience. Which of course made this a bit more difficult for Rowan because he always had the benefit of studio feedback. For 35 minutes of British comedy it was a very good budget but in actual film terms it’s not the greatest budget in the world.
“The way they would have nor- mally done this for TV is that they would have rehearsed it all day and then they would have shot it in four hours with seven different cameras. For this we have basically one camera and a three week schedule.
“While the sitcom looks much blander and has just flat light, here we have the tracking and gorgeous light to make it more moody, atmos- pheric and dramatic. With clever art direction, the special effects and the lighting I think we pulled it off. Best of all, I think it leaves the audience wanting more.”
According to creator/co-writer Curtis, who hinted that if there were another Blackadder TV series it would be set in the Sixties, the film is “all an irreverent trek through British history - a time travel adventure story consisting of people who are either rude or stupid.”
But the last word must go to Edmund Blackadder himself, alias Rowan Atkinson: “Bringing Blackadder to the big screen has always been an ambition. I am delighted to be realising it to cele- brate the arrival of the 21st Century but extremely worried at the prospect of travelling through time with Baldrick.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Blackadder Back And Forth
was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos: Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson with Tony Robinson as Baldrick and HRH Miranda Richardson.
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