Do we like them?

Do we like Edmund Blackadder?

A character from Blackadder (1983-1989)

Our score: 6 out of 10. He's a scoundrel with a razor wit. We'd back him against the idiots around him, but we'd keep a hand on our wallets.

Blackadder is a BBC sitcom, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, that ran across four series. Each one drops a different Edmund Blackadder into a new period of British history: medieval, Elizabethan, Regency and the First World War. He is always a clever man stuck beneath his betters, and his dim, grubby servant Baldrick is always with him.

Across the eras his habits stay the same. He is cowardly, greedy and ambitious, and he schemes endlessly to climb the social ladder or at least to stay out of danger. His real weapon is his tongue, which turns insults into an art form. Superiors like Prince George, Queen Elizabeth and the generals are fools, and he tells them so in ways they hardly notice.

We score him a 6. He is no hero, since he's selfish, spiteful and rarely lifts a finger for anyone else. But he's funny, he's usually right, and the people he outwits mostly deserve it. We like him, though we wouldn't lend him money.

The final series, Blackadder Goes Forth, is where he shows his best side. In the trenches he's trying to escape a doomed 'big push', and the series ends on a famously moving note that suggests the cynic had more heart than he let on.