Balls. As anyone who has seen the original pilot will testify, the team were employing these techniques (attributed to Elton) from the very beginning.

The pilot (titled The Black Adder) was made in 1982, a few months after the final series of Not The Nine O'Clock News and a year before the resulting first Black Adder series in June 1983. Produced by Geoff Posner and written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, the pilot has never to this day been broadcast, although it has been widely bootlegged. A Doctor Who convention allegedly once ran a print of it, and Curtis once gave away a copy of the script in a Comic Relief competition. But its existence has gone strangely under-publicised.

The pilot is set in Tudor England, and the action takes place in the same Elizabethan period as Blackadder II. However, 'The King' (John Savident - that ridiculous bloke from Coronation Street) and 'The Queen' (Elspet Gray) are not referred to by name - although The Queen is clearly designed to resemble Elizabeth I - and both play their parts completely straight: the 're-writing of history' angle here being subtly implicit rather than explained with a voice-over.

However, Edmund despises his smug brother Henry (Robert Bathurst), especially since he has delegated to him the job of preparing the entertainments for his mother's birthday. In this, he is assisted by the dim-witted Percy (Tim McInnery) and the calm, wise Baldrick (Philip Fox).

The plot concerns the heroic McAngus (Alex Norton), returning with the spoils of slaughtering Spaniards, who is promptly given land hitherto belonging to Edmund. Edmund is furious, telling McAngus that he's been 'fighting the war against poverty while you were out collecting carpets'. Ignoring Baldrick's 'cunning plan' to blow McAngus' head off with a cannon, Edmund intends to murder McAngus but disguise it as part of a play entitled 'The Death Of The Scotsman'. Just before he can carry out this out, however, McAngus reveals that he has some letters proving that The Queen once slept with his father, pointing to the fact that Henry is illegitimate. After summoning the court and divulging this news, Edmund realises in mid-speech that the letters in actual fact point to his own illegitimacy. Attempting to cover this up, Edmund accuses McAngus of forging the letters, resulting in McAngus challenging Edmund to a duel.

This duel takes place, but is halted as The King pleads for mercy over his son. Edmund then agrees to hand over his land, and apologises on pain of death. Later that day, Edmund blows McAngus' head off with a cannon.

The pilot is a strong one, and is (aside from its makeshift title sequence showing the Blackadder crest and little else) certainly broadcastable as an instalment in its own right. It has a solidity and simplicity which the series lacks - there are no awkward filmed inserts, and the dialogue is neat and lucid. The most obvious difference is in the character of Edmund himself, who - in common with the second, third and fourth series incarnations - has the demeanour of a level-headed outcast in a world full of idiots. His speech very much reflects this, speaking in essentially the same way as the Blackadder II voice. The entire programme is shot in the studio, on video, and in front of a live studio audience.

In common with the first series, it demands of the viewer a certain amount of historical knowledge, or at least the ability to digest history-book information very quickly. It is darker, less silly, and more politically-shaped than the later, lighter, Elton-penned episodes, but it has a playful, buoyant atmosphere to it - it seems diligently script-edited and rehearsed, and is performed with great confidence. There is also the sight of something rare in Blackadder: slapstick; both in the lengthy, Three Stooges-esque 'hanging' scene, and in the superbly-choreographed, and genuinely dangerous-looking, duel sequence.

It is, more to the point, a very controlled piece: Edmund's one-liners may not be side-splitting or stand up to transcription, but the sheer menace and contempt with which Atkinson delivers them ('And tell him to bring a bear this time!') imbues them with a delectable terror. At this time, Atkinson had the presence to say 'I'm going to castrate you' and sound like he meant it.

The Baldrick character, as in the first series, is clearly meant to be a 'Foole' in the Shakespearean sense - a character who is superficially insignificant and trivial, but who is blessed with a strange insight into events. Philip Fox plays the part very badly, but it's interesting that the episode makes extensive use of the phrase 'cunning plan', which was to be employed as a cloying, knowing-wink catchphrase in later series.

'Born To Be King', the second episode of the first series (produced by John Lloyd), broadcast on 22 June 1983, essentially carries a Medieval version of the same plot. Richard XII (Brian Blessed) is out slaughtering Turks, whilst McAngus (still played by Alex Norton) gets his hero's welcome at the same time as Edmund is preparing the celebrations for St Leonard's Day. By now, Edmund has lost his gruff voice and is a simpering ninny with pudding-bowl hair whose power is limited merely to his ineffectual bickering with Percy and Baldrick (now played by Tony Robinson). The episode uses passages of dialogue from the pilot (eg, the 'It's all Greek to me' confusions, and the one-liners like 'I wouldn't pass water over Scotland'), but they simply don't have the same weight. When, in the pilot, he had explained to McAngus that he wanted him to be in his play, the audience had guffawed in exactly the right places ('The play is called 'The Death Of The Scotsman',' he had explained, waiting for exactly the right number of beats before adding: 'You can play the Scotsman...'), but - in the actual episode - the scene doesn't seem to work. The slapstick has gone, and the episode is let down by its sheer awkwardness. The entire show, in common with all six episodes, was pre-recorded and edited before being shown to the audience on monitors: what little dialogue isn't drowned out by Howard Goodall's tinny synthesiser incidental music is made even more inaudible by the distant sound of dubbed chuckling.

Why the pilot has never been released on video (perhaps alongside the Comic Relief special 'The Cavalier Years' and any out-takes which survive) remains a mystery. One can conclude that the first series would have been much better if it had been shot in the same way, and that John Lloyd would have had less of a battle to get Blackadder II commissioned as a result. But while we're on the subject of re-writing history, here's one assertion which is completely incontestable: the way Atkinson in the pilot says 'You stupid bastard' is a million times more frightening, moving, poignant and fantastic than all that embarrassing, over-rated nonsense with a field of poppies.

The Black Adder - Pilot (BBC-TV - Never broadcast) Recorded Sunday 20th june 1982, 50/LLC EOO1R - TC 8 Written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson Cast: Prince Edmund...................................................Rowan Atkinson The King..............................................................John Savident The Queen...............................................................Elspet Gray Prince Henry.......................................................Robert Bathurst Percy....................................................................Tim McInnery Baldrick.....................................................................Philip Fox McAngus..................................................................Alex Norton Rudkin...........................................................Simon Gipps-Kent Jesuit..........................................................Oengus MacNamara Crew: Music.................................................................Howard Goodall Fight Arranger...................................................Malcolm Ranson Senior Cameraman....................................................Pete Ware Vision Mixer.........................................................Angela Wilson Properties Buyer....................................................Tricia Ruddell Visual Effects.........................................John Brace/Simon Taylor VT Editor.......................................................Graham Hutchings Technical Manager....................................................Dave Hare Graphic Designer.................................................Marc Oatmans Costume Designer..................................................Richard Croft Make-Up Artist........................................................Jill Shardlow Production Team.....................Camilla Howard/Hilary Bevan-Jones Lighting...................................................................Peter Winn Sound........................................................Richard Chamberlain Production Manager..............................................Michael Leggo Designers............................................Roger Cann/Philip Lindley Producer...............................................................Geoff Posner

The Black Adder - Episode 2: "Born To Be King" (BBC-TV; broadcast 22/6/83) Written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson Cast: The Lord Of Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles...........Rowan Atkinson Richard XII Of Scotland..........................................Brian Blessed Sir Angus, Duke Of Argyll...........................................Alex Norton Percy, Duke Of Northumberland...............................Tim McInnery Gertrude, Queen of Flanders......................................Elspet Gray Harry, Prince Of Wales..............................................Robert East Baldrick, Bachelor of the Parish of Chigwell..............Tony Robinson Jumping Jew Of Jerusalem....................................Angus Deayton Celia, Countess of Cheltenham.........................Joolia Cappleman Sir Dominique Prique of Stratford.............................Martin Clarke 2nd Wooferoonie.....................................................Martin Soan 3rd Wooferoonie................................................Malcolm Hardee Messenger...............................................................David Runn Crew: Music.................................................................Howard Goodall Graphic Designer.................................................Steve Connelly Properties Buyers.............................Perry Rollinson/Tricia Ruddell Visual Effects.........................................................Chris Lawson Production Assistant...................................................Jan Hallett Assistant Floor Manager..................................Hilary Bevan Jones Film Cameraman...............................................William Dudman Film Recordist....................................................Clive Derbyshire Film Editor.............................................................Mike Jackson Camera Supervisor..................................................Ron Peverall Visuals Manager...............................................Angela Beveridge VT Editor.............................................................Mykola Pawluk Costume Designer........................................Odile Dicks-Mireaux Music Designer....................................................Deanne Turner Technical Manager................................................Peter Granger Lighting................................................................Brian Clemett Sound........................................................Richard Chamberlain Production Manager...........................................Marcus Mortimer Designer....................................................................Chris Hull Director.............................................................Martin Shardlow Producer...................................................................John Lloyd