After a genial spirit shows the benevolent Ebenezer Blackadder visions of his unscrupulous ancestors, he resolves to mend his generous ways.

Mr Corbett is a cruel employer to Ben Partridge. One night on New Years Eve Ben is sent out to deliver some medicine. Along the way he wishes his master was dead, little knowing that the man he is delivering to is the Collector of Souls.

Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of the First World War.