Mrs Miggins

Mrs. Miggins
Helen Atkinson-Wood as Mrs. Miggins (right)
First appearance	Bells (Mentioned) Dish and Dishonesty (Appeared)
Last appearance	Duel and Duality (Appeared) Goodbyeee (Mentioned)
Portrayed by	Helen Atkinson-Wood
Information
Occupation	Shopkeeper Cook
Nationality	English

Mrs. Miggins is a fictional character in the British sitcom Blackadder,^[1] playing a supporting role in Blackadder the Third. She is played by Helen Atkinson-Wood.^[2]

Character Development

In Blackadder II Mrs. Miggins is often referred to but never actually appears. She is well known and is possibly the Queen’s cook. She also owns a pie shop. She is a good friend of Blackadder’s and seems to hate Sir Walter Raleigh just like him. Although she never appears, a character in the episode "Head" called Mrs. Ploppy shares many of her characteristics. Mrs. Ploppy works in the jail and cooks the prisoners their last meal, sausages. Like Mrs. Miggins, she can only cook one meal and cooks it badly.

In the third series, Mrs. Miggins plays a major role and appears in all episodes. She now owns a coffee shop that Blackadder visits regularly.^[3] Despite this he hates it and describes it as “Brown grit and hot water”. She is an unintelligent, jolly old woman and a replacement for Nursie from the second series. She is a widow and has a crush on Blackadder, but in the final episode she ends up marrying his cousin MacAdder. She often visits the palace to deliver groceries, although she never actually comes face to face with the Prince until the final episode, when the Prince is disguised as Blackadder. She then reminds him of poems her and Blackadder made up about the Prince. Due to the marriage between MacAdder, it can be confirmed that the Mrs. Miggins descendants are part of the Blackadder family. Later the Mrs. Miggins descendants have become songwriters. In the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, Mrs. Miggins the songwriter is mentioned. She is said to have written a song named “Whoops, Mrs. Miggins!” She is finally mentioned in Blackadder: Back and Forth as Edmund Blackadder III’s cook.

Blackadder II

In Blackadder II Mrs. Miggins is an unseen character and is mentioned in three episodes. She owns a pie shop and is possibly the Queen’s cook.

In "Bells" she is mentioned when Percy asks Kate to go out with him to her pie shop. To which she answers “Get lost, creep.” In "Money", she is mentioned at the end when Lord Blackadder decides to have a party at her pie shop. In "Potato", she is mentioned when Percy tells Blackadder that everyone is going to honour Sir Walter Raleigh. Blackadder says “Don’t exaggerate! I’m not going, Mrs. Miggins from the pie shop isn’t going..." Percy tells him that she is honouring him in her own special way by baking a pie in the shape of an enormous pie. After he says this, Blackadder mutters, “What a great imagination that woman has!”

Blackadder the Third

In Blackadder the Third Mrs. Miggins actually appears. She now owns a coffee shop, selling (among other foodstuffs) a liquid Blackadder describes as “Brown grit in hot water”. In "Dish and Dishonesty" she is seen talking to Blackadder about the election and says she think it is unfair that she is not allowed to vote, he says “Of course it’s not fair and damn good thing too. If you gave someone like Baldrick the right to vote it would be back to living in caves and dung for dinner." In "Nob and Nobility", Blackadder and Baldrick go to her coffee shop to find a French aristocrat. They find Le Comte de Fru Fru who is in fact Lord Topper (Scarlet Pimpernel) in disguise. In "Sense and Senility", Blackadder and Baldrick go to her coffee shop to meet two actors. In "Ink and Incapability", Blackadder and Baldrick visit her coffee shop to see Dr. Samuel Johnson. When they get there, they not only find Johnson but three poets. The poets tell them they are dying, but Mrs. Miggins tells them not to worry, they’re not really dying. In "Amy and Amiability", she a she appears visiting the palace, devastated that Blackadder is leaving. She says she they would get married and live together forever. In "Duel and Duality" she appears twice. She first appears visiting the palace and meets the Prince, disguised as Blackadder. She thinks it really is Blackadder, however, and then reminds him of rude poems her and Blackadder made up about the Prince Regent. She next appears when Blackadder visits her coffee shop to see his Scottish cousin MacAdder, who refuses to help him and then proposes to Mrs. Miggins. She accepts and they both run away together and have two children named Jamie and Angus.

Blackadder Goes Forth

In Blackadder Goes Forth she is only mentioned once; In "Goodbyeee", she is said to be a songwriter and wrote a song named “Whoops, Mrs. Miggins, You're Sitting On My Artichokes!”

Specials

Back and Forth

In Blackadder: Back and Forth she is Edmund Blackadder III’s cook but is unable to attend his millennium party, so Baldrick cooks in her place.

Mrs. Miggins Dynasty

• Mrs. Miggins (Pie Shopkeeper)
• Mrs. Miggins (Coffee Shopkeeper)
• Jamie
• Angus
• Mrs. Miggins (Songwriter)
• Mrs. Miggins (CooK)

References

1. ^ Paul Evans (freelance writer) (March 28, 2008). "Enamoured of Carla Bruni?". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/best-of-the-politics/2008/03/france-sarko-french-pretty. Retrieved 2011-04-11. "As Mrs Miggins said of the fleeing French aristos in Blackadder the Third: “ooh la la and an éclair for both of us!”" 
2. ^ Michael Klossner (2002), The Europe of 1500-1815 on film and television, p. 44 
3. ^ David Brandon (2008), Life in a Seventeenth-Century Coffee Shop, "Most of us would have seen the hilarious depiction of Mrs Miggins' coffee shop in "Blackadder", but what was it really like in the first cafes, as coffee drinking became more popular?" 

External links

• BBC-Comedy-Blackadder the Third
• Blackadder Hall Blog » Blog Archive » A trip to Mrs Miggins' pie shop
• HELEN ATKINSON-WOOD Mrs Miggins - Black Adder KYTV Tales from the...
• Mrs. Miggins IMDB