@General Lighting 983631 wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjFB1FZdKU8
neither of the snakes are actually black adders; they are non venomous tame snakes of different species (perhaps more common in the USA but sometimes kept as pets in Britain) – two of different sizes are used in the title sequence; it also mocks the events of that era occuring with Christianity, the Reformation and the start of the Church of England (the gloved hand is also a medieval symbol of God, in this case trying to discipline the serpent and not doing particularly well)
black adders do exist (when I lived in SE England I saw one in the woods near to where we had a rave and the Environment Ministry profs confirmed the sighting) – but they are rare and EU red listed so the BBC would have got trouble for hauling one into a TV studio (other than special ones used at Bristol for nature programmes) and Rowan Atkinson was by then powerful enough to refuse to do anything that would have risked getting him bit – (in typical British fashion animal safeguarding in the entertaintment industry was enforced before that of young people, children and junior staff)
Black Adder as it is called in the UK is light brown with a dark brown patterning. I see north american black adders rarely on occasion, the USA variety comes in lots of colors; the subspecies where I live looks a good bit like a black snake because of coloration and both are non poisonous; gets called a rat snake but . I should be better at snake ID than I am considering where I live. Probably half dozen varieties of snakes near me in outdoors and only one of those are poisonous and common although sometimes rarer species will have lost their way and will be found outside their normal range (for example I’ve seen what I thought was a timber rattlesnake in an area where it isn’t recognized). If I’m unsure I leave the fucker alone, if its a copperhead I kill it if I have a shovel or something handy and it is in a habited area because they’re poisonous and seem to have a disposition towards biting whereas most varieties of snakes will give you some sort of warning or retreat as their first move.
There are eastern coral snakes 200km or so from where I live which is an incredibly deadly variety.
Some fellow was playing with his 3m king cobra near me and got bitten. His 911 tape is funny, goes something like this: “hey i just got bit by a king cobra, I’m driving myself to the hospital. my vision is going blurry and I’m sweating like crazy.” They found him on the side of the road in the grass next to his car but he sounded calm through the whole ordeal and lived.
