by Hal Erickson
synopsis
British comic actor Patrick Barlow was virtually the whole show in the satirical BBC2 series The True Adventures of Christopher Columbus. In addition to playing the title character, Barlow also wrote and directed the bulk of the four episodes. Paying only lip service to "historical fact," the series offered not only a send-up of Western colonization, but also a litany of practically every ethnic stereotype and movie cliché known to man (not unlike its spiritual predecessor Blackadder). Telecast from July 28 to 31, 1992, The True Adventures of Christopher Columbus was offered in one 30-minute episode, one 25-minute installment, and two 20-minute sketches.
