Goodbyeee (2 Nov. 1989)

Blackadder pretends that he's insane to avoid certain death carrying out the General's order for the "big push".

Writers:

Richard Curtis (by), Ben Elton (by)

Stars:

Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Rowan Atkinson	...	Captain Edmund Blackadder
Tony Robinson	...	Private Baldrick
Stephen Fry	...	General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett
Hugh Laurie	...	Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh
Tim McInnerny	...	Captain Darling
Geoffrey Palmer	...	Field Marshal Haig

Storyline

After years of futile trench warfare, General Melchett gives the order for the "big push": a suicidal charge across the battlefield towards hundreds of German machine guns. Desperate to avoid participating, Captain Blackadder hatches a plan to convince his superiors that he has gone insane and therefore cannot go into combat.

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Plot Keywords:

rain | poncho | faked insanity | punched in the face

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Genres:

Comedy | History | War

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 November 1989 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The ending was filmed on a polystyrene landscape with no rehearsal, and as a result the cast bounced visibly as they fell down dead, ruining the poignancy of the scene. This was rectified by slowing the film down and fading into a post-battle shot of No Man's Land littered with corpses, followed by the final fade into a shot of a poppy field. Tim McInnerny has said that he hadn't known about this change prior to airing, and so he found it particularly emotional.

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Goofs

When Darling gives his "bugger" line toward the end, he's still wearing an overcoat. After a two-second cut to Blackadder's response, we see Darling again, now without the overcoat.

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Quotes

[discussing how the war began]
Private Baldrick: I heard it started when some fella called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cos he was hungry.
Captain Blackadder: I think you mean that it started when the Arch Duke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
Private Baldrick: No, there was definitely an ostrich involved.

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Crazy Credits

This episode has no closing credits, save for the title "Blackadder" (not "Blackadder Goes Forth" and the copyright date, over a field of poppies.

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Connections

Featured in De zomer draait door: Episode #2.22 (2009)

User Reviews

The only time I have cried watching TV

Seriously, the first time I saw the end scene when the battle fades to grey and to the poppies was the only time I have cried watching TV. Because of the show (and Wilfred Owen's) I now have a tattoo on my upper arm with two rows of barbed wire and poppies and the text "Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori".

The greatest 30 mins of TV I have ever seen. Nothing comes close. Seriously. This is a programme that takes on the horror of war - it doesn't give in to punchlines and caricatures and doesn't focus on bloody horror. This is the one episode that should be shown to anyone who thinks that British comedy is shallow and pointless.