Blackadder Goes Forth 

Stuck in the middle of World War I, Captain Edmund Blackadder does his best to escape the banality of the war.

Stars:

Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry

Top Rated TV #52 | 3 wins.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Rowan Atkinson	...	Captain Edmund Blackadder 6 episodes, 1989
Tony Robinson	...	Private S Baldrick 6 episodes, 1989
Stephen Fry	...	General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett 6 episodes, 1989
Hugh Laurie	...	Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh 6 episodes, 1989
Tim McInnerny	...	Captain Kevin Darling 6 episodes, 1989

Storyline

It is 1917, and lunatic General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett is leading the British troops at the front lines against the Germans, while everyone waits for Field Marshall Haig's big push. There are various emotions throughout the camp about it. For Captain Kevin Darling, Melchett's bull-dog-like right-hand man, it makes no difference, as it appears he will be safe and sound with the general when the big push occurs. For Lieutenant George Colhurst Saint Barleigh, he is overly excited at thrashing the Germans. For Private S. (probably for Sod-Off) Baldrick, it's a terrifying experience he is not looking forward to. For Captain Edmund Blackadder, however, it's something he's too cowardly too face. Self-centered, arrogant, and sarcastic, Blackadder is always constantly searching for a way out of this silly war, and will try various, often crazy, variations on escape, all of which will take a turn he never expected. Sharing a dugout with George and Baldrick, his main obstacle for ...

---

Plot Keywords:

british comedy | world war one | 20th century | british soldier | sequel | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | War

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 September 1989 (UK)

Also Known As:

Blackadder

Filming Locations:

Colchester Garrison, Colchester, Essex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

175 min 30 min (6 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The writers researched World War I and thought it made a very apt fitting for a comedy: "All the buildup to the First World War was very funny, all the people coming from communities where they'd never bumped into posh people, and all being so gung-ho and optimistic... the first hundred pages of any book about the World War are hilarious, then of course everybody dies." Rowan Atkinson further explained that the trenches of WWI were perfect: "We wanted a place and time that could reproduce to an extent the claustrophobia and sordidness of medieval England, the best way to do that was to set it in the middle of a war."

---

Goofs

Throughout the series, Blackadder and George, both front-line officers in the trenches, are show with their rank insignia displayed on their cuffs, whereas Melchett and Darling, staff officers, are shown with their rank insignia on their shoulders. In reality, this would have been reversed: Cuff insignia was the standard, but front-line officers were allowed to wear theirs on their shoulders to make them less conspicuous to snipers. Shoulder insignia eventually became an army-wide personal option in 1917, and made permanent in 1920 when the cuff insignia was abolished completely.

---

Quotes

Lieutenant George: But this is brave, splendid and noble...
[Blackadder doesn't react - there's a long pause]
Lieutenant George: ...Sir
Captain Blackadder: Yes, Lieutenant.
Lieutenant George: I'm scared, sir
Private Baldrick: I'm scared too, sir
Lieutenant George: I'm the last of the tiddly-winking leapfroggers from the golden summer of 1914. I don't want to die... I'm really not over keen on dying at all, sir.
Captain Blackadder: How are you feeling, Darling?
Captain Darling: Ahm- not all that good, Blackadder. Rather hoped I'd get through the whole show, go back to work at Pratt and Sons, keep wicket for the Croydon Gentlemen, marry Doris. ...
[...]

---

Crazy Credits

The production crew credits at the end are formatted to look like military personnel rolls. Each crew member is listed with a cryptic abbreviation of their job title (as if it were a military rank), a serial number, last name and first initial. For example, production designer Chris Hull is listed as "Dgr. 404371 Hull, C" and makeup designer Caroline Noble is credited as "M/U Dgr. 862641 Noble, C".

---

Connections

References The Grand Knockout Tournament (1987)

---

Soundtracks

British Grenadier
(uncredited)
Traditional
(incorporated in the theme)

User Reviews

WWI comedy series with great lines

While I can think of plenty of WWII comedies, comedies about WWI are few and far between. Okay, there is Chaplin's Shoulder Arms, but then I fail to think of anything - apart from these glorious 6 half-hour long pieces of British Comedy. There are reasons for this scarcity, most notably that hardly anything happened during the war, except that millions of soldiers died in their muddy trenches. Not much room for a comedy writer to get his teeth into, is there?

Well, watch this and you'd be surprised how much one can squeeze out of that setting. The main angle is the absurdity of it all, which our hero, Edmund Blackadder, is fully aware of. Alas, he's the only one and so his cynicisms and sarcasms remain undetected by the other characters. The highlights of the series are thus Blackadder's one-liners (well, often a bit longer than one line).

If you have grown up watching TV comedy US style only then you may find the conclusion of the series rather disturbing.