Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments

hello and welcome as we raise a glass to the 40 greatest moments from an exceptional sitcom yes indeed Black Adder spanned all the ages with high comedy and low fast quite so but no wonder it's so good just look at the people involved all colossi of British comedy business our eponymous hero is played by Rowan Atkinson people shouldn't be reminded of just how great runners in the show we did this robbery together so you get half the cash oh thank you mr. beat this robbery on the other hand I'm doing alone hand it over your money or your life it featured stars like Stephen Fry the great thing about Black Adder I suppose was that it played with the British idea of being British operation Winkle Winkle and was written by towering talents Richard Curtis and Ben Elton and of course either fantastic the opportunity to write lines for Rowan Atkinson you know was an incredible offer and to work with Richard Hugh Laurie too showed some early signs of international star quality I simply immersed myself in the material um I always get better no I I read out the very splendid words that they'd written for me I mean the moments finally arrived for us to give Harry Harned on British style thrashing six of the best trousers down so here's a cunning plan of the very highest order let's take some time to luxuriate over the 40 very best moments as we relive the wittiest sitcom in history prepare to be amazed the stars of the show were here darling doing darling was a kind of a way of hoping people might forget a little bit about Percy I have a cunning plan I'm dead chuffed to have been in it and of course it transformed my career and my life it's a mark of having arrived in a way to be in Blackadder something I'm very proud of along with a slew of celebrity devotees who share their love for the show [Music] Blackadder is just ridiculous a woman that's what's funny about it there was an awful lot of people thrown through doors people getting punched which literally made me we was laughter [Music] Blackadder spans over 500 years so we'll have memorable moments from some of the most colorful periods and people in British history watch is the fiendish Edmund Blackadder and his hapless sidekick Baldrick endure the slings and arrows of outrageous comedy marvel as they make it through the whimsically hazardous Middle Ages it's a very complicated and curious borrowing for English history that's not really the important thing about the important thing is it's very funny gasp as they grapple with a deliciously capricious Elizabeth the first she's royalty she can have any one she likes and finally shudder as they encounter insanity on the grandest scale in the trenches of the First World War on the best television moments you'll ever see all the moments you'll see tonight was selected by the black hat a family members of the cast or give it 7 11 or 10 members of the crew 9 celebrity fans 10 and real Blackadder's themselves hi I'm Simon Black Adder hi I'm Jackie hi I'm will whackadoo I'm Kevin Black Adder hi I'm AJ Black Adder from Perth Western Australia long winter evenings must just fly yes we really did round up 15 genuine Blackadder's from across the land locked them in a screening room and make them tell us their personal favourite moments what torture my favorite moment definitely from series 2 flash heart and like it mercy firm and fruity and fruity all are asked to choose their favorites and the moments are ranked according to those with the most nominations table giving you 10 I'd rather give it 10 and a half our first moment comes appropriately enough from the very first series it's Medi evil genius at number 40 [Music] it was fantastic having Peter cook in the first series of Black Adder I persuaded peers to come and be Richard the third and I think probably and in that first days we didn't really know what we're doing I think he's here all barking mad at the time his career was in a bit of the doldrums but we all absolutely idolized him and of course Richard the third does of course in Shakespeare shout or horse a horse my kingdom for a horse like had his hiding gander bush the Battle of Bosworth Field keeping out of the way as usual it's having a PE Edmund and then it turns around this guy's pinching his horse [Applause] realize this cut the king's head off with my brother and Trust but his head back on and gives him resuscitation movies arms up and it is absolutely inspired genius the key to Black Adder is his vaulting ambition utter ruthlessness and yet complete incompetence and the scene in which he chops off Richards head is so perfect a demonstration of that that you don't need to know anything else about Black Adder that is him that is the sort of stupid venal and utterly counterproductive thing that only someone like that would do [Music] welcome back to blackout as most cunning moments a compendium of comedy moments from history's favorite sitcom our next moment is equal 39th the first of several times where would black out of be without his trusty sidekick Baldrick a lot better off probably but there'd be a lot fewer laughs I think it's something particularly British about him the British love an underdog I own personal market research leads me to believe that Baldrick is the is the hero I have a cunning plan it wasn't until the second series when Ben Elton joined the writing team that he had this idea why don't we turn Baldrick into the stupidest most brain-dead creature that has existed in the whole course of human history there's a scene where he comes in with a mousetrap on his head Tom and Jerry Tom with Jerry is funniest but I also think you know that he was you know a hero in many respects because he represented the working-classes literally sharing the dubious honor of being equal to Baldrick is everyone's favorite pie maker the lovelorn mrs. Miggins no more sad little London for you bowlers from now on he will stand out in life as an individual well I know all the other slaves will be black buying the bathing costume in 40 gallons of coconut oil are you going abroad then sir yes together we might wait actually took me by surprise that mrs. Miggins you know carry the candle for Black Adder three humans on earth I'd be trying to start a family with boring but I just love the despair and the tortured agony I still received tons of fan mail for mrs. Miggins and it just constantly amazes me the fan base that's out there so much so that I think I'm going to have to start thinking about opening a cake or pie shop in the not so distant future [Music] the joke's on Blackadder in this series two moment featuring his crafty archrival for the royal affection it's none other than Queenie's fawning favorite lord Melchett played with consummate sliminess by Stephen Fry mouch it is tolerated he's not very exciting he's sort of like a Grand Vizier without the wisdom really he's a sort of uncle a part of the Queen liked having people say nice things to her but the other part of her of course realized that Mel tree was just silly old Melchett and was not sexy like back out I didn't make her scream when when he walked into a room she never never delivered a single line the way we expected her to deliver them never once and they were always better you know this insane character that she produced obviously flattered the script enormous Lee I mean a script was quite funny but without her insane Queenie you know it's obviously it couldn't possibly have been anything like as good Queen is an absolute amateur and she's always had her way and she's greedy and rapacious and threatening on everything Dame flora robson Betty Davis Glenda Jackson Helen Mirren Kate Kate blanch ants judi dench have all played Queen Elizabeth the first none of them played her as well there's miranda Richardson there is that you know that element of you know comeuppance where you delight in the person being brought down to earth and the look on his face when he realizes that he's being had is somewhere between I want to kiss you and I want to kill you and it's just a beautiful moment [Music] the Prince Regent thinks that the Duke of Wellington is after him and he has this plan where he's going to swap places with Blackadder he's been gonna come the bots were implacable become the Prince Regent there's no alternative so we must swap clothes fantastic yes dressing up I love it story The Prince and the pauper and the porpoise and the pauper he was just gorgeously a stupid I loved your highness your highness because it shows in a very neat way class distinction unfortunately sir you do realize that I shall have to treat you like a certain oh I think I can cope with that thank you and you'll have to get used to calling me your highness your highness your highness your highness no just your highness your highness that's what I said your highness your highness your highness your highness yes this is leave us without having complicated stuff obviously when Hugh plays stupid there is nothing behind the eyes so you know why we took I think we took Percy you hadn't been clever and and scooped out the final teaspoon full of brains and had presented Hugh Laurie he can do this extraordinary thing in which his eyes just take on a slight film of stupidity and you know that no phrase you can utter no truth you can express how AM no matter how simply done can penetrate that film is just closed to people you know well have exchanged coats and now you don't know which is which I'm pretty confused myself it still makes me giggle now thinking about it because it was just clever see that the king Goblin see no zeros this goblin sweet yes Edmund start singing the song about a little goblin they get distracted on any other day Edmund would have been scheming he'd have been doing it because he's you know had a drink all he wanted this thing about the goblin about this [Applause] to continue and perhaps finish with any luck Black Adder drunk singing an appalling little song and who should appear from under Miranda's skirts then Miriam huckabee's with a hat and there is a play on words at the end which you may not be able to show before the watershed [Laughter] and Miriam margulies is back as the Queen herself in the Black Adder Christmas Carol Queen Victoria that is oh yes you are you naughty jab and sausage that's always an absolute treat to work with on and off camera I mean she's a complete delight you're busy ruling India you don't tell me what you are doing Jim Broadbent doing a very very good German accent so vital I tell you what I am doing when I am busy wrapping up discussion for your surprise Christmas presents but he is a brilliant comic artist and that has gone on he's you know he's one of our he's sort of stupid but he's doing it because he adores her and he's so excited about the idea of surprising hairnets it's just adorable which I'm going to give you tomorrow I had no memory of filming it or having seen it and it came as a complete surprise and it did strike me and I know don't laugh very readily at my own performances but it did actually make me laugh [Music] you know what would cheer you up well that's a Charlie Chaplin film oh I love all scheppers don't you cap unfortunately now I don't not really allowed to say that Charlie Chaplin's not funny are you because he's a great comedy classic I find his films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and then discovering there's a gas bill funny is an arrow through the neck yeah well that's clean up very funny with the gas bill attached now that's good right White's consult men for a casting vote I'll wait Baldrick sir Charlie Chaplin Baldrick what do you make of him Oh sir he's as funny as a vegetable that's grown into a rude and amusing shape sir so you agree with me not at all funny when he kicked that fellow in the backside I thought I'd die that's your idea of comedy we can provide our own without expending a hey Tony for the Prevention one of the things I love about series four is that strangely I think Baldrick gained meaning you know he'd just been a fool and the but the whole way through but there was a remarkable thing I had think happened right at the end of that series when he did suddenly seem to represent the working man a kind of innocent who due to the stupidity of everybody above him is going to die I think that that was that was rather unexpected in the same way that in a funny way George also represented you know the tragedy of posh people thrown to war like Rudyard Kipling's son Chaplin is a genius he said he's a genius George he invented a way of getting paid a million dollars a year for wearing a pair of stupid trousers did you find that funny bordick well funny sir [Music] welcome lads well this is the stuff a Christmas sherry and Shiraz with honest manly fellows I mean Bourbons like what can I do with a girl that I can't do with you hey I cannot conceive ratio here but he's out of it I'm afraid so it's a little monkey fellow first is it it is indeed excellent oh sure odds he's the clown he is just then he's trying to to placing Oh wouldn't it be fun yes this is great fun good manly fellows all playing together and he just cannot get this right it's a book well done mr. B I didn't think you'd get it out you know it was an absolutely perfect triangle really that Blackadder has a a as a master and a as a servant and that he's stuck in between this and a cretinous triangle yes another great Christmas tradition explaining the rules eight times to the thicky twins the round started yet Baldrick and George are pretty much the same character by different mothers I think one of them had a royal mother the other one I don't know some kind of pig beast it's got to be a specific book for instance if it was the Bible then I'd go like that to indicate that there are two syllables in it and two what two syllables - silly Bulls Bible like to remember fatted calf but as I recall it was quite a sensible animal fire is it dumb Noah's Ark with the two pigs two ants and two syllables syllables what look we're getting confused let's start again shall we no let's not whole games getting a bit silly to be honest Christmas story instead no what a good idea said Blackadder himself a deeply frustrated man at a lower-middle-class very brilliant but in a world of Britain never really going to get very far cleverer or in his opinion cleverer than the people who by birth have done better than him you know some real honesty I think in the performances which is is sa the key to great comedy [Music] welcome back to Blackadder's most cunning moments chosen by the cast crew famous fans and 15 actual Blackadder's yes they really do exist my favorite line from Black Adder is when Black Adder comes down the stairs and Baldrick says good morning mr. B and black ADA says Baldrick if I'd wanted to talk to a vegetable I would have bought one at the market I thought was very funny when Baldrick decides to make coffee out of him out of meds and he's been one of the things that made Black Adder so superb was the amount of research that went in both to the props and to the costumes there were an awful lot of extraordinary codpieces around [Music] it was just wonderful to see this curly penis brilliantly made by costume Department waddling on the front of Rouen the contradiction of a weed was a whopper you've got this fantastic sound effect that you know should have been in a Benny Hill sketch what happens in the second series is suddenly the dialogue gets all very crisp and punchy and you've got tremendous silliness but actually it's all held together by very dignified very strong performances even at Rouen as this incredibly cool guy and Percy is this ludicrous twit Percy who had a very very fine wardrobe all the way through and it's when he comes in with a new ruff but he says is the talk of the court it's very rough there were real absurd fashions at the time where things were taken to huge extremes so it's not so outlandish an idea makes me look rather sexy to another plate swallowing bird if it was blind and hadn't had it in months tim mcenany's the only actor in britain who can take off pull off that sounds quite rude rough he can pull off a rough that big that sounds terrible but you know with his physicality and you know he does look like a bird I remember Richard Curtis once saying that tim has the mind and the voice of Laurence Olivier but he has the face and the neck of an ostrich cuts in red beard rum who's Tom Beck who's absolutely magnificent gets will then long gone beard shot he's my favorite doctor here so I'm working within it was a fabulous week it's one of my favorite weeks some black other tricks to splinter banks to puddleby and save a ship Baker's appearance is an absolute joy to behold that voice booming through big enough now Mylene might be anyone who pays attention to her in a slightly flirtatious or sexy way she crumbles with delight I think she thinks he's quite extraordinary even he's legless with no legs and a beard you can lose a badger in I'm willing to be captain of your ship forever when she got overexcited about things you know she would throw she throws her hands to her face in in a really obscure but childlike way which is perfect for that moment [Laughter] [Music] Mildred the cat of course is funny because much of the secretive Blackadder is built upon the idea of hierarchy is just funny that noise it's just funny [Music] what's he ever done to you it is the way of the world bordick the abused or was kicked downwards I'm annoyed and so I kick the cat the cat pounces on the mouse I think Baldrick puts up with all the physical and mental torture that he receives from Blackadder because he thinks that's the way of the world he suffers pain and he accepts it because that's what people do to people like Baldrick he doesn't notice it most of the time it takes a very long time for pain to get from any part of his body up to his brain and by the time it gets there it's tires and doesn't really register very much nothing you are last in God's great chain and that's of course as an earwig around here that you'd like to victimize finally we discover there's somebody even if in lower than Baldrick and now steel yourselves ladies it's Lord flash heart he blasted on the screen in series two that makes this surprise return in an appropriate trenchcoat in series for the sheer opposite nature of his character from Rowan's both in the narrative terms and as performers made it a fabulous contrast two of the most talented comic performers of their day facing off against each other to wipe it on his mess sorry about the poem you fellows trod in a bottom can't get rid of whiff it was very boise sort of stuff but i think a lot of women like myself loved it too dispense with the hilarious doggy doo metaphor for a moment not a Bosch this is a British trench is it sausage side the imperturbable debonair suave at a of Rowan's character God would be his response to this enormous shut up by him from from Rick that I'm missing 500 girls will kill themselves my conscience does everything that black Anna wants to be he's a hero he's brave he's stylish and that of course is my black and I hates him so much yeah I dumped the kite on the proles so send a car general melt it's driver should do she hangs around with a big knob such abuse for a fella like me I was working with Rick very closely at the time on The Young Ones and further itching cap slap and you know it was written very specifically with him in mind and I thought it was quite brilliant do you think you can make your obscene phone call somewhere else and in another fine performance his Hugh Laurie acting the perfect fool as the Prince Regent a dim bulb indeed I'm a gay bachelor Blackadder I'm Aurora Aurora a Gorger and a puker Hughes Prince Regent I think perhaps you know should be celebrated more I mean a truly brilliant performance of a foppish Regency idiot right so what's the plan well I thought I could take her a short-lived expressing your honorable intentions yes yes oh I think so too alright then we'll take this down from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to miss Amy hardwood Prince Regent played by Hugh Laurie so fantastically well was totally inept at wooing and trying to write a love letter Tallyho my fine saucy young trop naughty knight attire and you'll be staring at my bedroom ceiling from now til Christmas yeah lucky tart Ben and Richard had written spatter fantastic jokes are some great opportunities to shout and pull faces which is sort of what I do or what I did at the time I've moved on since then oh yes I've grown woof-woof that utter thickness was something that was fun to put Blackadder against and different from Miranda's you know sort of dangerous Charla tschn as' and he was so good as a performer in that there were bits and I once said to him and rehearsal Hugh you're you're a genius what I don't say well you're not a famous Hollywood star and he is now well what do you think it's very moving do you mind if I change just one tiny aspect of it which one the words Hugh Laurie's utterly brilliant but utterly historically an accurate portrayal of the Prince Regent is it's fantastic but I mean it's ridiculous the Prince Regent was 49 he became precision and had a 50 inch waist Hugh Laurie is very young and very thin strangely the only thing they do have in common the things that they really picked up on is the Prince Regent was almost definitely he was also unbelievably profligate just make sure she knows I'm all man with a bit of animal throat in think of that Haggard figure in house and you think is it really the same guy but of course he's just a terrific actor with a natural flair for comedy and now here's Hugh again playing another Prince who might also be a little over bred the evil Ludwig from series 2 forgive me a head like Adam I have been neglecting my duties as a host when he reveals himself and you see this you Laurie you get quite excited please accept my apologies Rowan is inside a torture machine with the spikes point outwards which must be the softest torture machine in the world this mad German with as ever with you he managed to find a voice which is you know very unexpected it's very much like a parody a very funny parody of that the sort of Bond villain you know strapped bond and he's gonna say yes I expect you to die miss and then this is sort of ludicrous kind of arch bit of dialogue between if he had inconvenienced me you would not have a tongue with which to make such an offer so you have not yet up an offer you would not only have a tongue with which to tell me that if I had I would no longer have a time with which to offer you you stop the puritanical aren't is there having dinner and black had a very nervous about upsetting her but he's been getting totally out of it and playing silly games bladder arise with the the one of these stag party or slapstick boobs sorry he's sick leprosy at the brain well he is trying to tell you is that you appear to be wearing a pair of devil's dumplings it's the only time I've ever seen someone do a double-take downwards where he notices this pair of breasts and then oh yes they really are breasts there's no doubt in my mind that rowan is a comic genius cause God's Way of telling us to burn more Catholics which reminds me I'm team don't call me auntie to the relatives and relatives are evidence of sex and sex is hardly a fitting subject for the dinner table or indeed anything simple at the table in a brothel there is something so absurd about somebody walking around with a pair of false boobs on their head that if you can't if you can't see the joke something wrong with you welcome back to our catwalk of cunning moments with an early celebration of French fashion and Parisian chic this was way back before Dior and Chanel had made their mark obviously if we artists have a chance of survival in France we shall have to dress as the smelliest lowlife - magical yes what sort of thing well sir let me show you our Paris collection with matching dunwall accessible thereby crazy Meg of Bethlehem to have Baldrick's Wang in sashing his way into the room as a model of haha it's at a fashion show was just a lovely idea notice how the overpowering aroma of rotting pilchards has been woven cunningly into the ensemble borac when did you last change your trousers I have never changed my trousers thank you what does that say about the citizens of this country that they would take Baldrick to their heart he's not only stupid he's incontinent you see the ancient Greek sir wrote in legend of a terrible container in which all the evils of the world were trapped how prophetic they were all they got wrong with the name they called it Pandora's box when of course they meant Baldrick Strauss come on George with 50,000 men getting killed a week who's going to miss a pigeon you shot my speckled Jim melchid in series four was a very different character to the one in into he was much much more aggressive much more insane much more powerful I called my first witness General Sir Anthony sessile Hogmanay magic the episode where Melchett presides over a court of laws a brilliant parody of Britishness because we like to believe that we were sort of play by the rules of the game and it was all very gentlemanly and everyone had a right to a decent trial but actually it's just clearly as arbitrary as any kind of mad despotism is and so there's a court with lawyers and things but it's just a rigged trial it's a joke general did you own a lovely plump special a pigeon called speckled Jim would you hand reared from a chick and which was your only childhood friend and did Captain Bligh kerachut the aforementioned pigeon yes he did [Applause] Oh doh well can't be helped I enjoyed this for turning on a sixpence emotionally things that melt she did no hesitation in announcing that the sentence of this Court is that you'll get the lip and black area be taken from this place and suffer death by shooting tomorrow at dawn do you have anything to say yes could I have an alarm call as far as I recall it was Stephen who came up with the name darling which i think is one of the truly great black out of jokes what you want darling doing darling was a kind of a way of hoping people might forget a little bit about Percy yes now that was a that was a fruitful contribution one of the very few from Stephen Fry he was genuinely a waste of space we actually had a vote just before the technical crew came in and said look is this darling joke and run very dry and is it going to seem really embarrassing after the third episode or is it will it sustain and Tim so no no please let me keep it darling I intend to start interviewing suspects immediately darling is being completely unfairly interrogated and tortured by Black Adder and as often with Black Adder it's extremely silly he's tied up in this ridiculous sort of comedy wrote with a potty on his head you can't suspect me I've only just arrived the first rule of counterespionage darling is to suspect everyone believe me I shall be asking myself some pretty searching questions later on tell me what is the color of the queen of England's favorite hat you can see that the relationship between them was very very strained had always been strange and I think part of the thing that we worked on in that was that black had a didn't like darling darling was this this horrible little spotty oyk who had managed to avoid being in the trenches what is the name of the German head of state Kaiser bill helm obviously say on first-name terms with a Kaiser are you besides darling darling cigarette he plays good cop for a second I'll black out and he gives darling a cigarette pops in his mouth lights it darling has a few puffs there's an amazing bit of comic timing and have black had a bat sit out of his mouth plays bad cop again all right you stinking please tell me darling what was it finally when he overate was it the pumpernickel or was it the thought of hanging around with big men in leather shorts rebenga General's orders that may be what you're doing Munich or should I say Lucien C hunt spy on you Bob Eric the cocker spaniel please just a marvelous moment for us to have revenge on this pencil-pushing cowardly idiot and he doesn't imbiah wonderful at trees he knew how to play someone who all his life had been called darling in a sarcastic way and he had that look in his eye well thank you darling the twitch stayed with me for months actually it was a really it was really difficult I mean I had to actually get quite scared that it was never gonna go and that I'd have to start writing my own spin-offs because I wouldn't be able to get rid of the twitch and I'd never get another job black had is expecting the white others who are some puritanical relations and there's some sort of inheritance or legacy involves who has to impress them they arrive with these crosses for a Jew as I am to be covered in crosses it was a complex experience it's probably a few Pope's watching that going so she not a bad idea you didn't tell me you had such a good looking at Miriam is is wonderful in that role and then when she starts tapping people which is completely absurd as if you'd be so religious that you go around stopping people there's just so many Belarus but gives his cheeks a pounding every time at Tim mcenany arms his mouth he gets a good slap I think she would probably say that there's no way of really faking it but it really hurt actually in rehearsal Bruin got a bit fed up with it and that actually it was very funny he said you know would it be all right please marry him if you didn't just do it quite so hard one of my all-time favorite episodes and people remember it people come up to me and quilt bits of bits of the text which is delightful in our next moment Black Adder is distressed and confused to find himself lusting after his manservant Bob [Music] but is Bob really that sort of boy [Laughter] that's something very frisky about everything to do with Bob and something so hilarious of about a proud character like black out of making such a bad mistake Bob run won't mind me saying that he has in real life a slight and entirely erotic Lee splendid stutter or stammer never know quite which is which and particularly on the letter B which makes him saying words like Bob very funny I've known other people who can do a better rose but his bees beginning and ending bees something very important to say to you and I want you to listen very carefully yes Brian look gorgeous in the black a dirty I think the little goatee beard thing and the costume was yeah very very dashing he looked terribly dashing I want you to leave my service and become my living I'm interested in the contents of your tights my lord if you knew what I kept it's one of you played by Gabby Gloucester and the awkwardness of Black Adder dealing with this young boy he's there he's just glorious prepare to be amazed oh no you haven't got one of those birthmark shaped like a banana or to saying get it here you then get this bizarre musical sort of trill which which over scores her showing of her bosoms Oh like that to go even cumbersome and you can't believe it but it absolutely works Bob stuff about them cuz you would have just you'd was mean cast me aside like you have so many women before would I now you've had a chance to grew to love me for what I really am yes that's true and now I want to marry you [Music] our next moment features one of TV's great comedy duo's in a characteristically over-the-top moment it was great having a dead Mundson on the other half of bottom to play flesh hearts Oppo in the in the Royal Flying Corps episode they were seen in those days reckon ages from was different was a different generation or a different class cuz it'll graduate human really but they were alternative whereas whereas our slot worm were more mainstream or not mainstream but from a tradition of you know footlights the Oxbridge humour I suppose one can't deny it which which they were not from so - for them to be involved as well as it was particular pleasure adjusted together in the clouds through glory of the skies face to face at last so we've seen in many films or the way we imagined those kind of those war aces were the kind of the Red Baron versus whoever we could offer Biggles or something like that and they respect each other at any other time they may even be friends you know if it weren't for this this blasted war my dreams some of the first of all pilots did regard themselves as these Knights again nice little joke about the historical record there they've an IV to encapsulate the unspoken nobility of a comradeship - then just get a bullet and wad up off and they off they go I think it's one of the one of the great moments my final scene with Steven before going to the frontline was brilliant I mean it is it is very funny but it's awful this is the Commission for the front lines this will let you get to the front line immediately you know Tim's a very very fine actor and so Steven and just that idea of definitely condemning a man to death and not him not being able to object was you know moving there are few things in that final episode that feel very apt I know but I'm too old darling darlings desperation and agony makes it sadly Eve even funnier nigut and it is a very very funny scene and it's so it's heartbreaking at the same time you're not listening sir I'm begging you please brilliant believable performance even though it's completely silly with Melchett wearing his ludicrous moustache grooming thing that they used to wear when they went to bed for the sake of all the times I've helped you with your Dicky bows and your Dickey bladder milk really isn't listening and really doesn't understand seem to understand that she's sent him off to pretty much certain death yeah they make you go through the farewell Dee bagging ceremony in the mess now I'm spared you that to you touching this sentimental young booby and he represents the absolute insanity of the war I mean without being too pompous about like that it does I think illustrate perfectly the the nature of that grotesque war the the genuine insanity if you like of the way the war was practiced which for all however it may being justifiable to us is now clear it was a moment of madness in human history that one would never want to repeat again so it's one of you concentrates some on that madness into a single being look no fuss no bother the driver is already here no no not a word Kevin I know what you want to say I know and it was all so beautifully short I mean long shadows and high camera angles and was brilliantly short which added to the whole drama of it goodbye Kevin darling I think it's a very special piece of comedy welcome back to our cunning countdown as selected by the Black Adder family including actual modern-day living and breathing Blackadder's a couple of weeks ago walking into a bank and pretty much the guy took my details laughed and they all everyone in the bank started seeing the fainting pretty embarrassing Blackadder refuses to be embarrassed next as he digs himself out of a hole with astonishment Xterra tea [Music] the monk who'd been having a hard drinking game we black out a next dog comes in and he is totally out of it and he does everything you really wouldn't expect a monk to do then I came to explain what he meant by great blows up it's a good 20 seconds what he says nothing but actually you can see his mind working you can see in its comic genius where he's going like and he does he threw it when second thing goes it's a gun yes I can he manages to worm his way out of this situation through his share of verbal verbal gymnastics and kind of amazing dry articulate wit my friend is a missionary and on his last visit abroad brought back with him the chief of a famous tribe his name is great boo he's been suffering from sleeping sickness and he is obviously just woken because as you heard great boos [Music] Blackadder is one of the few sitcoms that addresses the great matters of state religion politics war and peace but it's not afraid to plunder the vegetable patch for a few extra laughs [Laughter] [Music] surprise we surprised I love it when people get giggles and they were sniggering and tittering because they had found a turnip shaped like a thingy I can remember Ben Elton who in many ways the extraordinary talented guy bouncing up to me and saying I've got a great idea Tony Baldrick loves turnips minimum bribe level 130 I said to him what is so funny about turnips and he said well you know this shape they like like that might go to point B and I said Ben that's parsnips he said whatever it's really funny believe me it was terrific no guarantee of quality morning most horses are very well-endowed but that does not necessarily make them sensitive level remove this hilarious items than a thingy shaped got a thingy that shaped like a turning the children so he's actually got a turnip shaped penis takes a while to find that funny right boorish let's try again shall we this is called adding if I have two beans and then I add two more beans what do I have some beans this scene marks the big turning point for Baldrick up until then he'd been the cheapest of the triumvirate of percy Blackadder and Baldrick he was the one who genuinely did have at least some idea how they might get out of their scrapes but now we come to the beans and the realization that Borak can't even count two beans then i add two more beans what does that make a very small casserole and the fact that bordered never looks very looks up at him you don't get your nice you know tails of your head he just keeps looking at the beans hoping that they are the ones that will furnish him with the answer so if I add that one to the three what will I have Oh some beans yes do you bother if the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people wasn't it it was just a very clever example of Blackadder and the black had a humor because it was just taking something tiny and making it very funny Baldrick's back and he's making a cuppa sadly supplies a running thin time to improvise by the time we get to series 4 Baldrick has no brain at all Bullock fix us some coffee William and try to make it taste slightly less like mother this time no easy on the fried captain why is this who see he's mad right now coffee 13 months ago so every time I've drunk your coffee since I have in fact been drinking hot mud sugar in the original scripts the only line was about the fact that the coffee was made out of mud and then somebody says well why don't you have sugar which of course makes all the difference well I would do if we had any sugar but unfortunately we ran out New Year's Eve 1915 since when I've been using sugar substitute which is Bandra coming up with quiet what each vile ingredient was it's always lovely in comedy when you set yourself a challenge okay so we've got some coffee so what's the coffee what's the froth I could add some milk this time well saliva Thank You boric call me mr. picky but I think [Music] this is a fantastic scene because it is a perfect demonstration of the futility of human endeavor it's just a moment when the humor just comes together perfectly and they get that winning formula of black hat is being incredibly rude to hit all the people around him that are just stupid they're playing with alchemy they think they've created gold and it's obviously not it's a bunch of idiots I don't want to be pedantic or anything but the color of gold is gold that's why it's called Oh what you have discovered if it has a name is some green what's perfectly useless thing to create in my mortal hand Percy was so thrilled to have created this this thing well yes splat today but tomorrow who knows or dares to dream so we three alone in all the world can create the finest Greaves at will yes sir not sure that can be imported that's right of course you know what your great discovery means thank you guys perhaps my thumbs that you Lord Arryn we could actually probably have made a fortune by creating lots of bits of green and selling them to the public maybe I could still do that now I'd like to see the Spaniard who could make his way past me or go to Spain there are millions of them I'm secrecy touch me kill me you shall never know we're very much in love my lord this is Lee Jane yes bury me in a y-shaped coffin Harrington and it's a lovely image I mean a y-shaped coffin is just a fantastic image bangs like a privy door when the plagues in tone yeah the plagues in tone as if it just comes no and again in his timing in it is priceless it's the combination of the visual and the timing and the words it's just you know all of those coming together beautiful beautiful still on a romantic theme Blackadder shows his true colors in this hilarious moment of pillow talk with miranda Richardson reincarnated as Mary Queen he would have locked his head off do you have someone special in your life well yes as a matter of fact I do me there's absolutely no temptation here that they're going to fall into a real romantic thing that Blackadder's selfishness and thinking of himself he's really gonna come first no matter what no I mean someone you love and cherish and want to keep safe from all the horror and the heart still me really I've obviously done the dirty deed and he's still completely emotionally absent and self-involved then maybe I don't know maybe he's slightly wistful I've always been a soldier married to the army the book of kings regulations is my mistress possibly with her Harrods laundry catalogue discreetly tucked between the people and no casual girlfriends skirt if only when I joined up we were still fighting colonial wars if you saw someone in a skirt you shot him and nicked his country I just think that's that you're wonderfully simplistic and yet funny view of the expansion of the British Empire have you got a man some fine fellow in an English country village and Vicar maybe quiet gentle hung like a baboon care for a little wonderful chap strong athletic what happened him he bought it I'm so sorry I didn't realize that was the arrangement 12 nights let's say a nine afternoons I would a couple of morning I mean he died there's a sort of underlying bit of sadness about it which I think was it goes all the way through the final series because of the circumstances in the era and the timing of it and the resonance of those scenes and how they would they would actually have been you know and relationships are always quite you know potentially quite fleeting it's a taste of our British spunk a girl wouldn't have written that line but secretly girls find that funny you shouldn't find it funny but and in fact that it comment I shouldn't say this but it comes out of his mouth no one is more anxious to advance than I am but until they get these communication problems sorted out I'm afraid we're stuck cap and blackout of speaking now I'm afraid the lines very hello hello captain Brackett uh hello snake snake upper cop on that particular sequence Blackadder and darling on the phone that was quite a fun one to do in front of the audience I said there's a terrible line at my end your to advance on the enemy and once he does this one [Music] [Laughter] [Music] well as far as I can tell the message was he's got a terrible lion up his end so there's an advantage to an enemy at once the idea that someone in an office can ring you up on the front and say go to your death I think it's pretty understandable if McKenna shouldn't warmth the character of darling in these circumstances I didn't think I would either [Music] welcome back to our celebration of magnificent Blackadder moments we are well into the top 10 now so although we've had treats of plenty already I can safely predict that the moments are in all likelihood going to get even more superb [Music] Miriam margulies plays a Spanish princess who's perhaps more lusty than lovely go well you can't have it all the main thing about the Spanish inventor is that she's hideously ugly and I could have felt a bit peeved at being cast in this role because although fact I am charming and pleasant looking my favorite bit from black arrow one without exception and there were some very good bits to choose from was Jim and Miriam's Spanish interpreter interpreter saying well is a nice to talk about a lady's being he was slightly camps in to be fall into place from how it is written and the fact that and famous line and dies just have a little talk just about the lady's things now I'm a specialist in accents and I'm not quite sure I'm not quite sure what accent Jim was employing it doesn't matter i believe in los hombres english so tell me mrs. Queen about English man I've never worked out why it's so perfect but I think it's that he missed stresses every single word it's just a sort of astonishing technical feat to get the rhythms of the English language so completely wrong now Edmund what's he like now what's he like in bed it's his child like delighted saying him and the words I conveyed in bade well in bed he likes hot milk was just no no no no no no what is he can he translates to oh she thinks cuz he shags like a rabbit she got everything wrong because she's thinking of sex all the time but she's complete them for mania actor on him the level of a dinosaur she would accept any twerp onto her bosom she's that planner lady the interpreter is one of the greatest comic moments on television all right so what do we do now she's not do my war poem how hurt would you be if I gave the honest answer which is no I'd rather French kiss a skunk so would i sir he's like a kid at school um you know parents they just stood onstage reciting his poem that he saw proud of to see been parody the notion of the war poem into one word which is just the sound of the damn guns going off I thought was a piece of brilliance the boom-boom-boom song was I did watch that recently with my kids and they loved it I thought it was a bit grim actually but there you go I mean nicely performed how could Baldrick write a poem that had any more than one syllable in it it's just impossible anything else would be um would be cheating the audience think I'm on of him in judging a poetry competition at my son's school and one of the boys they were doing you know Rudyard Kipling and Roger McGough and lots of other serious long poems and then one of the boys stood up and said this poem is called war by s Baldrick and just said boo ten times I felt very proud I didn't realize that it contributed to English culture in that way or me or Ben or there was wedding going on black hallouwe was gonna marry Bob and suddenly into the scene came this big huge character just full of Paul's really a sports is no other way to describe it [Music] he explodes the ways dress is just super like hose are it's amazing whatever he's wearing what wig the audience kind of gasps he's got such braggadocio and he just picks him up and throws the door gives me so we dare hang on to if you look at the scene you will see that everyone's standing around on that set looking completely amazed at what's the force of nature that's just arrived can't stand the pace of the because Rick was so noisy so determined that every single line he said should be the funniest and the loudest that it could possibly be that Rowan just gently stepped back during those weeks and did his homework in private while we indulged Rick's magnificent firework personality and then ray would step forward once flash hearted back at all the Queen of England just melts you look sexy but listen wear your hair long I prefer it that way your life is made better for a moment and a flash is there nothing no see obviously fans are damn rotten I like it Furman fruity am i pleased to see you or did I just put a canoe in my pocket [Applause] hot red-blooded male isn't his alpha male where is this amazing bird the one who stopped my old pal Eddie doing exactly whatever he wants ten times a night my fiancee Kate she's got a tongue like an electric eel and she likes the taste of her man's tonsil flash art I think I think we'd all like to be just a little bit [Music] in the episode in which Blackadder attempts to demonstrate his insanity by using the word wibble all that it is it is preposterous ly funny this is a large crisis crisis requires a large plan get me two pencils and a pair of Underpants this is no trick I picked up in the Sudan you tell HQ that I've gone insane and I will be invited back to Blighty before you can say Rouen is a big one for the plosive peas and bees are very I can't begin to do why did I even tried to do Rouen doing it I just like the word Whipple wiggle wiggle wiggle Whipple's gormless idiots on the poor coolness idiots urn I've never been invited back to Blighty yes Rory but you never said simple questions right what is your name rabble what is 2+2 oh where do you live London hey a small village on Mars just outside the capital city all men present correct sir ready for the off a I'm afraid not leftenant I'm just off to Hartlepool to buy some exploding trousers but do you run barking mad yes I have jibber jabber my old man's a mushroom as ever this tremendous irony that he is in the maddest craziest situation you could possibly be in and yet he's trying to prove his madness to get out of it [Music] Stephen Fry comes on as always steals the show and plays Wellington in the final episode the thing they get very right about that is his nose they perfectly craft this nose looks exactly like the Zhu Quentin his nickname was nosey because had a huge nose and made a best man win I mean but the other thing that is so great I think his stephen's wig he looks so completely Georgian so like how I imagined the Duke of Wellington would have looked that it's completely plausible quite frightening when he when he gets a bit of a shout on kind of big booming but you know just for no reason he has to talk extremely loudly because he is Wellington the skill is not in the person punching or throwing the slab it's always in the person receiving it anyone can do that or that it's the timing of you out and he was an absolute genius at being hit I remember him hit him arriving to do this the the the violent stuff the slapstick stuff with some trepidation because I've done things system before physical things he is punk you know where he's had to act punching me and he's acting well how can I put it he's punched me basically he's just punched me it's the force which he comes towards it and smashes that table is so unexpected does it just it works perfectly it's one of those jokes that you just go Stephen Fry obviously loved the ideas is a great comic idea that the upper classes are just not only unbearably rude to the lower classes but they've hit them physically all day one of the joys of Blackadder was that every so often robbie coltrane would join us when Robbie Coltrane is dr. Johnson in a truly brilliant performance I celebrated last night the encyclopedic implementation of my premeditated orchestration of demotic Anglo Saxon didn't catch any of that there was a certain truth to it beyond the magnificent comedy plus the script at the time that they gave him was brilliant it is witty it is elegant and they play it to the hilt felicitous since during the course of the penultimate cellar sojourn I terminated my uninterrupted categorization of the vocabulary of our post Norman tacky what you're talking about what it sounds damn sorcerer you the doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy because he has finished his book it is apparently it taken him ten years yes well I'm a slow reader myself [Laughter] it's a great example of Blackadder at its best which is that it mean it pricks pomposity this book set contains every word in our beloved language every single one every single word sack hello well that case sir I hope you were not objective but I also offer the doctor my most enthusiastic contra fibularis it is a common word down our way it is very much sort of public school boy undergraduate humor isn't it it's all about words I'm Ana's peptic Fran's mattock even compunction to have caused you such Perique in population the smugness and the enjoyment with which Blackadder is just ruining Samuel Johnson's life and this is a man who spent 10 years writing his dictionary and Blackledge it takes enormous pleasure in just knocking him down I'm not having a single word oh god I cannot resist coming up with things to confound him just his ability to snip something that we don't like to have the bravery today I would oh honey I'd boasted damned if I was there again I would do this I'd say there's an and he does it he has the bomb oh I shall return interestingly [Music] welcome back to the climactic part of Blackadder's most cunning moments and now our second most marvellous moment not long to go now darling go bait sir your bloody gullet we speak at cross-purposes and it's rather touching because I I'm rehearsing my lines of love to Georgina and he takes them as personally and you sort of know that he rather likes taking them as personally it's all very weird very British but highly enjoyable particularly beautiful creature in this tonight wherever Steven goes he travels with a small packet of du Blanc tandra in his wallet which he can whip out at a moment's notice I know exactly what I'll say to her darling such a simple joke but it is it is irresistible and it works over and over again tell me what you think I want to make you happy darling I want to build a nest for your ten tiny toes I want to cover every inch of your gorgeous body and pepper and then sneeze all over your that realization on his face and then him actually considering H think that's not well actually I could probably live with that so doesn't have to go to the front I mean the nest bits fine but the pepper business is definitely out oh yeah you tell me how I may or may not treat my beloved Georgina so Tina yes I'm working on what I want to say to her this evening oh yes of course I think it's a fantastic piece of writing and it was great fun to do and very very difficult to do honestly darling you really are the most graceless dim-witted bumpkin I ever met I don't think you should say that you think being called darling 40 times an hour by your boss would be quite nice really you get done for sexual harassment suppose [Music] and now here we are the number one black at a moment and one of the most popular scenes in TV history face a machine gun without this the last episode of the fourth series of Black Adder as many people have often said is an extraordinary piece of television of writing and acting as it starts off very jolly and silly and is a bit of a scam and gradually gets more and more serious and sad and actually quite scary and ends for that extraordinary scene it's become inevitable and you can't believe that these people who are completely personal to you they're like family in this situation listen our guns have stopped you don't think maybe the war's over maybe it's peace ohhara the big knobs have got around the table and yanked the iron out of the fire thank God we lived through it the Great War 1914 to 1917 each of the little lines that come before they go over the top has a particular point to do with defeatism and optimism and then the final twist when he says it's the end of the war that's 1917 and you know that that that's not right I'm afraid the guns have stopped because we're about to attack not even our generals are mad enough to show their own men they think it's far more sporting let the Germans do it going over this is as they say it the resignation the sadness the wisdom and the bravery I'm afraid so unless I can think of something very quickly well there's a nasty splinter on that land a syrup local hurt himself on there I have a plan sur le boric a cunning and subtle one yes sir as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University I'm praying it'll have to wait there's this abrupt stop the jokes finished whatever it was I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad I mean who would have noticed another madman around here clearly the atmosphere of the last episode was deliberately thought-provoking I mean the whole idea you have to be mad to be in it so you're not gonna get out by being mad and I hope that the tone was set not just by the script but by the fantastic performances good luck everyone reality comes in and reality is standing there waiting to go over the top and the whistle blowing and the words good luck and you know that luck had nothing to do with it and the music that sort of pop piano feeling at the right the end from how good or Bertha was absolutely chilling it's tremendously moving always brings a tear to the eye and fantastic fitting end to a great series and that perhaps is the brilliance of Blackadder the reason it stands head and shoulders above the rest it was always prepared to push the boundaries and redefine what a sitcom could be it brought home the madness of history in a way that mostly made us laugh but wasn't afraid to make us cry Thank You Black Adder people often ask me if I'm proud of black hat or proud of doing it or proud of producing it and what I'm really proud of is this amazing sense of teamwork I think I just feel lucky you know you do your best that you can in your twenties to try and do the thing that you think it's funniest and it's a fluke and a miracle if it turns out that the one that you wrote has lasted the great news is that everybody involved in it I think is still friends I mean very much so we're eternally bound together you know by that experience every year we meet under the clock at Paddington Station tend to fall or wearing the tie we got a time ain't in there nice go away love Black Adder check out gold this January on Sky one's head and Virge immediate one to six is black out of features on their Magnificent Seven it starts Monday tenth at 9:00 back to tonight's and here on Dave Fawlty Towers reopened gets the lowdown on the comedy classic Nick [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Justin McGaw

Views: 1,700,590

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Id: sF9IKy1114s

Length: 91min 34sec (5494 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020