Why I love Black Adder

Black Adder was a really old show by Rowan Atkinson, more commonly known for his role as "Mr. Bean". I watched this show during my secondary school days. It has a total of four series and two movies, all happening in different eras. I've placed a few dialogues that I've found that are quite interesting.

Dialogue between Blackadder and Baldrick

An indication of their relationship, from Blackadder II:

begin of dialogue...


KATE
The word is that your servant is the worst servant in London.

BLACKADDER (master)
Mmmmm. That's true. Baldrick, you're fired. Be out of the house in ten minutes.

...

BLACKADDER
Sorry, Baldrick. Any reason you're still here?

BALDRICK (servant)
I've got nowhere to go, my lord.

BLACKADDER
Oh, surely you'll be allowed to starve to death in one of the royal parks?

BALDRICK
I've been in your service since I was two and a half, my lord.

BLACKADDER
Well, that must be why I'm so utterly sick of the sight of you.

...end of dialogue


Baldrick played the role as the comic relief and as I had said earlier on, the 4 series of Black Adder revolved around different eras. What I will post below is the character development of the character Baldrick.

Baldrick - Series 1

The medieval Baldrick was probobly the only Badrick of the four who could really be desribed as clever. Baldrick, an ex-dung shoveller (a respected position, which he had had to work very hard to get-earlier jobs include milking pigs and mucking out lepers), first met Prince Edmund at the feast before the Battle of Bosworth Field. The two, along with Lord Percy, toasted their new friendship, unbeknownst that from that point onwards, their decendants lives would be eternaly entwined.

Although cleverer than the Prince, Baldrick held him in some sort of awe, and often ended up doing his dirty work. This included carrying the decapitated body of Richard III and sleeping with the Spanish Infanta, Edmund's fiance, so that Edmund didn't have to. The latter task resulted in several injuries, including a seriously blackened eye.

It was this Baldrick who suggested the title 'The Black Adder' for Prince Edmund, which his decendants later adopted as a surname.


Baldrick - series 2

The Elizabethan Baldrick, rather than being a friend, is the servant and bondsman to Lord Blackadder, who mistreats him, and, Baldrick claims, at first tried to kill him. He has a bedroom in Blackadder's house, but has also been forced to sleep in the gutter and on the roof. He has a tendancy to eat dung.

This Baldrick, whilst perhaps not as dim as his descendants, is much stupider than the original. Whilst his 'cunning plans' do sometimes have a strange, twisted and often perverse logic and cunning to them (one suggestion was that Blackadder repay his debts by making money as a male prostitute, another is to disguise a 'mad, wild, killer bull' as a rooster and entering it in a cock fight), he does show an entertaining display of stupidity. In one episode, Blackadder attempts to teach Baldrick how to add. Baldrick's conclusions, which include 'two beans plus two beans equals some beans', 'two beans plus two beans equals three beans... and that one' and 'two beans plus two beans equals a very small cassarole', leads Blackadder to comment 'to you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it.'

It was also in this series that the fist signs of Baldricks love of turnips was shown, in the episode 'Beer', where he and Percy famously discover a turnip shaped like a 'thingy'. Baldrick later describes the incident as 'triffic'.

Baldrick once went on an 'all mouse diet' by hanging a piece of cheese off of the end of his nose and lying with his mouth open, hoping that mice would scurry in. He later tried the same thing, with a mouse on the end of his nose to catch a cat, for variety.

Baldrick was also brides maid at Lord Blackadder's wedding, Queenie kept him as a pet calling him Lassie (Baldrick didn't complain) and he stuck two pencils up his nose, so that he could attended a Royal fancy dress party as a pencil case.


S. Baldrick - Series 3

The Baldrick of Regency Britain works as a dogsbody to Mr. E. Blackadder esq., butler to Prince George. He lives in a pipe in the upstairs water closet of the Palace.

The third Baldrick is much more noticeably stupid and disgusting than those previous to him. He is also more childlike. There is not the slightest sign of 'cunning' in any of his plans, which include escaping the guillotine by waiting until your head has been cut off, then 'springing into action' and running 'around and around the farmyard, and out the farmyard gate', in the style of a chicken, and replacing the burnt first copy of the dictionary by taking the string, which has been salvaged, and putting some in new pages (Blackadder clarifies that Baldrick is suggesting that he re-write the entire dictionary in a single night). Blackadder also claims that Baldrick has never changed his trousers, and implores him never to do so, for they are, Blackadder claims, akin to Pandora's Box.

However, dispite his noticable disabilities, this Baldrick had more success than any of the others. In an election rigged by Blackadder, he was elected MP for Dunny-on-the-Wold -a rotten borough- (although he was intended to be a puppet for Blackadder to manipulate). He was later made a Lord by Prince George, and was, therefore, eligable to sit in the House of Lords (altough whether or not he ever did so is another matter). He also succeded where no Baldrick has succeeded before of since, in calling Blackadder a 'big nosed, rubber faced, bastard'.

Baldrick used the money he recieved as a Lord to buy his dream turnip. Blackadder later destroyed it.

Baldrick isn't given any sort of first name until the third series, when he speculates that it might be "Sod Off", since his childhood friends would say "Sod Off Baldrick". A diplomatic Blackadder opts to record him as "S. Baldrick". This name appears to have been adopted by his decendants.


Private S. Baldrick - Series 4

Private Baldrick is a soldier in a First World War trench, serving under Captain Blackadder and Lieutenant George. His hero is Lord Flashheart.

Equally as disgusting as the third Baldrick, Private Baldrick is, without a doubt, the stupidest of the Baldrick dynasty to date. His 'cunning plans' verge on those of an insane person. Examples include carving his name on a bullet, in relation to the old saying 'a bullet with your name on it', his explanation being that if he owns the bullet, it won't ever kill him as he won't ever shoot himself ('shame' comments Captain Blackadder), and the chances of there being two bullets with 'Baldrick' carved into them are 'very small indeed'.

Private Baldrick's hobbies include cookery (specialities include 'Rat-O-Van'-a rat that's been hit by a van, fillet mignons in sauce bearnaise-dog turds covered in glue, plum duff-a mole hill decorated in rabbit droppings, cream custard-cat's vomit and coffee which consists of hot mud, spit, dandruff and rather dubious 'chocolate sprinkles') and poetry. Baldrick's greatest poem is, without a doubt, 'The German Guns'. The words are:

Boom, Boom, Boom,
Boom, Boom, Boom,
Boom, Boom, Boom,
Boom, Boom, Boom.

Baldrick was particularly surprised when Captain Blackadder guessed the final line. He also does a fantastic Charlie Chaplin impression (although some believe it to be a slug balancing act).

However, despite his stupidity, Private Baldrick (however inadvertantly) delivers the most profound speech of the lot. In preperation for 'the final push', tension is high, and Baldrick demands "Why can't we just stop sir? Why can't we jusy say 'no more killing, let's all go home'? Why can't we pack it in? Why?". Neither Captain Blackadder nor Lieutenant George are able to come up with a good answer.

It is believed that Private S. Baldrick was killed going 'over the top'in 1917.