Blackadder fans have been busy discussing the “subtlety” of a “cruel joke” in its final episode, as the 35th annivesary of its broadcast approaches.
The BBC show, which starred Rowan Atkinson as the title character protagonist at various periods throughout history, spanned four series – with Blackadder Goes Forth set during World War One airing for the last time in 1989.
The final episode went down in television history as uncharacteristically poignant moment for a comedy that presumed its entire main cast died. Along with Blackadder, characters Baldrick, George and Darling emerge from the trenches and charge into the no man’s land smoke and fog as the end credits play.
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Moments before, Baldrick, who was played by Sir Tony Robinson and famed for his regular line “I have a cunning plan” which never comes to fruition. Now viewers say the dogsbody may in fact have had an idea that could have saved Blackadder from certain doom.
(Image: BBC)
On Reddit, u/King_Dumb explained the theory: “Just before they go over the top Baldrick sees a ladder and says ‘There’s a nasty splinter on that ladder, sir. A bloke could hurt himself on that.’ There’s a slight pause before, ‘I have a plan, sir.’
“Blackadder does his normal sarcastic remark, asking if it is a ‘cunning and subtle one?’, sadly this takes up too much time and so there isn’t the time to hear Baldrick’s last ‘cunning’ plan. We never know what it is, but I have a theory the plan is Baldrick’s best.”
(Image: BBC)
They continued: “The ‘cunning plan’ is for Blackadder to injure himself on the ladder as he goes over the top. This will take Blackadder out of the final push (sort of) and out of the trenches for the time in which he has to recover. I think this is the cunning plan as why mention the ladder with the splinter?
“In a way it’s a cruel joke that over the four series Baldrick finally comes up with an actual cunning and subtle plan, but it is never heard. That Baldrick comes up with a plan so simple, so subtle, that even Blackadder can’t come up with it. That most people (I think at least) don’t notice it.”
(Image: BBC)
After considering the thought, one user agreed it could have been a possibility. “I like it,” they said. “Worth pointing out that Baldrick was actually fairly competent in season 1, and degraded as the show moved on. Hiding genius finally making an appearance?” Another agreed: “It’s an interesting theory. That last episode killed me.”
A third said Blackadder’s death made the show more “real”: “I like the theory a lot but I prefer the actual ending, they wrote. “Nothing hit me as hard as the fade to the poppy field. Before that WW1 was just numbers in a history book. Blackadder dying felt more real the actual pictures of the Somme.”
A fourth however, suggested this was the “obvious” intention of the show’s writers, adding: “How is this a theory? I haven’t watched that in years and I knew it was the plan they made it so obvious.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
