Blackadder Episode
Plan F: Goodbyeee
Insane Blackadder
...a cunning show...
Air date	02/11/1989
Writer(s)	Ben Elton Richard Curtis
Director	R. Boden
Guest star(s)	Geoffrey Palmer
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Goodbyeee... is the title of the final episode of both the fourth series of the popular BBC One television sitcom Blackadder (as Blackadder Goes Forth), and the final episode of Blackadder regularly produced and transmitted. It became immensely popular and well-regarded with both critical and mass audiences owing to its sensitive and moving depiction of the final hours of the main characters before a final charge on the Western Front of World War I. Benjamin Charles Elton (born May 3, 1959) is an English comedian and writer. ... Richard Curtis in London, 1999 Richard Curtis (born November 8, 1956), is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, best known for the TV programs Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley and the movies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. ... Geoffrey Palmer, OBE (born in London, England on June 4, 1927) is a British comedy actor, noted mostly for his extensive career in situation comedies. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... now. ... Combatants Belgium, British Empire, France, United States, other Western Allies of WWI Germany Commanders No unified command until 1918, then General Ferdinand Foch Kaiser Wilhelm II Casualties ~4,800,000 Unknown though considerably higher Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German army opened the Western... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Italy Russia United States Serbia Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Nicholas II Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Conrad von Hötzendorf İsmail Enver Ferdinand I Casualties...

Summary

Millions have died but the troops have advanced no further than an asthmatic ant with a large pile of shopping. Now, at last, the big push looms... Asthma is a disease of the respiratory system in which the airways constrict, become inflamed, and are lined with excessive amounts of mucus and semen, often in response to one or more triggers, such as exposure to an environmental stimulant (or allergen), cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. ... Subfamilies Aenictinae Aenictogitoninae Aneuretinae Apomyrminae Cerapachyinae Dolichoderinae Dorylinae Ecitoninae Formicinae Leptanillinae Leptanilloidinae Myrmeciinae Myrmicinae Nothomyrmeciinae Ponerinae Pseudomyrmecinae Ants are one of the most successful groups of insects in the animal kingdom. ...

Plot

The atmosphere in Captain Blackadder's trench is heavy for reasons other than the torrential rain - there's something hanging in the air (and for once, it's nothing to do with Baldrick). The tension is broken with a phone call from General H.Q; an assault has been ordered for the next day, at dawn. George - having been waiting impatiently for a scrap - is naturally eager to get to grips with the enemy, despite the fact that he's the last surviving member of the Trinity College tiddlywinks team who signed up on the first day of hostilities. Blackadder - also naturally - decides that now's the time to get out of madness of the trenches. He's currently in the biggest crisis he's ever faced, and it's time for the best plan he's ever had - which involves two pencils and a pair of underpants... Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names Kings Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... // The Game Tiddlywinks is a game played with sets of small, thin discs (called winks) lying on a surface, usually a felt mat. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. ...

Wearing the underpants and sticking the pencils up his nose, Blackadder has decided to pretend he's mad in order to be invalided back to Blighty; this, for some reason, appears to require use of the word 'wibble' a lot, and is certainly convincing enough for George to call General H.Q to demand a straitjacket and immediate passage back to England. Whilst they're waiting, Blackadder orders Baldrick to try and make his coffee taste less like mud... which will be difficult, as it actually is mud. Plus various assorted unpleasant additions. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq...

As Blackadder has refused to play charades (preferring 'bugger all', as it promises more fun), the three men have plenty of time to hand as they wait for Blackadder's escort. This leads to conversation about the origins of the war; George believes it to be a result of villainous German imperialism (despite the relative imbalance between the massive size of the British Empire and its German equivalent), Baldrick is adamant it resulted from Archie Duke's hunger-motivated shooting of an Ostrich, but Blackadder determines that it was simply too much effort not to have a war (citing the fact that the intricate system of alliances designed to prevent war was 'bollocks'). Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... Archduke Francis Ferdinand. ... A plaque commemorating the exact location of the Sarajevo Assassination On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were shot to death in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young...

As Melchett and Darling arrive to view the patient, George goes to greet them; and Melchett casually remarks that he once had to shoot an entire platoon for trying to get out of the Sudan by wearing underpants on their heads and sticking pencils up their noses. Time for a recalculation on Blackadder's part; pretending to demonstrate this very principle to Baldrick, Blackadder claims that reports of his insanity were merely a miscommunication; after all, how could the hero of Mboto Gorge (a battle in which the British Army decimated a pacifist tribe armed only with fruit) have gone mad? Darling is naturally suspicious, but is soon lured with an offer of some of Baldrick's 'coffee'. As Darling experiences the unique sensation, Melchett casually offers George a place back in the car to General Headquarters, to witness the 'results' coming back in... an offer George refuses. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

As Blackadder berates George turning down a golden opportunity to get out of there, Baldrick decides to lighten the atmosphere with his poetry (threat of Blackadder's bayonet in his throat regardless). Unfortunately, the first one starts off bad and gets worse, and his magnum opus, 'The German Guns', consists entirely of the word 'boom'. This only serves to fill Blackadder with panic, which prompts an idea from Baldrick, which Blackadder opts to consider for old time's sake - why doesn't he call Field Marshal Douglas Haig to get him out of it? Field Marshal Lord Haig Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig KT GCB OM GCVO KCIE ADC (June 19, 1861 – January 28, 1928) was a British soldier and senior commander during World War I. He was commander of the British Expeditionary Force during the Battle of the Somme and the...

This is the worst idea Blackadder's ever heard - or at least, it would be if Blackadder hadn't saved Haig's life at Mboto Gorge. And the Field Marshal still owes him. As Blackadder happily gets packing, George and Baldrick find themselves reminiscing about the Christmas truce of 1914... and talk turns to the unhappy slog the war, which seemed so promising in 1914, turned in to. Baldrick reminisces that all his friends are dead - Katie the worm, Sammy the Spider... and, as Blackadder solemnly informs him, even Neville the Fat Hamster. Although he is bunging up the sink as a makeshift dishmop. Upset, Baldrick demands to know why they can't just stop the war and go home... a demand that, despite George's attempt to quell the 'mutiny', neither officer can answer. A cross, left near Ypres in Belgium in 1999, to celebrate the site of the Christmas Truce in 1914. ...

Back at General H.Q, both Melchett and Darling are awake, pondering the coming battle. Melchett, having always considered Darling a son (albeit a rather disliked, illegitimate one) has a surprise for Darling... and it's not a postal order for ten shillings. Rather, it's a front-line commission - Melchett has decided that Darling is wasted at General H.Q and, to prevent him from missing 'the fun and games', has decided to transfer him. As Darling tearfully begs Melchett not to send him to the Front, Melchett - completely misinterpreting Darling's pleas - has nevertheless prepared his driver... A postal order is used for sending money through the postal system. ...

As dawn nears, Blackadder makes his call to Haig, reminding him of Mboto Gorge... and demanding his favour in return. Haig is not happy, but for the memory of the woman with the sharpened mango agrees to Blackadder's terms. And thus advises him to stick a pair of underpants on his head and shove two pencils up his nose, thus returning the favour. Blackadder's intended response rhymes with 'clucking bell'. Species About 35 species, including: Mangifera altissima Mangifera applanata Mangifera caesia Mangifera camptosperma Mangifera casturi Mangifera decandra Mangifera foetida Mangifera gedebe Mangifera griffithii Mangifera indica Mangifera kemanga Mangifera laurina Mangifera longipes Mangifera macrocarpa Mangifera mekongensis Mangifera odorata Mangifera pajang Mangifera pentandra Mangifera persiciformis Mangifera quadrifida Mangifera siamensis Mangifera similis Mangifera...

At that moment, Darling arrives in the trench. For once, the enmity between the two men is gone; both are in the same, fatal position now. George celebrates the comradeship of the men around him... and then finally admits he's scared. As is Baldrick. And Darling, who has hoped to see the war out in order to marry his sweetheart. But it is too late; the order to prepare for advance go out over the trenches. The four men line up for their certain doom... as the guns stop firing. For a brief, shining moment, it seems like peace has finally been declared - but the guns are ceasing to prepare for the attack, as not even British generals are stupid enough to shell their own men.

The end seems inevitable... but Baldrick has a cunning plan. A plan as cunning as a fox that has just been nominated Professor of Cunning at Oxford University. Unfortunately, it's too late. The order to attack comes through, and Blackadder, Baldrick, Darling and George go over the top - into the mud and the hail of lethal machine-gun fire. They don't make it far... and the series ends as the mud of No Man's Land fades into a beautiful, tranquil field of poppies, with only sweet birdsong disturbing the peace. A fox is a member of any of 27 species of small omnivorous canids. ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Over the Top is a 1987 dramatic/action film starring Sylvester Stallone, produced and directed by Menahem Golan. ... A . ... No mans land is a term for a land that is not occupied or more specifically land that is under dispute between parties that will not occupy it because of fear or uncertainty. ... Wreaths of artificial poppies used as a symbol of remembrance In Flanders Fields is one of the most famous poems about World War I, in the form of a French rondeau. ...

Significance

In a 1999 poll held by The Observer newspaper and Channel Four to determine what the public thought were the hundred most memorable television moments of all time, the final scene of this episode came ninth. Along with Only Fools and Horses, it was the only comedy programme represented in the top ten. 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Channel 4 is a television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Only Fools and Horses was a long-running British television sit-com, created and written by John Sullivan, and made and broadcast by the BBC. Seven series were broadcast between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003. ...

Trivia

See also

List of Blackadder episodes This is an episode list of the British sitcom Blackadder. ...