The True History of the Blackadder (72 page)

The Braveheart of the Clan MacAdder: evidence of the Scottish roots of the Blackadder family, or just an excuse to stick on a skirt and a ridiculous ginger wig?

Once and for all, let the record show, only the phrase ‘Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends!’ with relevant nose-tweaking gestures, will ward off the evil spirits of The Scottish Play.

‘Hand over the loot, goat-brains!’ Mr Blackadder learns the crucial lesson, never to fall in love with a criminal who sounds like James Mason.

‘I want to be young and wild, and then I want to be middle-aged and rich, and then I want to be old and annoy people by pretending that I’m deaf.’

The final historical meeting of Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall made for one of
Blackadder
’s most explosive half-hours. The real Manfred von Richthofen was only twenty-five years old when he was shot down in 1918, and had little interest in lavatorial humour.

‘One more, Bob?’

Masters and servants: The meeting of the top brass and the ignoble Tommies provided the precise rigidity of hierarchy that
Blackadder
required to thrive. Atkinson: ‘He’s got a ladder to climb, but he’s so cynical about climbing it. And he’s also cynical about those who are climbing up towards him. He’s just a fantastically cynical man.’

‘Just because I can give multiple orgasms to the furniture just by
sitting
on it, doesn’t mean that I’m not sick of this damn war: the blood, the noise, the
endless poetry
…’The Lord Flashheart was allegedly at least partly based on the dashing Piers Fletcher – old friend of Lloyd, Oxford contemporary of Curtis, former soldier, and current producer of
QI
. He modestly refuses to accept the honour – but if called, he does still answer to the name of ‘Flash’.

The descendents of Elizabeth, Ploppy and Ludwig having a whizzy-jolly time while millions die all around them.

Colthurst St Barleigh of the Bailey has Darling on the ropes: ‘Captain, leaving aside the incident in question, would you think of Captain Blackadder as the sort of man that would
usually
ignore orders?’