Blackadder Goes Forth
By the fourth series (first aired 1989), writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton were seriously in the groove not only coming out with some storming one-liners eg . . .
Blackadder: George, who is using the family brain cell at the moment?
. . . but also injecting a strong anti-war message . . .
"Field Marshal Haig is about to make yet another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches close to Berlin."
The final episode (Goodbyeee) is regularly cited as one of the best comedy episodes of all time with the final scene (where they go over the top only to be mown down by machine gun fire) being one of the most powerful anti-war statements you’re likely to see on the small screen.
"Well, I am afraid it will have to wait. Whatever it was, I am 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? Good luck everyone."
All six episodes here for you to enjoy at 192kbps
http://rapidshare.com/files/78309795/Blackadder_Goes_Forth_Disc_1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/78316528/Blackadder_Goes_Forth_Disc_2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/78324677/Blackadder_Goes_Forth_Disc_3.rar.html
4 comments:
Hey, thanks. Great stuff. It's been years since I've seen these and am looking forward to viewing them again over the holidays. Cheers and Meery Xmas to you.
Actually he didn't 'inject a strong antiwar message' in this at all.
You will find that just about anyone who was in the trenches of the Great War or who wrote about it had just about the same attitude as Blackadder in this series. That's why it was so hard to rouse the British later to fight Hitler.
It annoys me just how much 1960's baby-boomers are rewriting history with themselves as the simplistic heroes of everything. It's not like that, there was so much more going on.
Many thanks for this great series. And just in time for Christmas too. All the best to you for 2008
@ Bruce
Hmmm, not sure I agree with the simplicity of your argument.
I’d say that at when the war broke out it was seen as a high adventure that would be over by Christmas.
Now, God be thanked . . .
Wrote Rupert Brooke
. . . Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.
Note that even Siegfried Sassoon, later one of the most savage of trench poets welcomed the news of war and signed up immediately.
Of course, later he was to write
You smug faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
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