List of Blackadder characters

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Main characters from Blackadder Goes Forth: Darling (left), Melchett (centre), George Colthurst (right), Baldrick (bottom right), Blackadder (bottom left)

This article lists the characters in the four series and three special episodes of the British sitcom Blackadder. Blackadder was notable for featuring actors playing many repeating characters across different eras of history, with Rowan Atkinson as the central character Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as his sidekick Baldrick, together with numerous other actors in one-off parts.

Main characters

Edmund Blackadder

Main article: Edmund Blackadder

Baldrick

Main article: Baldrick

Baldrick is the name of several characters throughout the series. Each one serves as Blackadder's servant and sidekick and acts as a foil to the lead character. Baldrick is the only character besides Blackadder himself to appear in all instalments of the series, and can arguably be seen as Blackadder's best friend despite Blackadder's apparent contempt for him.

Melchett

Melchett (Stephen Fry) is a family line. There were two main Melchetts: Lord Melchett and General Melchett.

Melchett shared the trademark bellow "Baaah!" with Fry's earlier portrayal of

Shakespeare at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he would produce strange noises in order to amuse the audience. He also notes that Melchett's "Baaah!" can be found (although in a more subtle form) in his other acting work such as Peter's Friends.[2]

In April 2020, Fry reprised his role as a descendant of Lord Melchett for

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, who made a surprise appearance.[3][4]

Lord Percy Percy

Lord Percy Percy (Tim McInnerny) is the name given to a pair of related characters. The Lord Percy of Blackadder II is the descendant of that seen in The Black Adder. The character derives his name from the real Percy family. Unlike the first two Blackadders and Baldricks, the two Lord Percys are almost identical; both are portrayed as dim-witted, gullible and foppish. In the first series, Percy is Duke of Northumberland, while in the second he is heir to the title. The title of Duke of Northumberland was not in fact held by a real person surnamed Percy until 1766, when Hugh Percy, born Hugh Smithson, was awarded the title, although the title of the Earl of Northumberland was granted to a Percy in 1377.

  • The Black Seal
    ", Percy accidentally puts poison in the castle's entire wine supply while trying to rescue Prince Edmund from a group of maniacs. While rescuing Edmund, Percy inevitably kills him and the whole royal court when they drink the tainted wine. Percy and Baldrick run in and futilely shout, "Don't drink the wine!" immediately after.
  • Blackadder II – In this series, Lord Percy Percy is once again portrayed as a stupid "upper-class twit". Percy has a much larger role in series two, however; this is illustrated by his almost total involvement in all of Blackadder's pursuits (whether or not Blackadder actually welcomes his input). Percy is (among other things) temporarily the best man at Blackadder's wedding, assistant Lord High Executioner and a shipmate on Blackadder's ill-fated voyage to France (despite a pronounced aquaphobia stemming from a childhood incident where he was "savaged by a turbot"). At one point, while trying to master alchemy in an afternoon, Percy creates a green substance that Edmund sarcastically calls "Green" and attempts to turn it into something valuable. He is shown to have a terrible record with women; whilst the occasional girlfriend is mentioned, he is more often seen using rather unconvincing chat-up lines on various females, and, at one point, Baldrick, who was wearing a wig and a dress while acting as a bridesmaid. Percy promptly falls in love with him, not recognising Baldrick and even kissing him. Like the rest of the court, Percy dies at the end of the Blackadder II series finale episode, "Chains" at the hands of the psychopathic German Prince Ludwig the Indestructible (Hugh Laurie).
  • Nob and Nobility features McInnerny portraying a French aristocrat by the name Le Comte de Frou Frou, who in the last act is revealed to be a false persona of the masked vigilante going by the name of Scarlet Pimpernel. McInnerny's portrayal of the Pimpernel follows largely that of Percy, with his true identity being Sir Percy Blakeney in the Baroness Orczy
    novels where the character originates from.

Darling

"Kevin Darling" redirects here. For the bowls player, see Kevin Darling (bowls).

Introduced in its fourth iteration,

Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson)'s intellectual peer and bitter rival (just like Melchett was in season 2); while Blackadder reluctantly serves in World War I trenches, Darling is safely stationed some distance from the front line. Darling is the sycophantic adjutant to Stephen Fry's General Melchett. The character was originally conceived as "Captain Cartwright"; writers Ben Elton and Richard Curtis were simply unable to think of a more amusing name for him. Eventually however, Stephen Fry suggested "Darling" would be a more comedic alternative; the series makes use of a recurring joke where his name is used or referred to for comedic effect.[5]

Awards and decorations

In the series, Captain Darling is seen wearing the following ribbons:

Military Cross Queen's South
Africa Medal 		1914 Star Croix de Guerre
(France)

Although Darling only features as a main character for one series of the original Blackadder run, several of his ancestors and descendants are also portrayed by McInnerny, in keeping with the series' ongoing motif of identical descendants. The Blackadder feature-length special

Napoleon I (Simon Russell Beale
). The final Darling, however, is also a Blackadder and was portrayed by Atkinson in BBC promotional materials in 2002; the name Sir Osmond Darling-Blackadder suggests an unknown familial union between Blackadders and Darlings at some point in their histories.

George

Main article: George (Blackadder)

George (

Prince Regent of England and an "upper-class twit"; Lt. The Hon. George Colthurst St Barleigh, an overexcited and keen young lieutenant in Blackadder Goes Forth; and "Lt. The Hon. George Bufton-Tufton" in Blackadder: Back & Forth
.

Bob

Bob is a pseudonym used by two characters, both female, both pretending to be male and both played by Gabrielle Glaister.

Lord Flashheart

Lord Flashheart (

Private Plane
". In the credits of this episode the name Flashheart is spelled Flasheart.

Lord Flashheart is boisterous and an arrogant womaniser, attractive to all the women he meets. He is extremely popular among his peers and becomes the centre of attention whenever he enters a room, usually by bursting through a door in a spectacular fashion. The two Flashhearts are stereotypes of a certain kind of hero (the

sexual innuendo in ordinary conversation, for example, "Am I pleased to see you, or did I just put a canoe in my pocket?" Rik Mayall later recalled, "I was surprised when they asked me. Very honouring that they asked me. 'Alright,' I said, 'I'll do it, as long as I get more laughs than Rowan.' "[7]

The writing for Lord Flashheart seems to have been at least in part inspired by the fictional character created by George MacDonald Fraser, Harry Flashman.[8]

The character of

Blackadder: Back and Forth, also played by Mayall, is essentially another version of Flashheart, with the same personality and mannerisms.[citation needed
]

In Ben Elton's 2016 sitcom Upstart Crow, Tim Downie's character Christopher Marlowe resembles Flashheart.[9][10]

Queenie

"Queenie" (

Violet Elizabeth Bott featured in the Just William books of Richmal Crompton
.

In Blackadder's Christmas Carol Richardson appears as Queenie and the future Queen Asphyxia. In Blackadder: Back & Forth she appears as present day Lady Elizabeth and Queenie.

Queenie's immature behaviour is expressed in her desire to "get squiffy and seduce nobles" (and extort extravagant presents from them on pain of death). A naughty schoolgirl at heart, Queenie loves to party, play games and get drunk. If anyone fails to laugh at her jokes, they risk execution, but, to her followers' bemusement and frustration, she sometimes tires of their toadying and welcomes a more cynical approach – which is why she prefers Edmund Blackadder to Lord Melchett. Like Blackadder and the rest of her court, Queenie is later murdered at the hands of the evil Prince Ludwig the Indestructible, (Hugh Laurie), a German master of disguise who presumably after stealing her identity goes on to kill the remaining members of the court including Blackadder and Melchett before going on to rule England as Queen off-screen during the Blackadder II series finale episode, "Chains".

Richardson appears in later series as characters not explicitly stated as being descendants of Elizabeth I, who had no known offspring (but may share common ancestors with her). In the fifth episode of Blackadder the Third, she plays Amy Hardwood, the seemingly-delicate wealthy industrialist's daughter, whom the Prince Regent courts to get out of serious debt with her dowry, later revealed as a highwayman, the Shadow; and in the episode "General Hospital" of the fourth series, she plays Nurse Mary Fletcher-Brown who enjoys a fling with Blackadder, before being accused of being a German spy.

Non-recurring major characters

Prince Ludwig the Indestructible

Prince Ludwig the Indestructible (

Lord Melchett, in 1566 and imprisons them in his dungeon under the watch of two German guards who carried out the abduction and a Spanish inquisitorial co-conspirator
, Ludwig having previously befriended Blackadder, Melchett and Queenie while disguised as other individuals including Big Sally, a waitress at a pub in Dover, Fluffy, a sheep and an unnamed stable boy. As a result of his childhood which saw him going to school in shorts that his mother forced him to wear while also having dirty hair and spots, Ludwig was bullied by his classmates who gave him the nickname, "Shorty Greasy Spot-Spot" which he despises to such an extent that he flies into a rage whenever it is mentioned in his presence, Ludwig also becoming a power-hungry megalomaniac determined to fulfil his goal of becoming King of England by any means necessary. Upon his men capturing Blackadder and Melchett, Ludwig keeps them imprisoned in a dungeon, sending a message to Queenie where he gives her a week to decide who she will save by paying the ransom. However, when the message arrives, Ludwig reveals Queenie has in fact decided to keep the money and hold a big party instead much to Blackadder's shock and Ludwig's disappointment. Blackadder and Melchett soon play ball, agreeing to give Ludwig information on how to infiltrate Richmond Palace and kill Queenie with Ludwig changing their original death sentences to life imprisonment. After he's departed, Blackadder and Melchett soon work together to outwit his guards, travelling back to England just in time for the costume party where Blackadder exposes Ludwig who was posing as a cow, Blackadder realizing that Ludwig's cow outfit was too good while Nursie who always went as a cow had an udder fixation. When Ludwig attempts to flee while swearing he'll exact his revenge, Blackadder informs the other man he will die and be buried throws a dagger at Ludwig that presumably either kills or wounds him off-screen as the rest of the group celebrate the fact that Ludwig has been defeated. However, after the end credits have aired, it is revealed that Ludwig has resurfaced and now disguised as Queenie after murdering the original gone on to kill the entire main cast by using a dagger to cut their throats although in the case of Blackadder and Melchett, it is implied that he broke Blackadder's neck or strangled or suffocated Melchett. Ludwig is regarded as the most serious villain in the Blackadder franchise, having successfully murdered the main cast as well as being the only villain in the series not to have been killed off or even brought to justice for the crimes he committed. From a real-world point of view, this is part of Hugh Laurie's continuous set of appearances in Blackadder, but the last of those in which he is only credited as a guest actor, Laurie having made his debut appearance in the previous Blackadder II episode, "Beer" as Simon Partridge or "Farters Parters" and "Mr. Ostrich", a drunk. He remains one of two actors in the Blackadder series to have played two completely different characters in the same series, Blackadder II (the other being Rowan Atkinson himself, who played Mr. E. Blackadder and his Scottish cousin MacAdder in the Blackadder the Third series finale episode, "Duel and Duality"), Laurie the first to do so with Atkinson second. Laurie would later join the main cast for Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth; possibly, they all share a common ancestor (considering that Lt. George had a German uncle, this possibility is not out of the question).

King Richard IV of England

"Richard IV of England" redirects here. Not to be confused with Richard Cromwell.

King Richard IV (

Edward V of England, is left unmentioned), and becomes his uncle's favourite, reflected by his being seated at the side of the king at the banquet on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which is a victory for the House of York during the Wars of the Roses.[16]
Richard is crowned King Richard IV of England after Richard III is accidentally killed by Edmund, and though he by far favours Harry over Edmund, he gradually comes to appreciate Edmund as a loyal son, and is genuinely saddened by Edmund's imminent death in the final episode (unaware that Edmund had tried and failed to overthrow him). As he drinks a toast to his dying son's honour, he and the entire royal court are killed after Lord Percy poisoned the entire vat of wine in an exaggerated attempt to kill the Black Seal, a group of assassins led by Edmund's archenemy.

Gertrude of Flanders

Gertrude of

Edmund. In attitude, Gertrude is mostly distant and absent-minded. She had an affair with a Scottish laird, which may have resulted in Edmund's birth. She often gives Edmund unwanted advice and embarrasses him. Her character's name is never spoken in dialogue in Blackadder, but appears in the credits. She is also a skilled practitioner of witchcraft, which she uses to help Edmund escape execution.[17]
But she, along with her royal family, is killed in the series' finale, after drinking wine poisoned by Lord Percy.

Nursie

Nursie (

senile or otherwise irreversibly stupid, but remains at court at the side of the Queen for unknown reasons (possibly being kept-on as a lady's companion, though her continued presence at "Queenie's" side reinforces her portrayal as 'childish'), as the Queen repeatedly treats Nursie with contempt. Nursie frequently embarrasses both the Queen and herself by openly recounting tales of the Queen's childhood, prompting Queenie's standard reply of "Shut up, Nursie." She is also known for her complete non sequiturs in conversation. Lord Blackadder describes her as "a sad, insane old woman with an udder fixation."[18] In the series' finale episode, "Chains", she is killed by Prince Ludwig the Indestructible (Hugh Laurie
) along with the entire main cast. In Blackadder's Christmas Carol, a vision of the future depicts her as the silliest of Queen Asphyxia XIX's triple husbandoid.

Byrne later said that she was sometimes asked – in reference to a scene in the final episode of Blackadder II – whether she kept the cow costume in her wardrobe. She did not.[19]

The real life basis for Nursie was

Queen Elizabeth's real governesses, Kat Ashley, Margaret Bryan and Blanche Parry.[citation needed
]

Harry, Prince of Wales

Prince Henry "Harry" Plantagenet, Earl of March (1460–1498) (

Prince Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh (Rowan Atkinson
).

The first portrayal of Prince Harry in the Blackadder

Queen Elizabeth I. This version of the character was played by the actor Robert Bathurst.[20] Prince Harry made his first televised appearance (played by Robert East) in episode 1 of The Black Adder, entitled "The Foretelling", in which the events of the first series are set up by rewriting a period of English history and telling the story of a fictional ruling monarch who succeeds Richard III after the Battle of Bosworth Field
.

Mrs Miggins

Mrs Miggins (Helen Atkinson-Wood) plays a supporting role in Blackadder the Third.[21][22] In Blackadder II, Mrs Miggins is referred to as a pie shop owner, but never appears. In the third series, Mrs Miggins plays a major role and appears in all episodes. She now owns a coffee shop that Blackadder visits regularly. In the final episode, she runs off with Blackadder's Scottish cousin, MacAdder.[23] Mrs Miggins is also briefly referenced in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, when George suggests they could pass the time by singing along to "music hall hits", one of them being "Whoops Mrs Miggins, you're sitting on my artichokes!"

Minor characters

References

  1. ^ General Melchett wears the star of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) on the left breast of his mess uniform in episode 3, "Major Star", of Blackadder Goes Forth. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 19 Sept. 2019. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0526713/?ref_=ttep_ep3
  2. ^ "Interview with Stephen Fry, broadcast 17/08/07". YouTube. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
  3. ^ "BBC One - The Big Night In". BBC One. The Big Night In. 23 April 2020. Archived from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  4. ^ Hill, Rose (23 April 2020). "Prince William surprises Big Night in viewers with Blackadder sketch". Mirror. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  5. ^ Hunt, James (2018). 12 things you might not know about Blackadder Goes Forth. Mental Floss UK. Retrieved 19 Sept. 2019. http://mentalfloss.com/article/91058/facts-about-blackadder-goes-forth-rowan-atkinson Archived 30 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Upstart Crow will return for a second series plus a Christmas special in 2017". Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  7. ^ "YouTube". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 20 May 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  8. ^ Chris Hallam (10 June 2011). "The unforgettable Flashheart". Chortle.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  9. ^ Dugdale, John (28 October 2016). "How close were Marlowe and Shakespeare?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  10. ^ "TV Review: Upstart Crow, BBC2, Episode 3 – The Apparel Proclaims The Man". Beyond The Joke. 26 May 2016. Archived from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  11. ^ "Miranda Richardson as "Queenie" (Elizabeth I) in Blackadder II (1986) | From The Tudors to The Crown: British royals in TV & film - On demand". The Telegraph. 19 August 2016. Archived from the original on 31 August 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Blackadder II: Truth Vs Fiction | Blackadder | Yesterday Channel". Yesterday.uktv.co.uk. 6 April 2017. Archived from the original on 31 August 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  13. ^ Marcus Williamson (24 June 2014). "Patsy Byrne: Nursie in 'Blackadder II' who originally made her name on the stage, acclaimed by such critics as Kenneth Tynan". The Independent. Archived from the original on 31 August 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  14. ISBN 978-3-8233-4175-8
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-7134-8771-8
    .
  16. ^ Curtis et al. 1999: 1
  17. ^ Witchsmeller Pursuivant. Blackadder Series 1 Episode 5. 1983. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 19 Sept. 2019. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0526543/ Archived 14 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "Blackadder, Chains". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  19. ^ "Blackadder interviews". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  20. ^ Pilot Episode, 1982. Blackadder. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 19 Sept. 2019. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0526538/?ref_=tt_ch
  21. ^ Paul Evans (freelance writer) (28 March 2008). "Enamoured of Carla Bruni?". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 9 January 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2011. As Mrs Miggins said of the fleeing French aristos in Blackadder the Third: "ooh la la and an éclair for both of us!"
  22. ^ Michael Klossner (2002), The Europe of 1500-1815 on film and television, p. 44
  23. ^ Duel and Duality. Blackadder the Third. 1987. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 19 Sept. 2019. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0526723/?ref_=ttep_ep6
  24. IMDb
  25. ^
    ISBN 9781848093461
    . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  26. ^ "The Queen of Spain's Beard". BBC Comedy. May 2003. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
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