The Black Seal
| "The Black Seal" | |
|---|---|
| Blackadder episode | |
 Patrick Allen guest stars as Philip of Burgundy | |
| Episode no. | Series 1 Episode 6 |
| Written by | Rowan Atkinson Richard Curtis |
| Original air date | 13 July 1983 |
| Guest appearances | |
| Patrick Allen; Rik Mayall (uncredited) | |
"The Black Seal" is the sixth and final episode of
This episode features a number of guest stars, including Patrick Allen (who also provided the voiceover introducing each episode in this series) and The Young Ones actors Rik Mayall and Roger Sloman.[3]
Plot
On
Edmund sets forth into England in search of the six other ‘most evil men in the kingdom’:
- Sir Wilfred Death (John Hallam), a skilled duellist.
- Three-Fingered Pete (Roger Sloman), an archer who only has three fingers on his right hand
- Guy de Glastonbury (Patrick Malahide), a highwayman who kills his victims after taking their money.
- Sean the Irish Bastard (Ron Cook), a thief who preys on beggars.
- Friar Bellows (Paul Brooke), who uses his position to deflower peasant girls.
- Jack Large (Big Mick), a dwarf, described as "Unspeakably Violent Jack, the bull-buggering priest-killer of no fixed abode".
Edmund plans to ride home and then to summon them all by sending a black-haired messenger. They are to gather in the tavern of the recently deceased old Jasper (slain by Friar Bellows), before heading out to seize the royal courts and thus the kingdom. Edmund suggests they exile the Royal Family for life; however, the rest of the band are surprised, and Glastonbury says they should kill them, to which Edmund reluctantly agrees.
After his comrades disperse, Edmund's plan hits a severe setback. The Morris Dancer casts off his disguise to reveal himself as Edmund's childhood rival, Philip of Burgundy, nicknamed ‘The Hawk’ (Patrick Allen). Philip has just arrived in England after 15 years of exile in France, an exile for which Edmund was apparently responsible. As revenge, Philip locks Edmund in a prison cell, to be devoured by snails, which he says will take 15 years to happen. There is another inmate in the cell, Mad Gerald (Rik Mayall), who has been incarcerated for 20 years and whose best friend is a rat. After 12 months of rambling insanely to a bored Edmund, in late December, Gerald shows the Prince a key he had made from his own teeth. Edmund seizes the key, successfully opens the cell door and escapes. Gerald opts not to follow him, instead complaining that Edmund had not closed the door behind him.
The first person Edmund meets after escaping from prison is a man seeking to sell five black homing pigeons and one black homing chicken. While the seller's initial asking price is six shillings, he generously invites Edmund to beat him up, gag him, tie him to a tree and steal the pigeons, an offer the Prince gratefully accepts. Edmund promptly sends the pigeons to fly to his fellow conspirators. However, Philip of Burgundy beats the gang to the royal castle, and, when they arrive, promptly persuades them to abandon Edmund and adopt him as their leader, after Edmund talks of Philip's bad attributes. Edmund's protestations that Philip is a twisted, ruthless killer who murdered his own family, only increases Philip's standing in their eyes. Philip then forces Edmund into a torture chair, in which he is horribly mutilated (his ears and hands are chopped off, his skull is cracked, a spike rams up into his anus, and he is castrated). Just then, Percy and Baldrick, disguised as serving wenches, serve the conspirators poisoned wine, killing them. Sean survives, but takes another drink saying ‘It's got a little bit of sting in its tail’, and dies.
As a bandaged Edmund lies on his deathbed with the entire court mourning over him, his father wakes him up by loudly shouting ‘EDMUND!’ Edmund, surprised that his father had, for the first time, got his name right, mutters ‘Father, you called me Edmund.’ Richard answers ‘Sorry, Edgar’ (even though everyone else present was calling him Edmund) and proposes a toast for his son. Asked by Edmund to call him by his
After the credits, Percy and Baldrick run in to stop the court drinking the wine, only to find they are too late.
Cast
The closing credits of this episode list the cast members "in order of disappearance".[2][4]
- John Carlisle as Murdered Lord
- Bert Parnaby as Cain, a Blind Beggar
- Roy Evans as Abel, a Blind Beggar
- Forbes Collins as the Trusting Father
- Des Webb as the Person of Unrestricted Growth
- John Barrard as the Retired Morris Dancer
- Rik Mayall as Mad Gerald (credited as himself)
- Perry Benson as the Pigeon Vendor
- Paul Brooke as Friar Bellows
- Big Mick as Jack Large
- Roger Sloman as Three Fingered Pete
- Patrick Malahide as Guy of Glastonbury
- John Hallam as Sir Wilfred Death
- Patrick Allen as The Hawk
- Ron Cook as Sean, The Irish Bastard
- Harry, Prince of Wales
- The Queen
- King Richard IV
- The Flat Adder(he lost his duchy early on in the episode)
- Tony Robinson as Baldrick
- Percy the Poisoner
- Gareth Milne as Stuntman
Production
Guest actors featured in each of the episodes of The Black Adder to lend both a sense of theatrical gravitas and comedic interpretation. For the final episode, well-known comedy actors were cast to play supporting roles. Rik Mayall, who had established himself in the 1982 comedy series The Young Ones, appeared as Mad Gerald. At his own request, Mayall was not credited in the cast list (Mad Gerald was billed as ‘Himself’); as with his appearances as
Patrick Allen was cast in the role of Edmund's
This episode concludes the alternate history of King Richard IV which was set in motion in Episode I, "The Foretelling", and which diverges from the established history of Henry VII, who reigned as King of England from 1485 to 1509. No mention of Richard's successor is made in Episode 6, but within The Black Adder narrative, it must be assumed that the accidental poisoning of the entire royal court created the opportunity for Henry Tudor to seize power.
As with previous episodes of The Black Adder, the end credits of "The Black Seal" include an acknowledgement of "additional dialogue by William Shakespeare".[2] In this episode, overt Shakespearian reference is limited to Edmund's rousing address to his gang of mercenaries, in which he declares ‘We few, we happy few, we band of ruthless bastards!’ – words adapted from Henry V's St Crispin's Day Speech before the Battle of Agincourt (Henry V, Act 4, Scene III).[7]
Critical assessment
The Black Adder series has been noted for blurring the boundaries between traditional situation comedy and
References
Citations
- ISBN 9781476600314.
- ^ a b c Rowan Atkinson & Richard Curtis (writers) (20 July 1983). "The Black Seal". The Black Adder. Series 1. Episode 6. BBC. BBC One.
- ^ Roberts, p.121
- ^ Roberts, p.420
- ^ Roberts, pp.121–122
- ^ Roberts, pp.122–123
- ^ "The Black Seal". BBC Comedy Guide. 2003. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ Marshall, p.118
- ^ Marshall, p.116
Further reading
- Marshall, David W., ed. (2007). Mass market medieval : essays on the Middle Ages in popular culture. Jefferson, N.C. [u.a.]: McFarland. ISBN 9780786429226.
- Roberts, J.F. The True History of the Black Adder : The Complete and Unadulterated History of the Creation of a Comedy Legend. London: Preface. p. 114. ISBN 9781848093461.
External links
- "The Black Seal" at BBC Online
- "The Black Seal" at IMDb
| Episodes |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characters | |||||||||||
