THAT TURNED FAST! | Blackadder Goes Forth: Episode 6 | HAPPY ENDING REACTION
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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Playing the ending completely straight was a stroke of genius and appropriate to pay respect for all the men who died in WW1.
I agree!
Totally correct..
@@MeganRuth Correct. There's no other way to react to this tv episode ending. The entire point of the ending was that we can make all these black comedy jokes rife with sarcasm, but now, at this point, this is ... actually what happened. War is objectively terrible.
Or rather, to show the futility of it.
I think it was a lady who came up with the idea. They only had a short stage set so for the guys only had about 5 or 6 meters to run before they ran into the film cameras. Which quite frankly looked really bad when they filmed it. Then a lady suggested slowing down the footage and fading it out into a field of poppies that she got as a stock image.
"Sir...I'm _scared,_ sir."
With that single line, a fantastically wry comedy is transformed into the most sobering history lesson ever.
Yep right to the end you thought they would pull some Black Adder shenanigans out of their ass and have a happy ending.........
Another good candidate is "The Great War: 1914 to 1917".
And Blackadder wishing good luck to men he'd despised two minutes before.
@ Yes I think when you are faced with your own mortality it make such things as dislike for people pretty trivial
What really makes you think is........ how many actually had that conversation and how many of those were under 21, can you imagine the older C/O's that had been like father figures to such influential minds having them say "Sir, i'm scared" and knowing you can't do a thing about it, just try and comfort them as they march to the gallows.
Greatest final scene of any comedy ever. I remember seeing it when it was aired on the BBC for the first time and just being stunned. Brilliant writing.
There was a similar scene in the childrens comedy claymation series Trapdoor.
A lovable side character dies at the end, and you're left thinking.....
WOT DA AKCHEWAL FOOK?!?!?
N SHE MESSED IT UP MEGA TIME
Perfect scheduling too, finishing on remembrance day.
You could hear a pin drop in my living room. It was just mindboggling.
Yes! Stunningly poignant and beautiful finale. We were laughing all the way to the end scene I expect, just before they go over the top. Blackadder: "who would notice another madman around here" - Quite. And then we were woken up and reminded that this was no longer a bloody joke. I think Captain Darling summed up the whole situation perfectly - Bugger! In the end I was actually crying. RIP my Great Uncle Arthur who died Nov 9th 1918 - 26 yo, whose company finished the War precisely 4 miles from the location they started it in 1914.
To finish the best ever sitcom series with such a profound ending is a mark of genius.
And luck. They only ended it with the slow motion because the episide under-ran.
@@GedUKThat is not quite correct. When they looked back at the scene it was awful and hammy.
However they had put a lot of preparation into the scenes with the explosions etc. Rowan Atkinson was pretty pissed off with the ending, but apparently he did not want to reshoot it.
Do the editors had a bit of a look and when they slowed the scene it looked quite effective. Then someone suggested the slow music as well.
One of the assistants suggested fading to a field of poppies and she found some stock footage. The last decision was to put birdsong over the poppy fields.
Voila - it went from the worst ending to the best .
There is a video on UA-cam about the editing and how it happened. It’s called ‘ Blackadder Final Scene making of’
Clown @@brontewcat
very profound, and quite a shock at the time
"And when he gets to Heaven, to saint Peter he will tell; One more soldier reporting, sir, I've served my time in hell".
For all the comic wit, sarcasm and satirical wordplay throughout the series, Blackadder's last words before going over is simply "Good luck everyone"
That is the line that always gets me. Though not the first time I have heard it.
It is all going to happen again soon..thanks to America voting for a psychopath dictator
And have you noticed he didn't listen Baldrick's last 'cunning plan' reluctantly, but was eager to respectively listen to him this time? It was just unfortunately time had run out for all of them to escape.
"This is, as they say, it"
It doesn't matter how many times I watch that clip it gets me every time. :(
i saw it once
i can never bring myself to watch it again
would run out of tears
I'm a British Army armed forces veteran who saw action and served my country and my Queen, that final scene always brings tears to my eyes and makes me reflect on the mates who didn't come home during my service. I come from a military family that served our country throughout the generations and my 4 x Great Uncle was in the Royal Horse Artillary as a Gunner/Driver firing the cannons at the French at The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and survived and lived to 80 years old as a Chelsea Pensioner.
Respect!
Thanks for sharing. Respect to you Sir.
I only respect WW2 veterans. Which veteran are you? The one who committed war crimes in Afghanistan, created ISIS in Iraq or was a part of a death squad in Ireland?
@nathandts3401 soldiers put their lives on the line. serve their country. No matter what bloody war.
@Richnineteenseventyone I don't care, mate. If you're putting your life on the line for an evil or dumb reason then you shouldn't get respect for it. The UK has been a terror state for all of my lifetime so all of the active soldiers aren't automatically deserving of respect.
My grandad was killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras, he has no known grave . My mum never got to see her dad she was born two months after he was killed . My nan was awarded a pittance of a war pension and had to take in washing in order to survive and feed my mum.
My great uncle was killed at Gallipoli he also has no known grave . His name appears on the Helles memorial.
They won't be forgotten. I visited the Memorial to the Missing in Arras about twenty years ago and there was a poppy stuck by one of the names with the card 'To mum's first boyfriend'. And on a memorial at Gallipoli, Kemal Attarurk's message ends "You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." He was speaking of the ANZACs but I'm certain he would have felt it applied to all those who died
They were phenomenally brave men
Yes, I am sorry, the truth is that these men were never fighting for their country, just a wealthy bankers investment portfolio, on all sides, at least now we know
@bfyrth There's money in human misery .
@@bfyrth And to stop Germany taking over Europe which would have left us in a somewhat dodgy posiiton internationally
The greatest end to one of the best comedys ever. Playing it straight was the only respectful thing to do.
First shown just before Armistice Day I believe they were a bit worried about showing it but it's pretty much universally accepted that they handled a difficult subject with real tact and sensitivity. The ending where the trenches fade from black and white to poppy fields in vibrant colour is just perfect. And that was the end of Blackadder, 4 series, and not allowed to run on and get old and tired like so many other series.
There was actually another episode after this, called Blackadder: Back & Forth. It was made by the BBC & Sky in 1999. It was originally premiered in the Millennium Dome on 31st Dec 1999. It was then shown later on Sky & then the BBC.
Beautifully done. Acknowledging both the absurdity and tragedy of the time. Absolutely timeless
I heard a rumour years ago that another series was planned. Set in the 1960s around a band called The Blackadder Five. Never got made and I'm glad it didn't. This was the best way to end the main series..... One of the most moving few minutes of TV ever in the world!
Alan Bleasdales 'The Monocled Mutineer' ploughed this furrow but with a more barbed context.Thatcher i believe wanted it banned as you would expect from a Rothschild bag carrier.
This is one of the greatest episodes of any programme ever
and its kudos overshadows, and helps ensure nobody speaks out, how episode 2/6 of the same show, siding with and taking part in and victim blaming for school bullying, was the sickest mass hate crime of any comedy programme ever.
John Lloyd talked a while ago on 'Goon Pod' about the final scene - it was a real shambles when recorded in the studio and the cast refused to do a second take because of the explosions. The brilliance that ends up on screen is a real team effort from the production team with various people suggesting things to save it: the slow motion, the music, the mix to the poppies etc. No one person is responsible for how it came together, but John reckons the universe was on their side that day... :-)
It's a real tribute to post production
like you said it looked terrible, the studio was to small ( cant remember which one in TVC they used for the final ep ) to get any run in and the explosions were to quick all in all it was rubbish, not helped by the fact they had run out of studio time so couldn’t shoot it again, during the viewing it was the editor Chris Wadsworth who not only had the idea to slow down the footage but also to mix to the field of poppies at the end, total genius idea
@mwscuba Necessity is the mother of invention...
RIP my great uncle Thomas KIA 1917 aged 18
Respect
We will remember them
@@glennreeve9686 Respect indeed.
Gratitude and respect to your great uncle Thomas
my great uncle died during the second battle of the Somme. the battalion on his left lost 252 men about 50% of them. the battalion on his right lost 254 men about 50% of them. his battalion lost 493 men. almost the entire battalion. KIA or MIA, disappeared into the mud filled shell holes never to be seen again.
I don't usually watch 'an American watches ...' stuff but this episode never fails to move me. My grandfather was wounded, healed and returned to the front and, fortunately for me, was taken prisoner and survived. I have a great uncle who was awarded the military medal four weeks before being killed.
I cry for the one that I knew as a child and the one that I didn't. Thank you.
"Who would notice another mad man around here" The insanity of war just keeps getting past on from one generation to the next !
"History repeats itself - Because nobody was listening the first time."
Right now anybody who's studied history can see parallels with the rise of the far right in Europe in the 1930s and with it's current resurgence. The signs are so clear, but too many people seem oblivious - It's a dark time and very scary.
Yes. The same message as that masterpiece of anti-war literature, Catch-22.
Your reaction was exactly what the creative team were seeking. Shock and horror at the demise of some beloved characters. As another poster here has mentioned, they played that final scene perfectly straight. Blackadder, who had spent the past three years trying to weasel his way out of the war, finally stood up and provided the leadership his men needed. Awesome.
I was 10 years old when this episode aired. I remember fighting back the tears at the end so my mum couldn't see me. Even at that age that got me because I understood the significance of that ending. The contrast at the end of a battlefield to it being just a quiet calm field. I hate war.
Yet no Politician seems to have learned from it..............
@@ianwauters1659 I think they would learn
fast enough if the ones that started the wars also had to serve in the front line.
Brings tears to my eyes every time - and the fact nobody learned from this - the song Green Fields of France sums it up.
And yet she cut the poppies out !! 😠
@@ianwauters1659 yes because they or their loved ones are never actually in it
I watched this in a Uni Common room, with about 100 other students. Raucous laughter and then silence. Never experienced such a thing before or since.
I think you stopped a little early, as I recall the field turns to red poppies just after you paused. Even more in the feels.
Did any of the feminists say...where were the women?
Very poor decision to do this actually - avery important poignant piece there to accentuate the episode’s power 🙄
@@Michael-td3gzThe women near battlefields were being raped and killed in pretty high numbers.
As an estimate - the military death toll is estimated to have been between 9 to 11 million.
The civilian death toll was estimated to have been 6 and 13 million. Most of those deaths would have been women, child red and older men. Remember these people would not have had weapons.
@@Michael-td3gz Don't be a d...
@@Michael-td3gz No because they knew they were working in munitions factories (where hundreds died due to exposure to TNT, plus there were several catastrophic explosions. They risked their lives every day), filling necessary roles such as running essential services like railways, trams, buses, postal services, police, firefighting, farming, and engineering. That was just at home, they were also nursing injured soldiers on the front line, even working as spies behind enemy lines, and don't think they didn't join the armed forces because in total over 100,000 British women did. You can blame the male government for the fact that they were banned from combat roles, but then they didn't have the vote either so what can you expect?
I am 76 and my dad was a sergeant in the Lancashire Fusiliars in WW1 he was at the Battle of the Somme and he was gassed but clearly survived as many did because so many troops were involved .
He might have known my Grandad - Accy Pals. He also fought on the Somme near Serre - he was 16 or 17 years old at the time. Somehow he survived, but was injured (carried shrapnel in his leg his whole life) and then taken prisoner. Forced labour repairing the German railways that the Brits were blowing up. He managed to escape and walked barefoot to Spain with a couple of other lads. Understandably, he didn't really speak much about it, but he was very clear that there is no glory in war.
I cry every time I watch the last episode. It's quite simply stunning and encapsulates the madness of WWI totally.
I love the writing that turns our perception of Capt. Darling around. For the whole series, he's been Blackadder's antagonist, trying again and again to get one over on his opponent, but failing. This results in the audience seeing him as a pompous idiot, skulking back at HQ. His response to Blackadder's enquiry about how he's feeling exposes Darling's humanity. Like so many others in every war, all he wants to do is get home safe, go back to work, marry the love of his life and enjoy his favourite sport/pastime/hobby. The poignant revelation foreshadows what we all know is coming at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, also like so many others in every war, he didn't make it.
in the end, Darling and Blackadder come together, realizing they're both the same: doing whatever they can, hook or crook, to get out of the war and avoid certain death: and that they've both failed.
We THINK they didn't make it, although sadly likely. The ending was deliberately ambiguous
I think that encounter when Darling arrives in the trench is the first and only time they call each other 'Captain'.
@@shanemills3879 It's kind of hard to say, considering that they are supposed to be in the Somme and the fighting there was mostly _over_ by the end of 1916.
Yes. Good post.
All these years later and I'm still breaking my heart watching it ....
Only the British could make a comedy about the worst time in history. My German navy colleagues loved this series. At the end of this final episode, they all, silently, shook my hand.
The whole comedy is an homage to those that fell, but in order to actually show respect, we needed to be reminded of the reality at the end.
The moment Capt Darling is told he is going to the front took me back some 26 years, almost to the day.
I'd been serving for just less than 2 years when word came through we were going to deploy. Myself and another young Officer (Matt) were just weeks from deploying. The exuberance of youth (as portrayed by Lieutenant George in 'Goes Forth'), we were all geared up, looking forward to what was to come with what is now in hindsight, a fair degree of blissful ignorance, even though this wasn't my first deployment, it was my first War. We'd travelled to the Regimental Headquarters a few hours from where we were based, for a study day, after which we'd had a meal and a few drinks with some of the other Company Commanders and 2 ic's (Majors and Captains). As it came time for us to head off, we were saying our farewells, when several of those other Officers, with plenty of time under their belts, shook our hands, with very serious looks on their faces, and one of them said 'Keep your heads down'.
That caught both of us off guard. It was a long quiet drive back to our base.
Looking back, when I'm asked about those times, the 9 years I served, and the almost 3 years in total I spent on operations, I say 'The things you do when you're young'.
Over those years we lost a fair few colleagues in various events. I have a coin that commemorates one particular theatre we worked in, on which are stars for each of those we lost there. There are 12 stars on that coin. I know the names of each one, and for 10 of them I remember exactly where I was when I was told about the news they were no longer with us.
Those of us that remain, we do our best to make sure they are never forgotten.
after the lives of every post-WW2 generation have been filled with that generation sneering and ego-tripping refusing to believe that war experiences still exist for anyone younger.
@@conscienceaginBlackadder sorry. Read your comment a few times and still not sure what you're conveying.
@SeanHendy the emotionally unfair way many of the WW2 generation have treated, and been led by media to treat, everyone after them, often includes assuming that later generations are immune from having any war experiences
@@conscienceaginBlackadder there are many complicated issues at play.
I was born into a military family so everyone I knew and grew up with had connections to the military, often over many generations. It's difficult therefore for me to have seen nothing other than respect for all veterans, regardless of which era they are from, certainly from the circles I'm in. The same cannot be said of some 'civvies' particularly those that identify as pacifists or anarchists, who I have had several difficult conversations with, trying to educate them as to the error of their ways lol.
Have met more than a few WWII veterans, my Grandfather included. One of the most humbling conversations I ever had, was with 2 x WWII veterans, 1 x Parachute Regiment, and the other SAS, when I was serving myself, who said "We don't know how you do it. Back in our day it was easy. We knew who the enemy was". I was taken aback that they would ever think we had it any harder than they had, and that they underestimated the awe and respect that I had for what they did.
I do however have very disparaging views when it comes to many parts of the media having had a fair amount of contact with journalists of various types, and reading some of what they've written that I've had first hand knowledge of, the result being that I could see inaccuracies on every single line printed and all kinds of assumptions presented as misleading facts.
@@conscienceaginBlackadder Bollocks, to quote.
The audio only version of this (on cassettes in the 1990s) echoed some of the spoken lines during that lonely piano piece.
George: We've had some good times, we've had some damnably good laughs, eh?
Baldrick: I thought it was going to be such fun.
Darling: But sir, I don't want to.
Blackadder: Good luck, everyone.
One of the most under rated lines of all time "The great war. 1914-1917" damn
still hits like a sucker punch all these years later. even though you know better, you're still holding on to a bit of hope/denial. After all, that's how TV shows usually work. And then Darling says "1917" and the door just slams shut. And you know.
Sadly so many miss that, but if you know, especially if you were in the military it does hit you. If not for WW1 but other times when you are on "standby".
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Winston Churchill?
@@fredburgessea4925 No, Laurence Binyon.
@@fredburgessea4925 No, it was a poem by Laurence Binyon.
@stevewest4994 thank you Steve 👍
@ I already posted that, but my post disappeared.
Some 25 years ago I was a Platoon Commander training Phase 1 recruits during their initial training for the British Army. The course was about 14 weeks long and part way through included a battlefield tour trip of various sites relating to WWI. On the coach from Winchester I used to play the Goes Forth series, all 6 episodes, as a gentle introduction to get them started over the following 2 days, and it was a useful vehicle to get them interested and to understand some of what took place.
The ending leaves no doubt of the sacrifices made by so many, not only in WWI but also countless other wars and conflicts of our predecessors, as did visiting some of the Commonwealth War Graves that are in Belgium. It was particularly telling to see the usual 'characters' amongst the recruits, change completely, as they took in the history and saw the ages of those whose gravestones are in the cemeteries, given they were similar in age to those that died.
REGARDING WW1 RECRUITMENT, MOST ,IF NOT ALL, WORKING CLASS YOUNG MEN, WERE POORLY EDUCATED, AND IGNORANT OF THE WIDER WORLD, AND IN MANY CASES, HAD NEVER EVEN LEFT THE VILLAGE OR TOWN THEY WERE BORN AND LIVED IN. THOSE WITH JOBS, WERE MOSTLY HEAVY LABOURING JOBS WITH NO PROSPECTS,
THE IDEA OF GOING ABROARD BY TRAIN AND SEA, AND ENGAGING IN WAR AS SOLDIER'S IN UNIFORM, AND IN MOST CSES, IN ''PALS'' REGIMENTS, SOUNDED EXCITING.
I saw the same thing in Tyne Cot when a group of squaddies turned, Despite their Sergeants briefing they all looked cocky and streetwise. As they went round the cemetary and looked at all the dead who were about their own age you could see their attitude change. It was a very moving experience watching them grow up so quickly.
I was laughing as hard as I always did watching Blackadder and on the turn of a coin I was crying just as hard. Absolute genius and only fitting. My grandad was 4 years old when that war ended but WW2 caught up with him. It will never stop.
My grandfather fought in the Somme.
Of 800 people in his company, he was one of only 150 that survived the battle (and he was hit by shrapnel).
He never talked about his time and never talked about the battle (aside from saying once "I was there" whilst "The World at War" was on TV.
My grandfather was a boiler man in the navy during WW2 and was present during the D-Day landings
He never talked about it either and said he didn't understand why everyone chose to remember it
One of the best endings to a series in tv history. It fades away to poppies and a beautiful birdsong after all the chaos. Absolute genius and a fitting tribute to all those brave souls who didn’t come home.
this is the greatest ending to a series EVER, so moving
I so clearly remember the first time I saw it, completely unaware that it was the final episode, but as it went on just getting this strange feeling of dread. Just the way the men gradually turn wistful and nostalgic as the night goes on, as if one by one they're making their peace with their fate.
There is a picture on my wall of my great great uncle with his fellow soldiers of the lewis gunner section of the 2nd London Scottish regiment. It was taken at Gammecourt, France a week before the Somme. A week later, he was the only one of the fifteen men in the photo still alive.
He spoke about his experience only once. They went over the top, all the men around him fell down dead, he started shooting intermittently to save ammo. He was nearly shot by members of the Royal Irish regiment who thought he was a jerry until they noticed his kilt. He fell in with them. He sustained severe bayonet wounds to the torso and machine gun wounds on his forearms.
After the war he was doing his morning ablutions at the sink, his mother walked in and saw his horrifically scarred body and promptly fainted. He was a quiet man, children would ask what he did in the war and he would gently smile, continue to smoke his pipe and say nothing.
it was when the field turned to poppy's at the end that got to most people
that's all everyone talked about the next day
blame the editor Chris Wadsworth for that, it was also his idea to slow down the " over the top footage "
@@mwscuba No one is blaming the editor for that ending. Freak.
It was why the Red Poppy was used as a symbol of remembrance after the Great War. A carpet of millions of beautiful red flowers marking the spot in the battlefields where so much blood had been shed. The symbolism was just too perfect to miss.
Poppies thrive in disturbed soil. Dig it over, sprinkle the seeds, and up they'll come.@Mediumal
The poppies still grow. Visited several sites in 2019 and they are there especially around Ulster tower.
It's played straight as tribute to those who gave their lives for real.
For real- what did they give up their lives for?
@davis.fourohfour yup agreed
Part of the sheer brilliance of this episode is that it makes you feel genuine empathy for Darling. He is, in the other 5 episodes, an antagonistic, obnoxious figure, you aren't meant to like him. Then you actually feel your heart break when Melchitt sends him to his certain death, and acts like it's doing Darling a favour, how out of touch with reality Melchitt is. And how little he will think of it, another warm body will become his aide, and Darling will lie unburied in the fields of the Somme. It makes you care about a character you loathe.
No point hating him your all going to die in under a min .... So what's the point in hateing
Tim Mcinnerny played Darling brilliantly.
One of the finest pieces of Drama I've ever seen. Outstanding
From a 64 year old,
That last scene is so heart breaking 💔
It always brings tears to my eyes......😢😢😢
56, same.
Every character was played immaculately in this show.
To me typical British comedy has always lived alongside tragedy. As wacky as some shows can be, they always tend to be grounded in some reality.
More specifically to this though, i like the way it plays with your emotions to bring you from one polar opposite feeling to the other, conveying the seriousness and reality of what those people went through, it leaves a deep sinking feeling in my chest.
First season is great. It just has its own vibe.
I think what they did with the Blackadder theme at the end on top of what you are seeing makes it all work so well. A perfect ending for the show and totally respects those that faught and died fornour freedom. Looking at our country today, its such a shame so many no longer realise how much went into that freedom, and how many of the countries forefathers died on those fields to have what they faight for given away so easily and so freely every day now.
This series was my favourite! Some of the lines had me crying in laughter..the ending just had me crying. 😢 ❤
When realisation hits and he says he is scared always brings a tear to my eye
Poor beloved, silly George.
The Blackadder was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, with Atkinson playing the title role. When a second series was commissioned, Atkinson was happy to continue in the title role, but he didn't want to write, so Ben Elton came in to work with Curtis. The different writing partnership saw changes to the characters and style. The Blackadder was not actually repeated until just after Blackadder Goes Forth had aired. This long gap meant that everyone had become used to the Curtis / Elton writing partnership that they'd forgotten the different Curtis / Atkinson writing partnership, and so didn't enjoy it as much. I actually enjoy The Blackadder as much as the later series, but I am more of a medieval historian at heart.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The poem by John McCrae! Also featured as a musical contribution by Siouxsie and the Banshees "Poppy Day" ! Fantastic song, haunting.. Subject matter was about the 1st world war.
And how mad was it that in the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
They were cousins!
It was a sick family fall out and millions of people died...Humans never learn
Queen Victoria died in 1901... in the arms of Kaiser Wilhelm. And in 1917 White (i.e. not Red Bolshevik) Russians wondered why British ships had a portrait of their Tsar. Who was King George's cousin, looked very like him down to the beard and wore similar style uniforms....
Me and my cousins would have found a way to avoid war.
@@joezephyr You and your cousins aren't responsible for tens of millions of people. It's _so easy_ to say things like this when you will never, _ever_ have to back it up.
@@WJS774 To make myself clear, me and my cousins come from a different culture than those Kings and Tszars. We would have found a way.
You got through it Megan,darlings quote 1914_17 war,as we really knew it was18.the more I watch that last episode the more emotional I become,just thinking how baldrick & george are both scared breaks your ❤️.
One of the GREATEST endings ever! 🎬 It's not just comedy; it's pure brilliance! It perfectly illustrates how those at the top will throw everyone under the bus. Even felt for Darling in the end.
Makes me weep, every single time. 😢
I was eagerly waiting for Baldrick to really have a cunning plan. Thirty seconds later, my young daughter said "Why are you crying daddy?"
😢😢😢😢😢 Brilliant,the ending was genius ,my favourite line is "It Started When Archie Duke Shots an Ostrich thanks for posting it ,glad to see you' re a little better ❤❤.
“So the poor ostrich died for nothing.”
One of the greatest pieces of British TV ever made.
Still gets me, and I saw it the first time!
The whole series was brilliant, they were right not to continue.
It was scarily historically correct, with the decision makers well away from the front and the ordinary man being sent to their deaths.
We're supposed to learn from history, but I'm not sure that we are....
Nice reaction
In the British Army, 78 generals were killed on active service during WW1.
"Lions led by Donkeys."
A poignant and thought-provoking end to a masterful series. Over a hundred years later, soldiers can still be found stagnating in trenches, waiting to die. From an early age, we are taught that we should '...learn from history.' Alas, the ones who start the wars and have the power to stop them, seem to pay no heed. : (
An unfortunate truth…
That switch from Brilliant comedy to pathos is work of such genius. It's a complete gut punch and it's never lost it's impact.
Moments that stun nations are usually huge dramatic events, but you would never think that the final scene of a popular sitcom would have such an incredible effect. Everybody who saw it would never forget the night it aired there was no prior hint of what was coming. We knew it was the last episode of course but they production team kept the final scene under wraps. The next day in work it was all anybody could talk about. If memory serves, it won a national poll of the most iconic scene in British TV comedy history. While watching it today still has an effect, nothing comes close to that impact it had the night it actually aired.
As a historian I applaud what she says about captain darling going to the front. She's right,many men did not want to fight but like darling they did when it came down to it,bravely too.
True courage is being afraid but doing it anyway because it needs to be done
Should have played it right to the end to see the field of red poppies. Makes me cry each time.
I was born into a military family with a very strong history of service.
Great Grandfather was involved in WWI as part of the medical services in both Malta and Gallipoli; Great Uncle was in the Howe Battalion of the Royal Navy Division that fought in the Somme. He is buried at the military cemetery in Ancre. My Grandfather landed on the beaches on D Day and took part in the liberation of Belgium. My Dad served from '59 to '98 including Malaya in the early '60s. I would then also go on to serve, beginning my time 8 years after this was broadcast.
When Goes Forth was broadcast in '89, I was in college in the UK. My Dad was based in Germany. In the boarding house at college, Goes Forth was one of a few tv programs that was compulsive viewing. Everybody crammed into the tv room to watch it, and the final episode was much anticipated. Every chair was full, beanbags, and floor space all occupied, including the housemaster on duty that night.
The whole series had been superb and most of us wondered how they were going to finish it off, this being the final episode. Given the comedy and humour throughout, what they put together, and how they depicted WWI, was nothing short of perfect. Poignant, respectful, and thought provoking, when the final credits came up, with the now infamous vibrant red colour of the poppies on the battlefields of Flanders, there was silence in the tv room and a fair few tears.
A friend of a friend asked me to take him, his cousin and his cousin's son to find the field where a relative had died with the RMLI and that attack. He's buried in the Ancre Cemetary. I took another group round some years later and we went there, I read the last lines of Beaucourt Revisited, everyone seemed to think it was appropriate.
What a great programme this was with the ending ranking among the most moving scenes ever seen in any programme. As they said it was 1917 it wasn't the first day of the Somme when the British Army suffered about 60,000 casualties (mostly between 0730 and 0830) including around 20,000 killed. It was probably the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) on 31 July 1917 and which ended in November with men drowning in mud (literally). You said you're from Canada. Have you visited the memorial at Vimy Ridge, Newfoundland Park on the Somme where the Newfoundland Regiment (not part of Canada then) suffered 90% casualties on 1July1916 or Vancouver Corner near Ypres where Canadians held the line against the first gas attack. You'll learn a lot and the young guides to the first two sites come each year from Canada are superb.
I was never into Black Adder until I went on a Somme Battlefields Tour a few years back. We watched the entire series on the bus as we traveled around and it culminated with this episode on the last day at the Battlefields. It was a massive shock and a fitting end to both the trip and the series.
I remember watching this as a kid, the "im scared sir" made me run cold and the final shot had us all crying. There were still veterans from the great war alive back then and I had the pleasure of meeting some, ill never forget how old their medals were. God bless them
Aired as we approached Remembrance Day, if I recall correctly. It kind of hammered it home even harder. I was watching it in the kitchen with my older brother. After it ended he got up, without speaking, and turned off the TV, then we both sat in silence for a while before quietly going to bed. It was utterly shocking, and brilliantly done.
I can never stop singing the praises of this incredible moment of drama and pathos in the end moments of a comedy show. After the first time I watched the Blackadder Goes Forth series all subsequent views were filled with a sense of forboding because I knew what was coming. It is heart-wrenching. I don't think you get the full impact from just the last episode. You have to have seen the whole series to really feel the smack in the face that last scene gives you. To this day it is widely seen as one of the greatest dramatic scenes in TV history and the most incisive foray into the futility of war. For such a moment of drama to round off a raucous contemporary comedy is something that has never been done better. That end scene as it lifts into a full colour poppy field where they fell is chilling. "War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" - Edwin Starr
3 of the most intelligent and entertaining actors of the last 50 years, who all continue to have great success in many different fields. Of the 3, Stephen Fry stands out as a very exceptional rare intellect.
I remember watching this with my parents when it was first broadcast. We just sat in silence unable to believe what we had just watched. That's how brilliantly written and acted it is. In situation comedy, the one thing you know for sure is that the "situation" will be resolved in some way by the end of the episode and this one wasn't. Amazing.
Also I am glad that they never made a fifth series of Blackadder as that would have diminished the impact of how series 4 ended, in my opinion. Still incredibly moving every time I see it.
This episode was first aired on Rememberance Sunday (not unlike veterans day to our US friends, but with a bit more gravity). There was outrage before it was screened until people saw how tastefully done it was.
The military loved it. IT was the civis that got hot under the collar.
@JAmediaUK I think everyone loved it after it aired. It was the fear of it being irreverent. I remember watching Blackadder in-between times on stag, Red Dwarf and Men Behaving Badly were also favourites...
@ loved Red Dwarf, never got on with Men Behaving badly, or stag for that matter. It was always a combination of dark, very cold or raining or all three. :-)
The bit that gets me and I think it goes unnoticed by a lot, is when George says "the great war 1914, to 1917" the stark realization that it's not the end
Thank You Megan for Sharing this Episode.... It is STILL so emotional to watch now as when it was first shown...... Your so right in saying that the world hasn't learnt anything
I am 45 and Scottish,I watched this when it was on TV here. At the time I already knew I wanted to be a historian so lived the series. The ending truly shocked people in Britain back then there were a good handful of world war one veteran's still alive too.
Couple of mistakes. The chances of being killed due to enemy action were not that much lower for the generals as it was for the private soldier. If course many more privates died than generals,but there were millions of lower tanks for the highest ranks. A good indication of this is that Lord Kitchener(a experienced soldier who spent much of his career doing ungentlmently stuff in the sudan,basically keeping a insurgency alive against the mahdists) was killed in action(unless you don't count sailors in the navy as being brave servicemen and women)due to a torpedo attack.
Haig saw his first tank and basically on the spot asked for a thousand. The government forced him to use them in penny packets on the somme,Haig wanted to wait until he had a lot more. Haig was also the driving force between British cavalry basically being mounted infantry by 1914, he was adamant that cavalry should have full infantry training and insisted they not carry carbines(shorter ranges rifles)but the exact same rifle as the infantry.
i understand how you remember war histroy more, i have a saying i use often "you have to understand the past to see where you are going". war is nasty, horrible but at the same time has the most human moments ever. example the troops stopped fighting on christmas day and went out to play a friendly match of football in nomans land with the germans. that in itself is kinda beautiful.
The irony of baldrick saying that splinter on the ladder could be dangerous 😳, says it all. The last of the tiddlywinkers..
I think "the Splinter" was a way for the production team to give Blackadder an "out" if they decided to make another series.. However I am glad they left the series as it was .. a fitting finale
@kittyhawk9707 I don't get the point regarding the splinter remark about getting another series.i know Megan showed heavily edited highlights 🤔 I don't think that baldrick line was in,it was omitted,but I remember it being in the original bbc version, explaining the irony meant alittle cut from a spell or splinter in a 🪜 ladder is nothing compared too what was to come..
They didn't really need an out like that. After all the first and second series ended with the entire regular cast being wiped out. That didn't stop them doing more series on the premise that "They may have died but their line lives on".
And we did get to see a present-day Blackadder in "Blackadder: Back and Forth".
@@kittyhawk9707I reiterate the splinter wasn't a reference to a splinter group ,it was specifically meant as a jagged piece of wood stuck out on a ladder before climbing up & over the top,baldrick said you can do yourself a hand injury getting a spell splinter or bit of wood,hope that clears up the anomaly over the irony..
@@Rodgerslicker I know what the splinter meant .. what i meant was in the next series Blackadder could have survived the war due to getting "injured" by the splinter and invalided home .. just like he wanted to do during the whole episode ..
A very poetic dip into tragedy at the culmination of a fine comedy. Shakespearean, some might say. The finality of the implied termination of the Blackadder (and co.) bloodline I find particularly poignant. Like a cygnet, from slightly clumsy beginnings, something truly elegant emerged.
Beautiful. I love this show.
I saw a couple of the actors being interviewed. The scene was done in one take. When they were asked to do another take, they all refused, stating they had never been so scared in all their lives! Very powerful ending! RIP the fallen. (Former 8Tp, Zulu Coy, 45 Cdo: "We will remember them.")
The story about the Christmas truce has a sad ending after the next day when the troops refused to fight and they all got punished.
They leave that bit out of the story most of the time.
To see you appreciate our comedy and the true words you say about wishing there was more forms of humility in the world. Too right that should be the result, except others think otherwise. It really is nice to know that there are those who appreciate our television and movies out there, one of the most heartfelt scenes in my opinion in all of television because they then make you realise the reality of the situation. Blackadder remains one of my favourites!
I remember a thing in the news paper remembering ww1, was about how a whole cricket team in a school fought in battle in separate regiments at different times during the war, but by the time it was over, they were all gone. It was a reminder of how no one was exempt from being called up....except the rich
As many have stated here and elsewhere the ending is one of the greatest, going from such a great comedy you can feel the humour almost get sucked out at a specific point.
I remember when the BBC I think did the greatest ever British comedies ever and the top few got a segment or episode justifying the reason, and they went over all of black adder and said finally you can ignore everything so far and this episode alone was a justification alone. For a comedy like this to be able to create such a moving scene is very very rare, still an all time top top ending imo
Oh yes I agree! The humour does get sucked out and the energy is palpable. It was beautifully done!
Don't forget that this is not a history lesson. The British Army was very well supplied with equipment, supplies and food. They got their mail from home within 24 hours through an extremely efficient supply chain. Troops spent most of their time out of the line, only moving up when there was an assault being launched.
Absolutely brilliant I still get sad about the ending……because it reflects the futility of it all….and the waste of a generation.👏👏👏👏👏🙏👍
They were all told the great lie: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
am so sorry that you have not been feeling well Megan.anyway enjoy the rest of your weekend😁
it's ok my grandfather on my mums side was there and he lived and then did it all again in the second one, died of starvation in this country in 1971
British humour at its best. Facing awful hell with a sharp witicism. Thank you to all who went through that for real.
You “get it” spot on, great reaction video
The genius of writing in blackadder
If you like war history theres a youtube channel called "the great war" where between 2014 and 2018 uploaded weekly videos detailing what was happening in that week 100 years ago during WW1, it was histed by Indy Nidell, since then he left the channel and they've made random videos here and there, you might like the weekly series and biography videos
"There's a corner of a foreign field that is forever England"
The first series is brilliant, you won't be disappointed!
I've got the complete boxed set & it's great to dig it out occasionally & watch it all again because it's great comedy stuff that never gets old.
My grandfather fought in WW1.. He lost three brothers and a brother-in-law.. his youngest brother, Lewis, died on 11/11/1918.. Armistice day itself...RIP Fred, Frank,Lewis and James...and RIP to all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Like many others here, I saw this when it first aired, and many times since. Even in this heavily edited form, decades later, the ending is still just as moving.
I also love the little elements that build in this episode showing how the situation is affecting the people enduring it. The moment that stands out for me, aside from the ending, is Blackadder saying "not with a bayonet through your neck, you couldn't" when Baldrik has just said he could continue reciting his poetry all night. This stands out to me as I believe it is the only time in the series that Blackadder is so directly aggressive and hostile in his response. In any other moment, he would have retorted with something clever, witty, or even comedicly violent but the stress of the situation leads to him barking out something so brutal and crude.
My Grt Uncle (Pvt.Charles Wicks) was killed on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme...He was 18.
So many young men on both sides fell that day.
If only we could learn the lesson.
I never get tired of watching that. It always brings a tear to my eyes. I have served in the Army. Brilliant ending to a brilliant series.
One thing I’ve learnt from comedy shows written by Ben Elton. Always expect a serious or a sad scene.
Thats the same for any decent comedy. Pathos is essential.
Yes, the same applied to the last episode of 'Upstart crow', also written by Ben Elton, which dealt with the death of Shakespeare's young son Hamnet. A subtle and very clever shift from comedy to tragedy without spoiling either.
No matter how many times you watch the ending it gets you every time 💔
Geoffrey Palmer, who plays Field Marshall Haig, starred in the sitcom "As Time Goes By" with Judi Dench.
His best role was in Fawlty Towers. " I'm a doctor and i want my sausages".
@@gavst79 But that was only one episdoe.