Goodbyeee

Goodbyeee

“Goodbyeee” is the sixth and final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the fourth series of British historical sitcom Blackadder. The episode was first broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom on 2 November 1989. It depicts its main characters’ final hours before a major British offensive on the Western Front of the First World War. Captain Blackadder attempts to escape his fate by feigning madness. The series concludes with Blackadder wishing his comrades good luck, and they are assumed to die in machine-gun fire.

About Goodbyeee in brief

Summary Goodbyeee“Goodbyeee” is the sixth and final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the fourth series of British historical sitcom Blackadder. The episode was first broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom on 2 November 1989, shortly before Armistice Day. It depicts its main characters’ final hours before a major British offensive on the Western Front of the First World War. Captain Blackadder attempts to escape his fate by feigning madness. After he fails to convince General Melchett, and Field Marshal Haig’s advice proves useless, he resigns himself to taking part in the push. The series concludes with Blackadder wishing his comrades good luck, and they are assumed to die in machine-gun fire. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton wrote the episode, and further material was provided by cast members. Its final sequence, which shows the main characters going \”over the top\”, uses slow motion, as the programme’s creators were unhappy with the result of the scripted ending. The enhanced scene has been described as bold and highly poignant. It has a darker tone than other episodes in the series, culminating in its acclaimed ending in which the main character is assumed to have been killed by machine gun fire. Blackadder: Back & Forth made a decade later, it was the last episode to be produced and transmitted. The theme of death ties in with the series’ use of gallows humour, its criticism and satire of war, and its depiction of authority figures contentedly sending their subordinates to face the enemy, while unwilling to do so themselves.

It is the first time in any series that Blackadder does not call it a “cunning plan” to escape death, but admits it couldn’t fail to improve over his own plan to feign insanity because another madman would have noticed because it would have been noticed because of his own ineptitude. The final scene is a moment of hope when the British barrage lifts, and Blackadder reminds his colleagues that they have stopped only to avoid hitting their own men, but Blackadder tells them that he has a plan to avoid their death, and that he is going to try and do it anyway. In Blackadder goes Forth, he is an officer in the British Army on the WWI Western Front during the first World War, and he is the only Trinity Tiddlers member still alive; this is paralleled in Baldrick’s pets, who have all died. The next day, Blackadder’s trench receives a phone call from HQ: a full-scale attack has been ordered for the next day at dawn. Realising that this is likely to mean his death, he plans to escape by pretending to be mad: he puts underpants on his head and sticks pencils in his nostrils. His efforts are hindered by the loud and intimidating General MelChett and his strict, sardonic staff officer, Captain Darling.