Blackadder/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Black Adder

Prince Edmund "The Black Adder" Plantagenet, Duke Of Edinburgh

"Of course! The slimy one!"

"If we lose, I'll be chopped to pieces. My arms will end up at Essex, my torso in Norfolk, and my private parts stuck up a tree somewhere in Rutland."

(Rowan Atkinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


  • Anti-Hero: Type V
  • Anti-Villain: Sure, he's a slimy, contemptible, amoral schemer... but given that his father alternately despises him and forgets he exists, his peers treat him with pity at best and disgust at worst, and his only friends are sycophantic Yes Men... it's not hard to see why.
  • Butt Monkey
  • Cain: To Harry's Abel.
  • Cool Horse: "He rides a pitch-black steed..."
  • Deadpan Snarker: Occasionaly shows signs of this.
  • Dirty Coward
  • The Evil Prince: A pathetically spineless version.
  • Fail O'Suckyname: Before Baldrick suggested "the Black Adder", Edmund's first choice for his new sobriquet was "the Black... Vegetable."
  • Heroic Bastard /BastardBastard: Tried to uncover a love letter between the queen and McAngus written around Harry's birth to dethrone him. However, it turned out that the letter was written after Harry's birth.

Blackadder: As you can see, these letters are dated --
Harry: Nine months after I was born!
McAngus: Or nine months before you were born, Edmund.
Blackadder: You... bastard!
Harry: No, I think you'll find that you're the bastard, Edmund.

Baldrick, Son Of Robin The Dung-Gatherer

"Then I shall call you... Baldrick.

(Tony Robinson)

"I have a cunning plan that cannot fail..."

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Lord Percy Percy, Duke Of Northumberland

(Tim McInnerny)

"But if you kill him in front of everybody, won't they suspect something?"

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

King Richard IV

"===CHISWICK! FRESH HORSES!==="

"As the Good Lord said, love thy neighbour as thyself! Unless he's Turkish, in which case, KILL THE BASTARD!!!"

(Brian Blessed)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Harry, Prince Of Wales

"The verdict of this court is that the accused are found guilty of witchcraft. The maximum penalty that the law allows is that you be burned to death. However, in view of your previous good background, I am disposed to be lenient. Therefore, I sentence you to be burned alive."

(Robert East)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Queen Gertrude of Flanders

"Now, would I, Edmund... Do I tell people that your brother Harry is scared of spoons? Or that your father has very small private parts?"

(Elspet Gray)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Princess Leia of Hungary

"Hello Edmund. You look funny."

(Natasha King)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Fridge Horror: She probably died along with the rest of the court at the end.
    • On the other hand, the later Blackadders are supposed to be this one's descendents, so ... Come to think of it, I'm not sure that's any better.
    • In fairness, not only is it likely that at her age she wouldn't be drinking wine, the illegitimate sons of Princes and Kings tended to be made lords, hence his nearest descendant being a lord.
  • May-December Romance: Only about 11 when hastily married to Edmund.
  • Morality Pet: Edmund is noticably nicer towards her than he is towards anyone else.

The Black Seal [1]

Guy de Glastonbury: "Good evening... and surrender. Your money or your life. Damn!! I'm always doing this. Did I say "Your money or your life? Sorry, slip of the tongue, your money and your life. Sorry."

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Phillip "The Hawk" of Burgundy

"I return at last after fifteen years. Waiting, plotting, nurturing my hatred and planning my revenge. Yes, fifteen years of living in France teaches a man to hate. Fifteen years of wearing perfume, fifteen years of eating frogs, fifteen years of saying 'Par-don' and all because of you."

(Patrick Allen)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Blackadder II

Edmund Blackadder, The Lord Blackadder

Growing the Beard, in more ways than one.

"Well, it is said, Percy, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so that through learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God... Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead to remind me I'm best."

(Rowan Atkinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Bondsman Baldrick

The Baldrick we all know and love, eternal Bumbling Sidekick to Blackadder.

"Not to worry my lord, the arrow didn't in fact enter my body... But by a thousand to one chance my willy got in the way.

(Tony Robinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Baldrick: I've been in your service since I was two and a half, my lord.
Blackadder: Well, that must be why I'm so utterly sick of the sight of you.

Lord Percy Percy

"Oh, Edmund, could it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a lump of purest green?"'

(Tim McInnerny)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Queen Elizabeth "Queenie" I

Sometimes I think about having you executed, just to see the expression on your face."

(Miranda Richardson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Nursie/Bernard

(Patsy Byrne)

"Out you popped, out of your Mummy's tummy and everybody shouting : "It's a boy, it's a boy!". And somebody said "But it hasn't got a winkle!". And then I said "A boy without a winkle? God be praised, it is a miracle. A boy without a winkle!" And then Sir Thomas More pointed out that a boy without a winkle is a girl. And everyone was really disappointed."

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Lord Melchett

"As private parts to the gods are we! They play with us for their sport!"

(Stephen Fry)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Lord Flashheart

I've got a plan! And it's as HOT as my PANTS!

(Rik Mayall)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart
I wish you were the star
Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart,
You're sexier by far."

Kate/Bob

(Gabrielle Glaister)

"Father, I must speak. I can be silent no longer. All day long you muttered to yourself, gibber, dribble, moan and bat your head against the wall, yelling "I want to die". Now you may say I'm leaping to conclusions but you're not completely happy, are you?"

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

The Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells

"I will have my money or....YOUR BOTTOM WILL WISH IT HAD NEVER BEEN BORN!"

(Ronald Lacey)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"You see, I am a colossal pervert. No form of sexual depravity is too low for me. Animal, vegetable or mineral, I'll do anything to anything."

Bishop: "You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church?"
Edmund: "No, I could never get used to the underwear."

  • Dirty Old Monk
  • Eats Babies: After drowning them during christenings.
  • Everyone Calls Him Bishop
  • Fat Bastard: But don't call him "Fatso" if you know what's good for you.
  • Loan Shark: Assistant manager of the Bank of the Black Monks of St. Herod ("Banking with a smile and a stab"). Their motto: "Repayment or revenge." He admits to Blackadder that he hates it when people pay up, as he rather enjoys what he gets to do to those who don't.
  • Sinister Minister
  • Villain with Good Publicity: In spite of the aforementioned baby-eating, he's apparently of good standing with the Queen and his parishioners. "As far as my flock is concerned, my one vice is a tipple before evensong." Blackadder gets the upper hand by endangering his reputation.

Prince Ludwig the Indestructible

"We have met many times, although you knew me by another name. Do you recall a mysterious black marketeer and smuggler called Otto with whom you used to dine and plot and play the biscuit game at the Old Pizzle in Dover? Yes! I was the waitress."

(Hugh Laurie)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Blackadder The Third

Mr. Edmund Blackadder, Esq.

"Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words "I have a cunning plan" marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation?"

"A man may fight for many things: his country, his principles, his friends, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a stack of French porn."

(Rowan Atkinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Underscrogsman-Lord "Sod-off" Baldrick

The cunning planner at work.

"I am as stupid as I look, sir, but if I can help, I will."

(Tony Robinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


George Augustus Frederick, The Prince Regent

What ho, Blackadder!

"Only the other day, Prime Minister Pitt called me an "idle scrounger," and it wasn't until ages later that I thought how clever it would've been to have said, "Oh, bugger off, you old fart!" I need to improve my mind, Blackadder. I want people to say, "That George, why, he's as clever as a stick in a bucket of pig swill.""

(Hugh Laurie)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Mrs. Miggins

(Helen Atkinson-Wood)

A description of the character goes here.

The Duke of Wellington

(Stephen Fry)

A description of the character goes here.

Blackadder Goes Forth

Captain Edmund Blackadder

"I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?"

"For us, the Great War is finito, a war which would be a damn sight simpler if we just stayed in England and shot fifty thousand of our men a week."

(Rowan Atkinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Blackadder: The guns have stopped because we're about to attack. Not even our generals are mad enough to shoot our own men. They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it.

  • Deadpan Snarker
  • The Captain
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: To quote the man himself on his service in Africa (which made his reputation as a competent soldier), "[T]he prerequisite for any battle was that the enemy should under no circumstances carry guns". He became known as the 'Hero of Mboto Gorge' in 1892, where he had faced "ten thousand Watutsi warriors armed to the teeth with kiwi fruit and dry guava halves". Needless to say, none of this prepared him at all for fighting in the trenches.
  • Identical Grandson: Shouldn't even have to say it.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To a very slight extent. He's still not remotely a nice person, but he can bring himself to feel sympathy for Darling and wish the others good luck in the final episode, and he does at one point compliment George's paintings. Also, despite being a soldier, he is the only Blackadder in the four seasons not to commit murder - unless you count Speckled Jim.
  • Lovable Coward: For a certain value of 'lovable'. If not for the entire backdrop, would probably be a Dirty Coward.
    • Though oddly he arguably isn't actually cowardly at all; he very definitely doesn't want to die but when unavoidably placed in genuinely very dangerous situations (crawling across a minefield, captured by Germans, facing a court martial, going over the top) he keeps his cool.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • The Neidermeyer: A relatively mild example. He regards the men under his command as incompetent fools... which in his defense, they mostly are. They seem to admire him, however.
  • Only Sane Man
  • Pet the Dog: In the final episode Blackadder treats Darling very gently after Melchett sends him to the Front, respectfully addressing him as 'Captain Darling' when he shows up at the trench (somewhat reminiscent of King Richard and Edmund in the finale of the original series), and a few moments later asking him how he felt about going over the top. Pretty moving stuff considering they have spent the last five episodes hating each other.
    • It is possible that Blackadder's main reason for hating Darling was that Darling had succeeded in what Blackadder had been trying to do for the entire war; get the hell out of the trenches. When it became clear that both he and Darling were not getting out of it, he didn't have any reason to hate Darling any more (although there's not much chance of Blackadder liking him any more because of it.
  • Reluctant Warrior: He does everything in his power to avoid going into battle. A closer look at the series shows that he rarely carries his sidearm unless he has to (such as when visiting HQ) and even then, doesn't appear to keep it loaded (we see him loading it before going over the top in the finale).
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist

Private S. Baldrick

Don't be fooled, those specs are anything but Brainy.

"Why can't we just stop, sir? Why couldn't we just say "No more killing, let's all go 'ome?" Why would it be stupid just to pack it in, sir? Why?!"

(Tony Robinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Lieutenant George C. St Barleigh

"Permission for lip to wobble, sir?"

(Hugh Laurie)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Although Blackadder doesn't admit it aloud.
  • Hidden Depths: He's not as much of a Patriotic Fervor filled twit as he initially seems- he's a gifted artist and ultimately admits to fear of dying in battle.
  • Sole Survivor: In the last episode, he mentions that he joined the Army with along with his friends from Cambridge, the "Trinity Tiddlers", and by then, he's the only one left alive of the group.
    • Which was Truth in Television. The pals battalions were a real thing, and the Great War was the last time friends joining en masse was allowed, as it led to whole villages, towns and communities being decimated.
  • Upper Class Twit: Not as upper-class as the Prince, but has the personality down, pat.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Seems blissfully unaware of Captain Blackadder's contempt for him.
  • Wham! Line: In perhaps a first in television history, it actually occurs mid-line when George's bravado gives way to near panic. Any laughs from the audience for the remainder of the episode are nervous ones at best.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist

General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett

"You know, over these last few years, I've come to think of you as a sort of son. Not a favourite son of course, Lord no, more a sort of illegitimate back-stair sort of sprog, y'know, the sort of spotty squid that nobody really likes."

(Stephen Fry)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Bad Boss: When Darling said that he needed a convincing injury so that he could spy on a field hospital, Melchett shot his foot on spot. This is easily the least of his crimes.
  • Bait the Dog: As noted, he initially seems a lot more amusing and likable than he actually is.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Melchett's played as though he's having the time of his life, and thinks everyone else is, too, with Darling and Blackadder as straight men to his antics. Brutally subverted in the final episode when he sends Darling to his death with barely a thought.
  • General Failure: A parody of WW 1 Generals, meaning that his particular brand of strategic incompetence wasn't very removed from real life...
  • Hot-Blooded: A far cry from his soft-spoken ancestor.
  • Identical Grandson: Obviously of the Melchett of the second season, but also an Expy of the Duke of Wellington in the third season, who was also played by Stephen Fry. Wellington was likewise presented as a Hot-Blooded and crazy military man, but he was actually competent.
  • Jerkass: Melchett isn't just incompetent, he's totally insensitive to the well-being of others and might even be a sociopath.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite senselessly, obliviously ordering countless men to their deaths on the Western Front, including his own very-much-reluctant right hand man, Melchett is the only major character to survive the entire fourth series.
  • Large Ham: ===BAAAAAH!!===
  • The Neidermeyer: He is distraught by the death of his pigeon "Speckled Jim", yet blissfully uncaring about the fifty thousand men a week dying in the trenches. His bizarre tactics that help expedite the latter include "doing precisely what we've done eighteen times before" and "climbing out of [the] trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy". Sadly, both are to some extent Truth in Television.
  • Pet the Dog: His love for his pet pigeon. However, any sympathy he'd get for that is subverted by his callousness toward running over George's rabbit when George was a child, and of course his apathy toward his troops' lives.
  • Stupid Boss
  • Token Evil Teammate
  • Verbal Tic: His "baahing", often interpreted as a call-back to his ancestor's "affection for sheep", but according to Stephen Fry who played him, he had in mind that Melchett had hemorrhoids.

Captain Kevin Darling

"Just doing my job, Blackadder. Obeying orders...and, of course, having enormous *fun* into the bargain."

(Tim McInnerny)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"What is the matter with you today, Darling?!"
"Darling you're hysterical."

Squadron Commander the Lord Flashheart

"Cancel the state funeral, tell the King to stop blubbing, Flash is NOT DEAD! I simply ran out of JUICE - and before all the girls start going "Oh, what's the point of living anymore?" I'm talkin' about PETROL! WOOF WOOF!"

(Rik Mayall)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Kate, AKA Bob

"Permission to slip into something more uncomfortable, sir."

(Gabrielle Glaister)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen

"How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing. For us, it is a mundane and functional item. For you, the basis of an entire culture.

(Adrian Edmonson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
Back to Blackadder
  1. ↑ Sir Wilfred Death (John Hallam), Three-Fingered Pete (Roger Sloman), Guy de Glastonbury (Patrick Malahide), Sean the Irish Bastard (Ron Cook), Friar Bellows (Paul Brooke), Jack Large (Mick Walter).
  2. ↑ who internal evidence shows was actually in her mid-thirties, but is generally depicted as a dotty old woman
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