"Blackadder Goes Forth"
Corporal Punishment (1989)

Director:

Richard Boden

Writers:

Richard Curtis (written by) &
Ben Elton (written by)

TV Series:

"Blackadder Goes Forth" (1989)

Original Air Date:

5 October 1989 (Season 1, Episode 2)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Plot:

Blackadder hatches a cunning plan to avoid starvation and ignore his orders by eating carrier pigeons.

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | War | Cunning Plan | 1910s | Historical

Cast

Rowan Atkinson	...	Captain Edmund Blackadder
Tony Robinson	...	Private S. Baldrick
Stephen Fry	...	General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett
Hugh Laurie	...	Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh
Tim McInnerny	...	Captain Kevin Darling
Jeremy Hardy	...	Corporal Perkins
Stephen Frost	...	Corporal Jones
Lee Cornes	...	Private Fraser
Paul Mark Elliott	...	Private Robinson
Jeremy Gittins	...	Private Tipplewick

Quotes:

[presiding over Blackadder's Court-Martial]
General Melchett: Before we sentence the deceased, I mean defendant, I think we had better hear from the prosecution.

Corporal Punishment - a complete classic of an episode.

Corporal Punishment is easily the best of all the first three Blackadder Series 4 episodes - it has an endlessly quotable script and a funny yet serious theme - generals were prepared to kill men for things as stupid and minor as shooting pigeons. Baldrick's stupidity was at it's most life-threatening in this episode, as shown by his rubbishy escape kit and the line "We didn't receive any messages, and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot this delicious plump-breasted pigeon," - right in front of General Melchett, who was enquiring into the matter. The scene in court was hugely funny, and showed that Baldrick and George were always stupid, and would never change. Yes, it is very predictable, and Blackadder himself could have done with a more humane side (a scene in which he broke down completely would have been a very cunning plan), but we can forgive Ben Elton and Richard Curtis that - after all, the character of Blackadder has been displayed these past 20 episodes to not be known to break down and to stay calm and cool in even life-threatening situations. Not even the pigeon-shooting scene was badly done, but we don't watch Blackadder for its brilliant, epic special effects (which it clearly doesn't have) - we watch it for its sharp, dry, witty sense of humour, interesting mix of history and comedy, and the stupidest comedy characters ever (i.e Baldrick). And on the second aspect, Corporal Punishment engages.

Another great episode and addition to the Blackadder series, Corporal Punishment is a huge success, and like the firing squad leader said to Blackadder, "we aim to please". Well, you have done with this episode. Bravo! 10/10