This is the best half-hour of television ever made. There's nothing else that could ever topple it from that position. What more is there to say?
The plot is a basic one but it's not trying to tell a story. The trench Edmund commands is finally going to do their duty and fight.
It's script is setting out to examine the characters and their individual histories before the war began. We learn that George was in the "Tiddlywinkers" pals' brigade and Baldrick was in another one. Both have lost all members but them and their realisation that all their friends in the war have died is a truly harrowing moment. All the mindless optimism we've seen thus far is replaced with an understandable fear of the same fate happening to them. As for Edmund, he needs no such revelation. We instead learn about his military experience, once saving Douglas Hague, and his disappointment in seeing enemies who are capable of actually fighting back. He was shocked when he saw them do that.
He tries to go for another last-ditch effort to get out by pretending to be mad. Melchett and Darling come calling and tell George how he once knew soldiers to use the same method as what Edmund is doing and had them shot so Edmund is forced to backtrack on his plan. When he later calls Hague for help he is told to do it again but knows it's not going to work. "I believe the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'," says Edmund.
The episode is entirely character-driven drama and it's an extremely brave thing to do in a sitcom. I doubt any other show could pull this one off but here it works. Substituting laughs for tears is done perfectly here and it's a nice U-Turn from comedy to drama as the jokes are permitted to take a back seat, only showing up when the writers want your brain to stop readying the tears and save them for the end of the episode.
The scene when the setting switches to HQ is when you know the end is nigh as Melchett comes to Darling and gives him a summons to Blackadder's trench. "But I don't want to...!" Darling tries to tell him but Melchett is not getting the point: "Goodbye, Captain Kevin Darling." The sound of military drumbeats and the sudden bright light with his driver's silhouette is a moment you will never forget and is probably the saddest thing you'll ever see -- Until the final scene of the episode. The writing is indescribably wonderful here.
The ending scene is the home of the true emotional heartbeat of things though as Darling arrives in the trench. He and Edmund have had a mutual disdain for each other since the beginning but it's all gone now and replaced with a mutual respect. The two actors are able to make you feel the new feeling of respect for each others' characters and that's not an easy thing to do for even Hollywood's finest, yet two TV actors manage it here.
Then we come to the push with several one-liners here that punctuate the tension and represent what's being felt by the soldiers.
"Wouldn't want to face the machine guns without this stick."
"There's a nasty splinter on that ladder, somebody could hurt themselves on that."
"Whatever your plan was it can't've been worse than my plan of pretending to be mad. Who'd've noticed another mad-man around here?"
"The Great War: 1915-1917."
Then they go out of the trench and the tears come out of your eyes. The slow-motion, the piano version of the theme tune, the booming sounds as it fades out and finally a shot of a field of poppies with birdsong in the background.
It's a shame IMDb only allows up to ten out of ten since this deserves at least 1000/10. What more can I say?!
The plot is a basic one but it's not trying to tell a story. The trench Edmund commands is finally going to do their duty and fight.
It's script is setting out to examine the characters and their individual histories before the war began. We learn that George was in the "Tiddlywinkers" pals' brigade and Baldrick was in another one. Both have lost all members but them and their realisation that all their friends in the war have died is a truly harrowing moment. All the mindless optimism we've seen thus far is replaced with an understandable fear of the same fate happening to them. As for Edmund, he needs no such revelation. We instead learn about his military experience, once saving Douglas Hague, and his disappointment in seeing enemies who are capable of actually fighting back. He was shocked when he saw them do that.
He tries to go for another last-ditch effort to get out by pretending to be mad. Melchett and Darling come calling and tell George how he once knew soldiers to use the same method as what Edmund is doing and had them shot so Edmund is forced to backtrack on his plan. When he later calls Hague for help he is told to do it again but knows it's not going to work. "I believe the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'," says Edmund.
The episode is entirely character-driven drama and it's an extremely brave thing to do in a sitcom. I doubt any other show could pull this one off but here it works. Substituting laughs for tears is done perfectly here and it's a nice U-Turn from comedy to drama as the jokes are permitted to take a back seat, only showing up when the writers want your brain to stop readying the tears and save them for the end of the episode.
The scene when the setting switches to HQ is when you know the end is nigh as Melchett comes to Darling and gives him a summons to Blackadder's trench. "But I don't want to...!" Darling tries to tell him but Melchett is not getting the point: "Goodbye, Captain Kevin Darling." The sound of military drumbeats and the sudden bright light with his driver's silhouette is a moment you will never forget and is probably the saddest thing you'll ever see -- Until the final scene of the episode. The writing is indescribably wonderful here.
The ending scene is the home of the true emotional heartbeat of things though as Darling arrives in the trench. He and Edmund have had a mutual disdain for each other since the beginning but it's all gone now and replaced with a mutual respect. The two actors are able to make you feel the new feeling of respect for each others' characters and that's not an easy thing to do for even Hollywood's finest, yet two TV actors manage it here.
Then we come to the push with several one-liners here that punctuate the tension and represent what's being felt by the soldiers.
"Wouldn't want to face the machine guns without this stick."
"There's a nasty splinter on that ladder, somebody could hurt themselves on that."
"Whatever your plan was it can't've been worse than my plan of pretending to be mad. Who'd've noticed another mad-man around here?"
"The Great War: 1915-1917."
Then they go out of the trench and the tears come out of your eyes. The slow-motion, the piano version of the theme tune, the booming sounds as it fades out and finally a shot of a field of poppies with birdsong in the background.
It's a shame IMDb only allows up to ten out of ten since this deserves at least 1000/10. What more can I say?!