User Reviews

George has once again made a muck of things. He's slept with BOTH of the Duke of Wellington's nieces and Wellington has a famously terrible sense of honor. When Wellington finds out, he challenges the Price Regent to a duel. George asks Edmund to pose as him and fight the duel--and surely die in the process. Edmund has a plan, however, to use his seriously deranged cousin, McAdder, to fight instead--as McAdder is a homicidal maniac. Unfortunately, Wellington arrives before Edmund can make arrangements for McAdder to take his place, so Edmund himself poses as the Regent at their meeting. Fortunately, this first meeting is to discuss the war as well as plan for their upcoming duel--not actually yet fight the duel. So, so far Edmund is safe.

So what happens next? Well, I'd love to say more but it might spoil the fun. Suffice to say, the Regent gets the snot knocked out of him...and worse. And, unusually, things actually work out great in the end--something you'd never expect from a Blackadder series! A bit silly, but rewarding.

Blackadder 1 saw everyone die except for Percy and Baldrick. Blackadder 2 saw everyone die. Now we come to the final episode of Blackadder 3 and we probably expect to see the cast die. The episode plays on our knowledge of this and keeps you guessing who will and won't survive and the reveal of that the end is an amazing twist on the formula.

The episode sees the return of series 2 regular Stephen Fry as the Duke of Wellington. This role inspires his series four work as General Melchett and he'll reprise the role for the millennium reunion special. His character has threatened to kill the prince in a duel (so the prince will die?) for taking advantage of his nieces and Baldrick throws in Edmund off the deep end by suggesting George and Blackadder switch places (so Blackadder will die?).

We also see another extension to the Blackadder family in the form of Scottish madman Macadder. Blackadder wants to see if Macadder will fight the duel instead. Wellington has said that the kind of man Macadder is is the only one who could beat the duke in a duel (so will it be Wellington who dies?).

This episode has excellent moments in it from start to end such as Baldrick's poem, Everything Macadder does, Your Highness Your Highness, King George III, and the actual duel itself being fought with cannons instead of swords. The best moment comes from Baldrick's surprising knowledge of Art History.

A great episode filled with memorable lines from start to finish that provides a brilliantly dark twist on the Blackadder series finale tried and tested formula. Not an experience you'll forget, this is a must-see.

Prince George boasts of the good time he had with a pair of young ladies; unaware that their uncle is the Duke of Wellington and he has sworn to kill anybody who takes advantage of his nieces. It isn't long before a letter arrives informing the prince that the duke has challenged him to a duel. Baldrick has a cunning plan; Blackadder can fight the duel for him… Blackadder is unimpressed with the idea but then he has a plan of his own… his homicidal Scottish cousin is in town so he can pretend to be Blackadder when he pretends to be the prince. If the plan is to work Wellington will have to think Blackadder is the prince and vice versa when he visits before the duel… he is surprised to find an intelligent prince being served by a dim-witted butler. Everything is going to plan until McBlackadder decides to return to his Aberdeen kipper business rather than fight; it looks as if Blackadder is doomed… especially when he learns the duel is to be fought with cannons!

Having watched the previous two series I'd expected the main cast to be killed off once again; everything that happened early in the episode suggested that would be the case; the actual ending was much better as it was such a surprise… that isn't to say nobody died. There were plenty of great gags; seeing Blackadder and the Duke thumping Prince George as he pretended to be the butler was priceless and the scene where Blackadder meets his Scottish cousin was rather fun; Rowan Atkinson was great in the dual roles. Stephen Fry makes a welcome guest appearance as the Iron Duke; a man who believes the key to victory is shouting loudly and bullying his underlings. Overall one of this season's best episodes and a good conclusion to the Regency era of Blackadder.