Dom Robinson reviews
Black Adder Goes Forth
The Entire Historic Fourth Series
Distributed by
- Cert:
- Cat.no: BBCDVD 1069
- Running time: 173 minutes
- Year: 1989
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 36
- Sound: Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, Dutch
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: None
Director:
Producer:
Screenplay:
Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
Music:
Cast:
Captain Edmund Blackadder: Rowan Atkinson
Private S. Baldrick: Tony Robinson
General Sir Anthony Hogmanay Melchett: Stephen Fry
Lt. The Hon George Colthurst St. Barleigh: Hugh Laurie
Captain Kevin Darling: Tim McInnery
Driver Parkhurst: Gabrielle Glaister
Lord Flasheart: Rik Mayall
Baron von Richthoven: Adrian Edmondson
Nurse Mary: Miranda Richardson
Smith: Bill Wallis
Field Marshall Dougie Haig: Geoffrey Palmer
Black Adder Goes Forth
saw the cast head into the realms of the First World War as they were placed
on the Western Front in 1917, in a bunker awaiting their orders to go over the
top and kill the enemy.. or get shot full of holes in an instant - whichever
would be quicker. Not the greatest prospect for Captain Edmund Blackadder
(Rowan Atkinson), who attemps to think of one way after another to
escape his destiny. Being referred to, in one episode, as "Cat-pain Black-udder"
will not be one of them.
This series was held in even higher regard than the previous ones because
of the way it dealt with the atrocity of war and the final moments of man as
the cast go over the top at the end of the final episode, which itself was
voted the 9th most memorable TV moment for Channel 4 in September 2000.
In fact, the Blackadder franchise went from strength to strength until...
they decided to release
Black Adder: Back and Forth
The first episode, Captain Cook, begins with the stupid Baldrick (Tony Robinson)
explaining the first of his cunning plans, by carving his own name on a bullet
because "you know when they say there's a bullet with your name on it?" -
and you can guess the rest. General Melchett (Stephen Fry) has a plan
of his own to invite one of the men to paint a cover for the next issue of
"King and Country" to inspire the men for that final big push. The following
episodes continue to be packed with one-liners, the second one, Corporal
Punishment finding Blackadder eating the pigeon messenger in an attempt
to avoid the firing squad, while the next, Major Star, brings a new
playmate for Edmund in the form of "Bob" aka Driver Parkhurst (Gabrielle
Glaister)
Another attempt to escape going over the top comes in Private Plane after Lord Flasheart
(Rik Mayall on first-rate form) appears and teaches the men to fly
in the Royal Air Corps, aka the "Twenty Minuters", the life expectancy of
a new pilot(!) Could be worse - you could be captured by Baron von Richthoven
(Adrian Edmondson) after you crash-land. In General Hospital,
Blackadder seeks out a German spy on behalf of the British service in the local
hospital under the care of Nurse Mary (Miranda Richardson), but when
the final episode, Goodbyeee comes around it's a last-ditch attempt
to avoid the big push when Blackadder sees a way out: claim insanity by
wearing underpants on your head and sticking two pencils up your nose. When
that fails he has to call in a favour from Field Marshall Dougie Haig (Geoffrey Palmer),
but when even that doesn't work, Baldrick might just have one last cunning
plan...
If you plan to watch this DVD while drinking a brew make sure it's real and
not concocted from coffee substitute (mud), milk substitute (saliva) and
sugar substitute (dandruff).
Quotable quotes include Blackadder's "I think the phrase rhymes with
clucking bell." and on Captain Darling's arrival at the trench in episode
six, "I only wrote one word in my diary today. It simply says... 'Bugger'"
Just time for one more cunning plan?
The picture is better than the first two discs and as good as the third.
There are no visible print scratches but it can occasionally look a little
dark. The soundtrack is in stereo like the last disc, but again it's purely
functional, giving clear dialogue.
36 chapters spread out the series, the menus have some animation showing
clips from the episodes but only the main one has the theme tune, while
the subtitles come in English and Dutch.
As with the second series, there are no extras, but it's still worth
£19.99 for the full series.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.
The following is a list of all the Black Adder DVDs reviewed online to date :
1999 The Black Adder
2001 Black Adder II
2001 Black Adder The Third
2001 Black Adder Goes Forth
2001 Black Adder: Back And Forth
2002 Blackadder's Christmas Carol
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
