Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard
Curtis and Ben Elton.

The series places the recurring characters of Blackadder, Baldrick,
and George in a trench in Flanders during World War I, and follows their various doomed attempts to escape from the trenches to avoid death under the misguided command of General Melchett.

Set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches of World War 1,  Captain Edmund Blackadder is a professional soldier in the British Army who, until the outbreak of the Great War, has enjoyed a relatively danger-free existence fighting natives who were usually “two feet tall and armed with dried grass”. Finding himself trapped in the trenches with another “big push” planned, his concern is to avoid being sent “over the top” to certain death.

The series thus chronicles Blackadder’s attempts to escape the trenches through various schemes, most of which fail due to bad fortune, misunderstandings and the general incompetence of his comrades, his second-in-command, idealistic upper-class Edwardian twit Lieutenant George St Barleigh and their profoundly stupid but dogged batman Private S. Baldrick.

More than the Germans, who are unseen, Blackadder’s nemeses come in the form of his superior, the eccentric General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, who rallies his troops
from a French château 35 miles from the front, and Melchett’ s bureaucratic assistant, Captain Kevin Darling. 

Despite the two being of equal rank, Blackadder treats Darling with contempt – while the former is on the front line, the latter is “folding the general’s pyjamas”. Their animosity is
mutual, largely as a result of Blackadder exploiting the comic potential of Darling’s surname at every opportunity.

It has been a great challenge and a great privilege to bring Blackadder to the Talisman stage; I hope you enjoy the show as much as we all have in producing it.

David Draper – Director