Blackadder Series 4, episode 4: Private Plane
The Plot:
Inspired by the cushy life that Lord Flashheart seems to enjoy, the boys join the Royal Flying Corps. Unfortunately, it turns out that their nickname - the Twenty Minuters - derives from the amount of time they can expect to live, rather than the amount of work they have to do in a day. Blackadder and Baldrick are shot down over enemy territory and are taken captive by the dreaded Red Baron. Things look more cheerful when the Baron reveals that his idea of punishing his enemies is to exile them to a German convent school where they will teach the young girls home economics. Blackadder is looking forward to his punishment, but unfortunately George and Flashheart rescue him in the nick of time.
Tally ho, pip pip!
George: Crikey, sir. I’m looking forward to today. Up diddly up, down diddly down, whoops, poop, twiddly dee - decent scrap with the fiendish Red Baron - bit of a jolly old crash landing behind enemy lines - capture, torture, escape, and then back home in time for tea and medals.
Insult of the week:
Blackadder: George, who is using the family brain cell at the moment?
Baldrick’s cooking:
Baldrick brings home-made sandwiches on the flight with them: cheese and tomato for the Captain, rat for himself.
War’s a horrid thing. Ding a ling a ling:
Blackadder: For us, the Great War is finito, a war which would be a damn sight simpler if we just stayed in England and shot fifty thousand of our men a week.
Quotes:
Flashheart: If word gets out that I’m missing, 500 girls will kill themselves and I wouldn’t want them on my conscience - not when they ought to be on my face!
Blackadder: I’ve no desire to hang around with a bunch of upper-class delinquents, do twenty minutes’ work and then spend the rest of the day loafing about in Paris drinking gallons of champagne and having dozens of moist, pink, highly experienced French peasant girls galloping up and down my - hang on...
Melchett: If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.
Red Baron: How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing. For us, it is a mundane and functional item. For you it is the basis of an entire culture.
Blackadder on the Royal Flying Corps: For “magnificent men” read “Biggest show-offs since Lady Godiva entered the royal enclosure at Ascot claiming she had literally nothing to wear.” I don’t care how many times they up-diddly-up-up, they’re still gits
Read the other episode guides:
Series 1:
1. The Foretelling
2. Born to Be King
3. The Archbishop
4. The Queen of Spain's Beard
5. Witchsmeller Pursuivant
6. The Black Seal
Series 2:
1. Bells
2. Head
3. Potato
4. Money
5. Beer
6. Chains
Series 3:
1. Dish and Dishonesty
2. Ink and Incapability
3. Nob and Nobility
4. Sense and Senility
5. Amy and Amiability
6. Dual and Duality
Series 4:
1. Captain Cook
2. Corporal Punishment
3. Major Star
4. Private Plane
5. General Hospital
6. Goodybyeee
These guides were brought to you by the BBCi Comedy website.
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