On this sombre day, a piece of video that really makes one think about the First World War

I can forgive Ben Elton a lot for his role in producing this in Blackadder...

Blackadder aka The Black Adder - The pilot episode - unaired in the UK

Part 1...


"The Eunuchs have cancelled"

"What's sounds like Greek but isn't Greek"


Part2...



"Well it's quite cunning....."


Possibly the worst fight scene ever...


Part 3...


"Stupid bastard" 

"I wouldn't pass water over Scotland"

A rather good sword fight, Errol Flynn had nothing on Rowan Atkinson.


Overall I think Tony Robinson was a fine addition and Brian Blessed made for a noisier King.The whole piece was pretty much carried forward into series 1 which had much darker humour than the later series which had Ben Elton added to the writing team. The main change between this and the first series is that Edmund Blackadder becomes more of a snivelling fool in the first series, a change that was reversed most successfully for the subsequent three series.

The funniest Blackadder exchange?

General Melchett: Is this true, Blackadder? Did Captain Darling pooh-pooh you? Captain Blackadder: Well, perhaps a little. General Melchett: Well, then, damn it all! What more evidence do you need? The pooh-poohing alone is a court martial offense! Captain Blackadder: I can assure you, sir, that the pooh-poohing was purely circumstantial. General Melchett: Well, I hope so, Blackadder. You know, if there's one thing I've learnt from being in the Army, it's never ignore a pooh-pooh. I knew a Major, who got pooh-poohed, made the mistake of ignoring the pooh-pooh. He pooh-poohed it! Fatal error! 'Cos it turned out all along that the soldier who pooh-poohed him had been pooh-poohing a lot of other officers who pooh-poohed their pooh-poohs. In the end, we had to disband the regiment. Morale totally destroyed... by pooh-pooh!

Or do you disagree.

Am I a "Rager"?

According to SpyBlog I could be classified as a "Rager" by the UK government under a scheme that has impressed them, borrowed from the US Air Force Blog Response flowchart. This is because of the last paragraph of this recent item:

"I am not sure which members of this Labour government I hate more: people like Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson who seem to know what they are doing and seem to take a perverse pleasure in keeping power whatever the cost to the Country, aspiring leaders like the Miliband brothers, Ed Balls and Harriet Harman who are so, so eager for ultimate power that you can see the ambition dripping from every pore of their bodies or the apparatchiks like Hazel Blears, Jacqui Smith and Geoff Hoon who would parrot any line they are being fed if instructed so to do. What I do know is that I hate them all, I hate what they have done to this Country and what they intend to do to it. I hate their lies, their misrule, their transgressions that go unpunished and the way that whatever goes wrong they feel they can blame the last Conservative government rather than themselves. I hate the way that they have so politicised the public institutions of this Country that any incoming alternative Government will need more than 20 years to start to reverse the institutional bias. I hate the way that their mistakes are covered up by the BBC; no longer an independent broadcaster but now an arm of the Labour government. I hate the way that opponents are labelled "racist", or "nasty" or "little Englanders". I hate the way that this Labour government have ruled as if they really are "the political wing of the British people" and as a result have trampled on all opposing opinion. I hate the way that this Labour government have, over and over again, "played the man" rather than the argument; all but destroying dissent as a result. I hate the way that they have split up the UK for their political advantage and destroyed many of the traditions of England along the way. Above all I hate the way that this once great Country, a place I have lived in all my life, has been systematically turned into a place that I can no longer feel proud of, no longer love, no longer want to live in. For all of these reasons and more, this Labour government have made me both sad and very, very angry."

As a "Rager", my blog would be classified as "Monitor Only" and the Government would "Avoid responding to specific posts, monitor the site for relevant information and comments". I would be unhappy with this classification for several reasons although I suppose that I should be glad that I had not been classified as a "Troll". As SpyBlog say, "actually it is deserving of a considered response to an "Unhappy Customer".



Off on a tangent; being called a "Rager" reminded me of an episode of Blackadder III when Prince George says (my emphasis):

"I'm a gay bachelor, Blackadder. I'm a roarer, a rogerer, a gorger and a puker! I can't marry, I'm young, I'm firm buttocked... "