SERIES FOUR BLACKADDER GOES FORTH "I'm the last of the tiddly-winking leapfroggers from the golden summer of 1914. "<br /><br />In many ways the final series was the most dark and poignant. The hero of this series finds himself as a captain in the first world war holed up in the trenches with his batman Baldrick and his lieutenant George, played as a simple and well meaning fellow again by Hugh Laurie. Two of the regulars are back in the fold, Fry and McInnery as the HQ planners who our heroes are constantly trying to foil. Many ways are found to try to get out of the war, from becoming war artists to pretending to be mad a plan that will never work as Blackadder points out, "who would notice another mad man around here?". There are two great pairings in this, the jaded and career soldier Blackadder balances nicely with the upper class and enthusiastic George. Also back at HQ Lord Melchet (a sort of General Haig figure) makes a substitute father figure for the put upon Captain Darling. The piece of the show that always sticks in my mind is the ending, despite all of their schemes and plots the day comes when they have to go "over the top" and the final scene sees them running slow motion to certain death, not what yo would expect from a lesser comedy.<br /><br />Captain Blackadder: Don't forget your stick Lieutenant Lieutenant George: Rather, sir. Wouldn't want to face a machine gun without this.<br /><br />this one interchange between the two sort of sums up the hole absurdity of the situation, there's nothing so ludicrous as reality I suppose.<br /><br />Blackadder spanned nearly a decade and evolved from a cult show for deranged history buffs to prime time viewing for all and allowed for some memorable characters and scripts along the way, we may never see its like again. Fifth series anyone?