Nob and Nobility

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“Nob and Nobility”
Blackadder episode

Le Comte du Frou Frou and Mrs Miggin's specialty, Willy du Jour
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 3
Written by Ben Elton, Richard Curtis
Guest stars Tim McInnerny
Nigel Planer
Chris Barrie
Original airdate 01/10/1987
Episode chronology
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"Ink and Incapability" "Sense and Senility"
List of Blackadder episodes

"Nob and Nobility" is the third episode of the third series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Blackadder is disgusted with the English obsession with the the Scarlet Pimpernel, the great hero who has saved so many French aristocrats from the Revolution underway in France. As he puts it, London is full of "garlic-chewing whoopsies crying 'ooh la la' and looking for sympathy all the time just because their fathers had their heads cut off". He sees no merit in the Scarlet Pimpernel who is simply saving members of England's traditional enemy: "Was the man who burnt Joan of Arc simply wasting good matches? "

After Blackadder disparages the Pimpernel, two effete noblemen, Topper (Tim McInnerny) and Smedley (Nigel Planer), bet him a thousand guineas that he can't go to France, rescue an aristocrat and present him at the French Embassy Ball. Blackadder accepts, but instead of actually going to France takes the far safer course of going to Mrs. Miggins' coffee house to find a French aristocrat willing to pretend he's been rescued. Le Comte de Frou Frou agrees to pretend he was rescued.

But when they arrive at the embassy they are arrested by a revolutionary (played by Chris Barrie) who has seized control. Blackadder, Frou Frou and Baldrick are put in a dungeon. They are rescued by Smedley, claiming to be the real Scarlet Pimpernel, whom Blackadder accidentally poisons. Frou Frou also manages to escape, and they all manage to make it home. Frou Frou then reveals himself to be Topper in disguise, that he and the "mysteriously missing" Smedley are together the true Scarlet Pimpernel, and almost exposes Blackadder's treachery, however he is poisoned by Blackadder the same way as Smedley. Blackadder convinces the Prince that he is The Scarlet Pimpernel, and collects an "enormous postal order" intended for the hero.

[edit] Trivia

  • This episode was not aired in the U.S. due to a dispute over the rights to the use of the "Scarlet Pimpernel" Title, though it is available on the video and DVD versions.[1]
  • Tim McInnerny had played the part of Lord Percy Percy in the two previous series of Blackadder but refused to do it again since he was only being offered the part of idiots in other work. This episode was the only time in the series that he made an appearance other than as a regular character, and it was as a flop who turns out to be a lot tougher than Blackadder ever suspected.
  • There is a line cut from video and DVD releases, and often from television repeats, apparently over "contractual issues". [1] Baldrick talks about the Scarlet Pimpernel, saying
"They seek him here,
They seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in Heaven or is he in Hell?..."

and Blackadder chips in with

"...And what's that revolting garlic smell?"

The line is intact on the BBC Radio version, which rebroadcast the audio portions of the episodes, and which has been released on CD.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Email from the BBC to wikipedia contributor

[edit] Errors

  • Just as Blackadder and Baldrick go through the door, to escape from the dungeon, you can clearly see Smedley breathing.
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