| "The Black Seal" | |||
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| Episode no. | Series 1 Episode 6 |
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| Written by | Rowan Atkinson Richard Curtis |
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| Original air date | 13 July 1983 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Patrick Allen; Rik Mayall (uncredited) |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Blackadder episodes | |||
"The Black Seal" is the final of six episodes of the first series of the BBC One sitcom Blackadder (The Black Adder).
On Saint Juniper's Day, 29 January 1498, King Richard IV snubs Prince Edmund, taking away his Duchy and leaving him with the sole dignity of Lord Warden of the Royal Privies, while awarding his brother Harry with several important titles. Finally reaching his breaking point, Edmund declares that he will take over the kingdom. He fires Percy and Baldrick, and begins his quest for glory, aided by a retired Morris dancer.
In a parody of the opening of the film The Magnificent Seven, Edmund sets forth into England in search of the six other "Most Evil Men in the Kingdom,":
Edmund plans to ride home and then send for them all through a black-haired messenger. They are to gather in the tavern of the recently deceased old Jasper (slain by Friar Bellows), before heading out to seize the royal courts and thus the kingdom. Edmund suggests they exile the Royal Family for life, however the rest of the band are surprised, and Glastonbury says they should kill them, to which Edmund reluctantly agrees.
After his comrades disperse, Edmund's plan hits a severe setback. The Morris Dancer casts off his disguise to reveal himself as Edmund's childhood rival, Philip of Burgundy, nicknamed "The Hawk" (Patrick Allen). Philip has just arrived in England after 15 years of exile in France, an exile for which Edmund was apparently responsible. As revenge, Philip locks Edmund in a prison cell, to be devoured by snails, which he says will take 15 years to happen. There is another inmate in the cell, Mad Gerald (Rik Mayall), who has been incarcerated for 20 years and whose best friend is a rat. After 12 months of rambling insanely to a bored Edmund, in late December Gerald shows the Prince a key he had made from his own teeth. Edmund seizes the key, successfully opens the cell door and escapes. Gerald opts not to follow him, instead complaining that Edmund had not closed the door behind him.
The first person Edmund meets after escaping from prison is a man seeking to sell five black homing pigeons and one black homing chicken. While the seller's initial asking price is six shillings, he generously invites Edmund to beat him up, gag him, tie him to a tree and steal the pigeons, an offer the Prince gratefully accepts. Edmund promptly sends the pigeons to fly to his fellow conspirators. Philip of Burgundy, however, beats the gang to the royal castle, and, when they arrive, promptly persuades them to abandon Edmund and adopt him as their leader after Edmund talks of Philip's bad attributes. Edmund's protestations that Philip is a twisted, ruthless killer who murdered his own family only increases Philip's standing in their eyes. Philip then forces Edmund into a torture chair, in which he is horribly mutilated. Just then, Percy and Baldrick, disguised as serving wenches, serve the conspirators poisoned wine, killing them. Sean survives, but takes another drink and dies.
As Edmund lies on his deathbed with the entire court mourning over him, his father wakes him up by loudly shouting "EDMUND!" Edmund, surprised that his father had, for the first time, got his name right, mutters "Father, you called me Edmund." Richard answers "Sorry, Edgar" and proposes a toast for his son. Asked by Edmund to call him by his nom de guerre, Richard calls a further toast, to "The Black Dagger". As Percy had unwittingly poisoned the entire batch of wine, the entire royal court dies after drinking the wine. Edmund correctly deduces that the wine was what killed them, but foolishly decides to take a sip to check. Believing the wine is not the killer, as he has not immediately died, he declares himself King of England, only for the wine to kill him moments later.
After the credits, Percy and Baldrick run in to stop the court drinking the wine, only to find it is too late.
| “ | And now at last I shall be King of E--. | ” |
The important characters are in bold.
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