Melchett

Melchett is a family line of fictional characters appearing in the British television sitcom series Blackadder, played by Stephen Fry. There were two main Melchetts: Lord Melchett and General Melchett.

Blackadder II (Lord Melchett)

Lord Melchett
Blackadder character
First appearance	Bells
Last appearance	Blackadder Back and Forth
Portrayed by	Stephen Fry
Information
Occupation	Lord Chamberlain, minister of the Church
Nationality	English

The first Melchett appeared in series two of Blackadder. He is Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth I. Affectionately known to the Queen as "Melchy", the earnest Lord Melchett has set himself up as her closest personal advisor and is always close to her. He guards his position jealously and is always doing his best to please the Queen. Melchett attends the Annual Communion Wine-Tasting and is also able to officiate at marriage ceremonies, two facts which suggest that he has a career in the church alongside his duties to the Queen.

Lord Melchett's rivalry with Lord Blackadder is illustrated by such devious deeds as an ill-considered drinking competition ("Beer"), and Melchett's recommendation to the Queen that Blackadder be made Lord High Executioner ("Head"), a job which amounts to a death sentence for the applicant. Despite (or perhaps because of) Melchett's toadying, the Queen has an undying affection for Blackadder and often ignores Melchett.

In "Potato", Melchett pressures Blackadder to sail around the deadly Cape of Good Hope, confident that the journey would be fatal. Blackadder agreed, intending to cheat and merely "camp down in the Dordogne for six months" and get a good suntan, but somehow ends up in cannibal-filled Australia instead. He gets the last laugh, however, by eventually returning to a hero's welcome and giving Melchett (and Sir Walter Raleigh) a "fine wine from the Far East" as a souvenir - which turned out to be a bottle of Baldrick's urine.

In "Chains", it is revealed that, as a young man, Melchett had sex with a sheep named Flossie (in fact Prince Ludwig the Indestructible in disguise) while at a monastery in Cornwall. He is killed by Prince Ludwig along with the rest of the supporting cast.

Blackadder Goes Forth (General Melchett)

The Melchett dynasty has changed quite a bit in Blackadder Goes Forth; rather than being the snivelling, slimy, reserved, intelligent, obsequious sycophant that Lord Melchett was, General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett is a loud, childish, unintelligent, incompetent, pompous warmonger, and the main antagonist of the fourth series.

The General Melchett character appearing in Blackadder Goes Forth was something of a popular caricature of World War I generals like Field Marshal Douglas Haig in that both his preferred battle tactics and general attitudes towards warfare are stuck firmly in a bygone era. He fails to understand or comprehend the basic concepts of modern trench warfare and is totally unable to come up with a new strategy that would suit it. Instead he continuously sends men to a senseless death with seemingly no tactics at all. In the first episode, Captain Cook, it appears that the General is preparing to send his men 'over the top' and walk very slowly towards the enemy for the 19th time; his rationale being that doing the thing they have done 18 times before is exactly the last thing the enemy will expect them to do this time, and considers the fact that everyone always gets slaughtered in the first 10 seconds to be a 'small problem'. In General Hospital, it appears that the 'Grand Plan' for the Great War is to 'continue with total slaughter until everyone is dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig, and their pet tortoise, Alan.'

The General is constantly trying to lift the morale of the men, completely ignorant of the fact that they are too afraid of their impending deaths to have their spirits lifted by a Charlie Chaplin film or a drag act. Much like Lieutenant George, he has no concept of soldiers' fear, and cannot understand why Blackadder and Captain Darling are reluctant to fight (and presumably die). He also attempted to have Captain Blackadder shot for eating his (Melchett's) pet carrier pigeon (called Speckled Jim), which he raised from a chick, causing him to have an unfair court-martial for Edmund with him as Judge, tried to marry Lieutenant George (who was in character as drag queen 'Gorgeous Georgina'), and shot Captain Kevin Darling in the foot to provide a believable alibi for undercover hospital work. Despite Blackadder's having shot his pigeon, however, he appears to prefer Blackadder to Darling, at one point asking him to be his best man at his wedding.

It appears the General is a family friend of Lieutenant George's and both make frequent references to traditional upper class life in the UK. This mostly involves heavy overuse of Public School slang and metaphors as well as references to stereotypical upper class values. There seems to be a hint that Melchett attended Winchester College as he makes a few references to them facing Harrow in various sports. Melchett then went to Cambridge University (as did George himself) with George's Uncle Bertie (Melchett states that Bertie and he used to break wind for their college). General Melchett visited George on his sixth birthday when he set his dog on, ran over, and shot George's rabbit Flossy. No reason is given for him doing this, apart from the possibility that he wanted to have some rabbit pie.

General Melchett displays 13 medal ribbons on his tunic: the Victoria Cross (VC); a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB, with the title "Sir"); the Distinguished Service Order (DSO); the South Africa Medal; the Afghanistan Medal; the East and West Africa Medal; the Egypt Medal; the Khedive's Star; the India Medal; the Queen's South Africa Medal; the King's South Africa Medal; the India General Service Medal; and the 1914 Star.

In series four, the role of the snivelling sycophant and Blackadder's rival is filled by Captain Darling, who acts as General Melchett's aide and who is always by his side, right up until Melchett sends him to the front line in the series' final episode.

General Melchett is the only main character to survive the final episode, having stayed behind instead of serving on the front line.

"Baaah!"

Melchett shared the trademark bellow "Baaah!" with Fry's earlier portrayal of Wellington, which would be delivered at random intervals for no apparent reason. Fry has put it down to smoker's asthma, but it occasionally serves as an indication of his insanity (such as when he says "You need only look at him to see he's as sane as I am. Baaah!"). It is sometimes speculated that the noise is a reference to the character's ancestor Lord Melchett's aforementioned dalliances with sheep. However, in Back and Forth, the Roman General Melchicus also says Baaah! (but in Latin!) long before Lord Melchett's time.

In a BBC Four interview broadcast on 17 August 2007 and uploaded by the BBC to YouTube, Fry goes into some depth on the "odd history" of Melchett's "Baaah!", explaining that it began as early as his work in student productions of Shakespeare at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he would produce strange noises in order to amuse the audience. He also notes that Melchett's "Baaah!" can be found in his other acting work (although in a more subtle form), such as Peter's Friends.^[1]

Other Melchetts

Blackadder's Christmas Carol shows Blackadder getting the last laugh, as he tricks both Melchett and the Queen into "autographing" a death warrant that condemns Melchett to be executed, and leaves Blackadder with all his property. In the same episode, Stephen Fry plays a futuristic character named Lord Frondo, who advises Queen Asphyxia XIX, who is played by Miranda Richardson, allowing one to infer that he is descended from the Melchetts.

In the millennium special, Blackadder Back and Forth, Fry reprised the roles of The Duke of Wellington and Lord Melchett, and also played the Roman General Melchicus (a character very similar to General Melchett) and the modern-day Archbishop Flavius Melchett (a character with slight similarities to both Lord Melchett and General Melchett).

As part of the Cambridge Footlights Revue 1981, "The Cellar Tapes", Stephen Fry performed a monologue named "The Letter" in which a character named Melchett is mentioned.

References