Head (Blackadder)

"Head"
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 2
Directed by	Mandie Fletcher
Written by	Ben Elton Richard Curtis
Original air date	16 January 1986
Guest stars
Holly de Jong Bill Wallis Linda Polan Patrick Duncan
Episode chronology
← Previous "Bells" Next → "Potato"

"Head" is the second episode of the BBC period comedy Blackadder II, the second series of Blackadder, which was set in Elizabethan England from 1558 to 1603.

Plot

Blackadder is attempting to teach Baldrick the basic concepts of addition when he is appointed Lord High Executioner and Minister for Religious Genocide (owing to the fact the previous incumbent signed his name on the wrong dotted line). To give himself a long weekend, he makes a simple change by moving up the date of execution for Lord Farrow (From Wednesday to Monday).

However, this simple change goes completely awry when the Queen allows Farrow's wife to visit her husband in prison on Tuesday, the day before his originally scheduled execution, not aware that he has already been executed. As he is already too late, Blackadder has to pretend to be Farrow, disguising himself with a bag over his head, as the Queen had given Lady Farrow a death warrant to give to Edmund should he refuse her. He is nearly thwarted, first when he discovers that Farrow had many individual traits, such as a deep voice, being much taller than him, and missing half an arm, and then when Lady Farrow attempts to take the bag off his head. Afterward, the Queen decides to pardon Farrow, saying 'He probably is innocent anyway', and everything looks bleak for Blackadder. Deciding that the only way to get around this problem is to pretend that he had said something traitorous on the way to the Queen, who is on her way to visit another man named Ponsonby, and he and Percy had cut his head off in the hallway. Upon searching for the head in Traitor's Cloister, they realise the plan will not work, as the head already looks decomposed. However, Lord Percy notices that the head that Blackadder found on Farrow's spike isn't his, but Ponsonby's, meaning that Baldrick had killed the wrong man. Blackadder is relieved and hurriedly head to the prison to pretend to be Ponsonby for the Queen, just as he had done with Farrow.

Running order

Although broadcast after the episode entitled "Bells", there are clear indications that "Head" was intended to be the initial episode of the series. In "Head", Lord Percy Percy wears a beard throughout; in "Bells" he shaves it off and appears without it through the rest of the series. The song played over the end credits of "Head" re-caps the final events of the first series and sets the scene for Blackadder II.

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson as Lord Edmund Blackadder
• Tim McInnerny as Lord Percy Percy
• Tony Robinson as Baldrick
• Miranda Richardson as Queen Elizabeth I
• Stephen Fry as Lord Melchett
• Patsy Byrne as Nursie
• Holly de Jong as Lady Farrow
• Bill Wallis as Gaoler Ploppy
• Linda Polan as Mrs. Ploppy
• Patrick Duncan as Earl Farrow

See also

• List of Blackadder episodes

External links

• "Head" at BBC Programmes
• "Head" at the Internet Movie Database