Major Star
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| "Plan C: Major Star" | |||||||
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| Blackadder Goes Forth episode | |||||||
 George as "Georgina" |
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| Episode no. | Series 4 Episode 3 |
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| Written by | Ben Elton, Richard Curtis | ||||||
| Original airdate | 12 October 1989 | ||||||
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| List of Blackadder episodes | |||||||
"Major Star" is the third episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the fourth series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.
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[edit] Summary
The Russian Revolution produces two more appalling results: an offensive by Germany and a really offensive Charlie Chaplin impression by Baldrick.
Gabrielle Glaister has a guest appearance as Private "Bob" Parkhurst. Although obvious to the audience and Blackadder, Bob is actually female.
In order to boost morale, Melchett decides to have a concert show. Baldrick plans to do Charlie Chaplin impressions where he wears a dead slug as Chaplin's famous moustache. George and Baldrick both agree that Chaplin is a comic genius, wheareas Blackadder thinks the opposite. Blackadder thinks the idea was poor, but then when he hears that the director of the show will get to leave the trenches and travel the world.
George (Hugh Laurie) does a cross-dressing act which goes surprising well, where George becomes Georgina. Melchett, not realising Georgina is not female, takes a strong liking for her. He invites her to a ball. He proposes to her, but Blackadder and George realise that a marriage could not happen and Melchett would probably have them both severely punished.
Blackadder lies to Melchett and claims that after being so happy she ran out into No Mans Land and blown up. Melchett seems distraught and sobs, but then stops and says "it can't be helped".
However, the soldiers still need an act to appear in George's spot, so Blackadder cleverly asks Bob to do so.
[edit] Plot
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This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2009) |
The Russians have pulled out of the war as a result of the revolution. George is initally delighted, until he's reminded the Russians were on their side, and Blackadder is dismayed, since it will mean 'three quarters of a million Germans leaving the Russian Front and coming here, with the express purpose of using my nipples for target practice!'. Blackadder decides to desert, but is stopped when General Melchett comes walks into the trench (ironically he needs Blackadder to help him shoot some deserters). In order to prevent an uprising from the troops, General Melchett asks Captain Blackadder to organise a cabaret to boost the men's morale, something that Blackadder eagerly accepts when a possible tour is mentioned (which would allow him to leave the trenches). Melchett also asks his driver, Corp. "Bob" Parkhurst, to aid Blackadder. Blackadder immediately notices that "Bob" is a girl in disguise, something of which Melchett remains entirely unaware; however, Bob persuades Blackadder not to give the game away.
The show, which features Baldrick's Charlie Chaplin impression (featuring a slug as Baldrick's "moustache") and Lieutenant George's drag act, "Gorgeous Georgina", is a success on its first night, but unfortunately Melchett falls in love with "Georgina" and proposes to her. Consequently, Blackadder informs Melchett of Georgina's 'death' from stepping on a landmine. Melchett then refuses to continue the show, citing that Georgina was the only good thing about it, but Blackadder promises to find a new leading lady. These words place Blackadder in "the stickiest situation since Sticky the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun!"
All of George's suggestions as to who to replace him as leading lady are rejected as being too short, too old or too dead. Baldrick offers to take up the role, but Blackadder quickly dismisses the idea, considering "a two-legged badger wrapped in a curtain" to be unsuitable (in truth, Baldrick's plan was to marry Melchett and be a Trojan Horse' -or 'frozen horse' as he refers to it- to bring down the aristocracy). He then realises he has had a leading lady in his presence all the time and replaces George with Bob. In spite of Bob's more convincing and better received 'drag' act, Melchett proclaims the second night's show a disaster and immediately stops any possibility of a tour (and Blackadder leaving). He instead declares that with the arrival of the Americans into the war (6 April 1917), morale will be boosted by endless showings of Charlie Chaplin films (with Blackadder as projectionist at a personal request from Chaplin himself, much to his annoyance). Captain Darling revels in Melchett's displeasure with Blackadder, causing Blackadder to offer him "liquorice" (Baldrick's slug).
[edit] Notes
- At one point in the episode, Blackadder says "If I should die, think only this of me...I'll be back to get you." This is a reference to the first verse of* Rupert Brooke's famous war poem The Soldier.
- The plot device of including a character who is a woman dressed as a man had previously been utilised in past series of Blackadder; in Series 3's Amy and Amiability, where Miranda Richardson portrayed the villainous Amy posing as a Highwayman, and in Series 2's Bells, where Gabrielle Glaister portrayed a young woman disguised as a man named Bob, a part she reprised for this episode.
[edit] External links
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