George (Blackadder character)
Encyclopedia
George was a supporting character that appeared in various adaptations of the BBC
sitcom Blackadder
, played by Hugh Laurie
. Each series saw a different incarnation of the character, because each was set in a different period of history. He was most prominently featured in the third
and fourth
series. The character was added to the series as a replacement for the Lord Percy Percy
character, who did not appear in the third instalment because Tim McInnerny
, the actor playing him, feared being typecast
.
The first incarnation of the character was a caricature of George, Prince of Wales
. The second, Lt.
The Hon.
George Colthurst St Barleigh, was a young officer in the British Army
during World War I
. Both portrayals were of "dim-witted upper-class twits", who depended greatly on Edmund Blackadder
(Rowan Atkinson
). George garnered positive responses from critics.
pish fool who spends money extravagantly (especially on impressive trousers and socks). Lieutenant George, stationed in the trenches of World War I
, retains his enthusiastic naiveté, despite being stuck in the trenches for 3 years, revealing a lack of awareness of the seriousness of his circumstances; Robert Bianco of USA Today
stated the character "smiles through in the face of certain death".
Both men are portrayed as very incompetent, in "Nob and Nobility", it takes Prince George a week to put on a pair of trousers by himself, eventually putting them on his head. George relies heavily on Blackadder in the third (Mr. E. Blackadder
) series, even while Blackadder despises George for his immense wealth and complete inability to rectify problems in his life. While George is considered "moronic" and "idiotic," he is helpful, loyal, and is aware he is not very intelligent, (describing himself as "thick as a whale omelette.") In a 2008 retrospective, co-star Stephen Fry
said George's keenness for self-improvement was one of the things he felt made the character likeable. In "Duel and Duality," the final episode of the third series, after a sexual encounter with the Duke of Wellington's nieces, this princely incarnation of George is struck by the vengeful Wellington's cannonball and killed. George briefly awakes, believing that he may have a cigarillo case on him that deflected the blow, but when he realises that he must have left the case at home, promptly falls dead again in Baldrick's arms.
George's incarnation as Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh MC
, in Blackadder Goes Forth, is a frontline officer strongly reminiscent in both manner and personality of Bertie Wooster
(whom Laurie would later go on to appear as) who joined the army on the first day of World War I, along with nine other students at Cambridge University. The ten men named themselves the Trinity College
tiddlywinks
, or the "Trinity Tiddlers". It is revealed later, in the fourth series' finale, that George is the only surviving member of the group. Although he lacks any kind of skill, competence, or authority as an officer, his upper-class status and educational background meant he went straight into the commissioned ranks upon enlisting. George is shown to have a special friendship with General Melchett (Fry), an old family friend with whom he shares his public school "tally-ho" attitude towards the war. Melchett even offers George a way out of the trenches for the "final push", which he refuses, much to Blackadder's incredulity.
In the 1989 sketch Shakespeare Sketch Laurie portrays a very George-like William Shakespeare
. Lord Blackadder
is his agent and manages to persuade him to condense his new play Hamlet
.
, who had starred in The Black Adder
and Blackadder II
as Lord Percy Percy
, was afraid to be typecast in comedic roles and decided not to appear in the third instalment of Blackadder, though he did appear in episode "Nob and Nobility", as Lord Topper, a snobby aristocrat who claims to be The Scarlet Pimpernel
, and returned in the fourth series playing Captain Kevin Darling. The Prince George character was created as a new "incompetent sidekick" for the title character. He was modelled after George IV of the United Kingdom
, who served as Prince Regent
between 1811 and 1820. Laurie had previously guest starred in the final two episodes of Blackadder II, and the producers decided to cast him in the role of Prince George. Laurie's physical appearance differed significantly from George IV's appearance, who was obese during the time of his regency. Writers Ben Elton
and Richard Curtis
were unfazed by this, referring to George as "a fat, flatulent git", an appropriate description for the real Prince rather than Laurie.
Laurie was supposed to wear a monocle as Lt. George, the character's second incarnation, but eventually decided against it after it kept falling out of his eye. Laurie reprised the role of Prince George in the Christmas special Blackadder's Christmas Carol
, and portrayed a new character, Lord Pigmot, set in the distant future. He also appeared in the millennium special Blackadder: Back & Forth
, playing the Roman Consul Georgius and the modern day Major George Bufton-Tufton, The Viscount Bufton-Tufton. Although no new series or specials were made, the creators of the series have commented on various proposals over the years; one possibility was a film in which the main characters return as a 1960s rock band, with George playing the guitar and keyboard. Curtis later said Laurie's international success with House
would make a new instalment difficult.
lauded Laurie's performance as George as "hilarious" and "brilliant". David Smith of the Guardian
highlighted the pathos
of the performance, writing that Laurie's performance as Lt. George, as he was about to go over the top to his death, "elicited tears of both laughter and grief".
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
, played by Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
. Each series saw a different incarnation of the character, because each was set in a different period of history. He was most prominently featured in the third
Blackadder the Third
Blackadder the Third is the third series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 17 September to 22 October 1987....
and fourth
Blackadder Goes Forth
Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth and final series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One....
series. The character was added to the series as a replacement for the Lord Percy Percy
Lord Percy Percy
Lord Percy Percy is the name given to a pair of related fictional characters, played by Tim McInnerny, in the first two series of the popular British sitcom Blackadder. The Lord Percy of Blackadder II is the descendant of that seen in The Black Adder...
character, who did not appear in the third instalment because Tim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny is an English actor. He is known for his role as Percy in Blackadder and Blackadder II, and as Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth...
, the actor playing him, feared being typecast
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
.
The first incarnation of the character was a caricature of George, Prince of Wales
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
. The second, Lt.
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
The Hon.
The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...
George Colthurst St Barleigh, was a young officer in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Both portrayals were of "dim-witted upper-class twits", who depended greatly on Edmund Blackadder
Edmund Blackadder
Edmund Blackadder is the single name given to a collection of fictional characters who appear in the BBC mock-historical comedy series Blackadder, each played by Rowan Atkinson. Although each series is set within a different period of British history, each character is part of the same familial...
(Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
). George garnered positive responses from critics.
Personality
Both Prince George and Lt. George are portrayed as dim-witted "upper class twits". The son of King George III, Prince George is represented as a bumbling fopFop
Fop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb", fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny"...
pish fool who spends money extravagantly (especially on impressive trousers and socks). Lieutenant George, stationed in the trenches of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, retains his enthusiastic naiveté, despite being stuck in the trenches for 3 years, revealing a lack of awareness of the seriousness of his circumstances; Robert Bianco of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
stated the character "smiles through in the face of certain death".
Both men are portrayed as very incompetent, in "Nob and Nobility", it takes Prince George a week to put on a pair of trousers by himself, eventually putting them on his head. George relies heavily on Blackadder in the third (Mr. E. Blackadder
Mr. E. Blackadder
Edmund Blackadder, Esq. is the main character in the third series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. He was played by Rowan Atkinson.The series was set in the reign of George III of the United Kingdom . The character is in keeping with the trend of the series Blackadder is lower in rank in this series,...
) series, even while Blackadder despises George for his immense wealth and complete inability to rectify problems in his life. While George is considered "moronic" and "idiotic," he is helpful, loyal, and is aware he is not very intelligent, (describing himself as "thick as a whale omelette.") In a 2008 retrospective, co-star Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
said George's keenness for self-improvement was one of the things he felt made the character likeable. In "Duel and Duality," the final episode of the third series, after a sexual encounter with the Duke of Wellington's nieces, this princely incarnation of George is struck by the vengeful Wellington's cannonball and killed. George briefly awakes, believing that he may have a cigarillo case on him that deflected the blow, but when he realises that he must have left the case at home, promptly falls dead again in Baldrick's arms.
George's incarnation as Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, in Blackadder Goes Forth, is a frontline officer strongly reminiscent in both manner and personality of Bertie Wooster
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...
(whom Laurie would later go on to appear as) who joined the army on the first day of World War I, along with nine other students at Cambridge University. The ten men named themselves the Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
tiddlywinks
Tiddlywinks
Tiddlywinks is an indoor game played on a flat mat with sets of small discs called "winks", a pot and a collection of squidgers. Players use a "squidger", a disk usually made from plastic to move a wink into flight by pressing down on one side of the wink...
, or the "Trinity Tiddlers". It is revealed later, in the fourth series' finale, that George is the only surviving member of the group. Although he lacks any kind of skill, competence, or authority as an officer, his upper-class status and educational background meant he went straight into the commissioned ranks upon enlisting. George is shown to have a special friendship with General Melchett (Fry), an old family friend with whom he shares his public school "tally-ho" attitude towards the war. Melchett even offers George a way out of the trenches for the "final push", which he refuses, much to Blackadder's incredulity.
In the 1989 sketch Shakespeare Sketch Laurie portrays a very George-like William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. Lord Blackadder
Lord Blackadder
Edmund Blackadder, Lord Blackadder is the main character in the second series of the popular BBC sitcom Blackadder. He is played by Rowan Atkinson.The second series is set in Elizabethan England, and Edmund is a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I...
is his agent and manages to persuade him to condense his new play Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
.
Development
Tim McInnernyTim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny is an English actor. He is known for his role as Percy in Blackadder and Blackadder II, and as Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth...
, who had starred in The Black Adder
The Black Adder
The Black Adder is the first series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Martin Shardlow and produced by John Lloyd...
and Blackadder II
Blackadder II
Blackadder II is the second series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 9 January 1986 to 20 February 1986...
as Lord Percy Percy
Lord Percy Percy
Lord Percy Percy is the name given to a pair of related fictional characters, played by Tim McInnerny, in the first two series of the popular British sitcom Blackadder. The Lord Percy of Blackadder II is the descendant of that seen in The Black Adder...
, was afraid to be typecast in comedic roles and decided not to appear in the third instalment of Blackadder, though he did appear in episode "Nob and Nobility", as Lord Topper, a snobby aristocrat who claims to be The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
, and returned in the fourth series playing Captain Kevin Darling. The Prince George character was created as a new "incompetent sidekick" for the title character. He was modelled after George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, who served as Prince Regent
Prince Regent
A prince regent is a prince who rules a monarchy as regent instead of a monarch, e.g., due to the Sovereign's incapacity or absence ....
between 1811 and 1820. Laurie had previously guest starred in the final two episodes of Blackadder II, and the producers decided to cast him in the role of Prince George. Laurie's physical appearance differed significantly from George IV's appearance, who was obese during the time of his regency. Writers Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
and Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
were unfazed by this, referring to George as "a fat, flatulent git", an appropriate description for the real Prince rather than Laurie.
Laurie was supposed to wear a monocle as Lt. George, the character's second incarnation, but eventually decided against it after it kept falling out of his eye. Laurie reprised the role of Prince George in the Christmas special Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Blackadder's Christmas Carol is a one-off episode of Blackadder, a parody of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is set between Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth , and is narrated by Hugh Laurie...
, and portrayed a new character, Lord Pigmot, set in the distant future. He also appeared in the millennium special Blackadder: Back & Forth
Blackadder: Back & Forth
Blackadder: Back & Forth is a 1999 short film based on the BBC mock-historical comedy series Blackadder that marks the end of the Blackadder saga...
, playing the Roman Consul Georgius and the modern day Major George Bufton-Tufton, The Viscount Bufton-Tufton. Although no new series or specials were made, the creators of the series have commented on various proposals over the years; one possibility was a film in which the main characters return as a 1960s rock band, with George playing the guitar and keyboard. Curtis later said Laurie's international success with House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
would make a new instalment difficult.
Reception
George, as well as Laurie, drew positive responses from critics. Tara Ariano and Sarah Bunting of Television Without Pity considered Laurie one of the best actors in the series' cast. Richard Barber of the PeoplePeople
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
lauded Laurie's performance as George as "hilarious" and "brilliant". David Smith of the Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
highlighted the pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
of the performance, writing that Laurie's performance as Lt. George, as he was about to go over the top to his death, "elicited tears of both laughter and grief".