Duel and Duality
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Duel and Duality” | |||||||
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| Blackadder episode | |||||||
 The Duke of Wellington |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 6 |
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| Written by | Ben Elton Richard Curtis |
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| Directed by | Mandie Fletcher | ||||||
| Guest stars | Stephen Fry Gertan Klauber |
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| Original airdate | October 22, 1987 | ||||||
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| List of Blackadder episodes | |||||||
"Duel and Duality" is the sixth and final episode of the third series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.
[edit] Plot
The Duke of Wellington (Stephen Fry) discovers that the Prince has taken sexual advantage of his two nieces, and challenges him to a duel. The Prince enlists Blackadder's help and Baldrick suggests that the two change places, as Wellington does not know what the Prince looks like. Edmund isn't keen on the idea, but realises that his mad Scottish cousin MacAdder (also played by Rowan Atkinson) could take his place.
Later, Wellington decides to visit the Prince, which forces Blackadder and the Prince to swap roles. During Wellington's brief visit, Blackadder proves a far more competent Regent, and helps Wellington to mastermind the Battle of Trafalgar. The Prince, however, proves less than competent as a butler, and finds himself on the receiving end of multiple assaults (both verbal and physical) from Wellington and Blackadder, who joins in, noting the importance of keeping up the illusion. After Wellington departs, Blackadder goes to see MacAdder; unfortunately, MacAdder is busy with his kipper salesman job on the day the duel takes place, and goes back to Scotland with Mrs. Miggins. Blackadder tries to pull out of the duel, but the desperate Prince persuades him to do it in exchange for all of his possessions.
Wellington is a friend of modern weapons, and so the duel is fought with Vickers-Armstrong 4-pounder cannonettes. Blackadder survives the duel, the cannonball having bounced off a cigarillo case, and the Duke, having grown to admire the "Prince", happily declares a draw. At that point, however, Prince George enters and confesses, revealing that he is the real prince. Wellington does not believe him, and he shoots the Prince in a fit of rage.
King George, who has become increasingly eccentric and now believes himself to be "a small village in Lincolnshire, commanding spectacular views of the Nene valley", does not notice any difference between his late son and Blackadder in the Prince's clothes. Having been ordered to marry a rose bush, Blackadder becomes the new Prince Regent (and presumably later King).
In a hilarious scene moments later the real Prince stirs in Baldrick's arms and says that he too had a case in is inside pocket which shielded him from Wellington's gunshot. After fumbling around to find it he declares that he must have left it on his dresser and promptly dies.
[edit] Analysis
- The third season of Blackadder is the only one of the series in which Blackadder does not die (the Prince doing so in his place), Blackadder supposedly living the rest of his life as Prince George and later George IV, and one of two where Baldrick survives to the end (as he also, alone with Percy, survives in the first season).
- When Blackadder and the Prince switch places, the Prince alludes to "that story-the Prince and the Porpoise" , a reference by the authors to The Prince and the Pauper, which was not written until 1881, well after the chronological setting of this episode (presumably some time around 1805, as preparations for the Battle of Trafalgar are mentioned).
- This episode has many similarities with the later film Sabotage, in which Stephen Fry also played Wellington. In that movie, Napoleon set up a double to fight at Waterloo in his place. Additionally, Fry reprised the role of Wellington briefly in Blackadder Back and Forth.
- Some have also speculated that Fry's bombastic characterization of Wellington in this episode helped inspire his performance as General Melchett in the following series.
- In the 2007 documentary Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out, Emma Thompson referred to the scene where Wellington physically beats the Prince as being her favorite onscreen interaction between Fry and Laurie, who collaborated on many series before and following the success of Blackadder.
- It should be noted that Arthur Wellesley did not become Duke of Wellington until May 1814, whereas the Battle of Trafalgar (which has not occurred yet in the episode) took place on 21 October, 1805.
[edit] Trivia
- The music used when Baldrick is mourning the death of the Prince at the end of the episode is the Second Movement from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.
