Original artwork, not a still
Clearly, Field Marshal Haig is about to make yet another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.
— Blackadder · 1983
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The furniture makes the distance between headquarters and the trenches painfully concrete. Haig can appear to move towards Berlin while the men doing the advancing bear the cost. The sentence states Blackadder's view of the war through an absurd domestic objective; it is the character's satire, rather than a balanced historical assessment of Haig's command.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for BlackadderShow the scene
In ‘Captain Cook’, the opening episode of Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), Blackadder interprets preparations for another advance with characteristic contempt for the high command. Rather than describe a decisive military objective, he imagines Field Marshal Haig making a tiny adjustment to his drinks cabinet. The captain's response belongs to the episode's larger effort to get himself and his men away from the front, including his attempt to become an official war artist.
Sources (2)
- Captain Cook — episode subtitle transcriptBlackadder Goes Forth — Captain Cook; quoted conversationReference checked
- Blackadder Goes Forth — WikiquoteCaptain CookReference checked
Context reviewed
