Bells (Blackadder)

Did You Know?

• Bob also appears in Ben Elton's 2016 sitcom Upstart Crow, with Gabrielle Glaister reprising the role as a woman pretending to be a man to become a judge.
• Using the full name "Robert Roberts," it has not been confirmed whether this is the same Bob from Blackadder II.

Plot

Kate, an attractive young woman, tries to comfort her father after her mother's death, though her mother is actually alive and has run off with Kate's uncle to Droitwich, leaving them destitute. Her father suggests she become a prostitute to solve their money troubles; Kate refuses and decides to go to London to seek her fortune. Lord Blackadder is at home target practising with his bow and arrow while Baldrick holds the target. Lord Percy enters and announces he is in love with Jane Harrington; Blackadder casually remarks that he and Baldrick have both slept with her, causing Percy to shoot Baldrick in the groin. Kate enters disguised as a boy, introduces herself as "Bob," and asks to be accepted into Blackadder's service. Blackadder hires her and fires Baldrick, though Baldrick is allowed to stay if he works harder and lives in the gutter. Over the next few weeks, Blackadder finds himself strangely attracted to "Bob" and nearly kisses him during a friendly tussle. He consults a doctor, who prescribes leeches dissolved in his mouth, and then a Wise Woman, who gives three options: kill Bob, kill himself, or sleep with Bob and kill everyone in the world. Blackadder orders Bob out of his service, but the truth is revealed along with "Bob's" breasts. After a brief sexual encounter, Blackadder asks Kate to marry him; she accepts, and the Queen consents after being reassured that Kate's nose is not prettier than hers. Baldrick is chosen as Kate's bridesmaid, and Edmund's best man is his old school chum Lord Flashheart.

Production

"Head" was intended to be the first episode but was swapped after Rik Mayall's performance as Lord Flashheart stole the show. This is evident as Lord Percy shaves his beard in protest but has it again in "Head." The episode marks the first appearance of the Bob/Kate and Flashheart archetypes that appear again in Blackadder Goes Forth. John Lloyd has said that Mayall virtually rewrote his part to feature "loads of jokes," which annoyed the writers Curtis and Elton. The studio recording took place on Thursday 13 June 1985. This was the only episode of the series to feature location filming, at Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The music performed as Blackadder courts "Bob" is Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on Greensleeves."