"Goodbyeee" is the sixth and final episode of the British historical sitcom Blackadder 's fourth series, entitled Blackadder Goes Forth. First broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 1989, shortly before Armistice Day, the episode depicts its main characters' final hours before a British offensive on the Western Front of the First World War, and the failed attempts of Captain Blackadder, played by Rowan Atkinson (pictured), to escape his fate by feigning madness. After he cannot convince General Melchett, and Field Marshal Haig's advice is useless, he is resigned to take part in the push. It has a darker tone than other episodes in the series, culminating with the main characters charging into no-man's land under machine-gun fire. The episode's theme of death ties in with the series' use of gallows humour and its criticism and satire of war. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton wrote the episode, and additional material was provided by its cast members. Its slow-motion final sequence showing the main characters going "over the top" has often been voted one of the greatest moments in television.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbyeee
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
War of the Third Coalition: French, Austrian and Russian units all suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Dürenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_D%C3%BCrenstein
1839:
The Virginia Military Institute, currently the oldest state military college in the United States, was founded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Military_Institute
1889:
Washington, named in honor of the first U.S. president, was admitted to the United States as the 42nd state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state)
1934:
The Shrine of Remembrance (pictured), a memorial to all Australians who have served in war, opened in Melbourne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_Remembrance
1999:
The House of Lords Act was given royal assent, removing most hereditary peers from the British House of Lords. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords_Act_1999
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
rumpty: (New Zealand) Having a quality below standard; in a state of disrepair. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rumpty
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
About belief or lack of belief in an afterlife: Some of you may know that I am neither Christian nor Jewish nor Buddhist, nor a conventionally religious person of any sort. I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead. My German-American ancestors, the earliest of whom settled in our Middle West about the time of our Civil War, called themselves "Freethinkers," which is the same sort of thing. My great grandfather Clemens Vonnegut wrote, for example, "If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter whether he was God or not?" I myself have written, "If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake." --Kurt Vonnegut https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut