Prince George (Blackadder character)
|
|
Prince_George_Blackadder.gif
Prince George (1762-1816) was a fictional caricature of the historical figure HRH The Prince George, Prince of Wales, played by Hugh Laurie in the third series of the popular BBC sit-com Blackadder. The real Prince of Wales (1762-1830) reigned as Prince Regent (1811-1820) during his Father, King George III's final illness, and as King George IV after his Father's death in 1820 until his own death.
In Blackadder, the Prince of Wales was portrayed as a young and loud buffoon who spent money extravagantly (especially on fancy trousers). The fact that Hugh Laurie was young and thin, and the real Prince of Wales was, by this point, old and fat did not seem to bother writers Ben Elton and Richard Curtis, who still referred to him as "a fat, flatulent git". In the series, Prince George's butler was a certain Mr. E. Blackadder, assisted by his dogsbody, S. Baldrick.
George was created as a replacement for Blackadder's annoying idiot of a sidekick Lord Percy Percy, who had accompanied Blackadder and Baldrick in the first two series, after Tim McInnerny declined to appear in the role. If it is possible, George was even more stupid than Percy. He did not understand the concept of acting and at the end of a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar demanded that someone arrest the actor playing Brutus, having shouted "Look behind you, Mr Caesar!" in the murder scene. It also took him a week to put on a pair of trousers by himself, and even then they were on his head.
However, though temperamental and priggish at times, George is helpful and loyal. He knows he is no bright spark (describing himself as "as thick as a whale omelette") but he is keen on self-improvement, and dreams of the day when people say "That George, why he's as clever as a stick in a bucket of pig swill." He also has a penchant for Blackadder's witty rejoinders, saying "Why, only the other day Prime Minister Pitt called me an idle scrounger. It wasn't until ages later that I thought how clever it could have been to have said, 'Oh bugger off, you old fart!' I need to improve my mind, Blackadder".
According to the show, George was shot dead around 1816 by the Duke of Wellington, who had mistaken him for the butler. The butler, Blackadder, was subsequently mistaken for the prince by his mad father and presumably went on to live what history records as the rest of Prince George's life.
Hugh Laurie essentially reprised the role in Blackadder Goes Forth as Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Bartleigh.