Blackadder Trivia
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50 free Blackadder trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Blackadder trivia quiz runs the whole dynasty, from Prince Edmund skulking around Richard IV's court in 1485 to Captain Blackadder going over the top in 1917. There are questions on all four series, the Christmas Carol and Cavalier Years specials, Back & Forth, the unaired 1982 pilot, and the cast of comic actors who wandered through the show as Flashheart, Queenie, Melchett, Nursie and the Prince Regent. The set starts gently, with the actors, settings and catchphrases most fans can rattle off, then works its way toward the details only a real devotee remembers: what Darling was originally called in the script, which 1976 film supplied the dogfight footage, and what Baldrick believes the S. in his name stands for. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles for the series, its four seasons and its main characters, and each question carries a citation you can follow. Play it alone, or use it to run a Blackadder round at your next quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who played Blackadder's servant Baldrick in every series and special?
Tony Robinson
Robinson is the only actor besides Atkinson to appear in all four series and every special. He was knighted in 2013 for services to drama and charity.
Q 02Blackadder Goes Forth is set in the trenches of which conflict?
First World War
The action is set in 1917 on the Western Front, with the ever-planned 'big push' hanging over every episode.
Q 03Which catchphrase is Baldrick best known for?
I have a cunning plan
The line first appears in the unaired 1982 pilot but was not used regularly until the third series.
Q 04Which root vegetable is Baldrick obsessed with?
Turnip
The Regency Baldrick spends the £400,000 he receives as a Lord on one enormous specimen, which Blackadder promptly crushes on his head.
Q 05Who played the buffoonish Prince Regent in Blackadder the Third?
Hugh Laurie
Laurie had already appeared twice in Blackadder II, as the drunken Simon Partridge and as Prince Ludwig the Indestructible.
Q 06Which actor played Melchett in Blackadder II and Blackadder Goes Forth?
Stephen Fry
Fry also turned up as the Duke of Wellington in the final episode of Blackadder the Third and as the doomed king in The Cavalier Years.
Q 07Who played Queenie, the childish Tudor monarch of Blackadder II?
Miranda Richardson
Richardson later returned in one-off roles as the highwayman Amy Hardwood and as Nurse Mary Fletcher-Brown.
Q 08In which year is The Black Adder, the first series, set?
1485
The premise is a secret history in which Bosworth was won by Richard III, and everything is quietly covered up by Henry Tudor afterwards.
Q 09Blackadder II is set during the reign of which English monarch?
Elizabeth I
The writers reportedly picked the Elizabethan setting because it was 'a sexy age that the kids can relate to'.
Q 10What is the first name of Blackadder's nemesis, Captain Darling?
Kevin
McInnerny had played the dim Lord Percy in the first two series before returning as Darling, Blackadder's equal in rank and rival in everything else.
Q 11What is the title of the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth?
Goodbyeee
The title was a period song; the first five episodes of the series were puns pairing a military rank with another word.
Q 12The episode titles of Blackadder the Third are puns on the novels of which author?
Jane Austen
Hence 'Dish and Dishonesty', 'Ink and Incapability' and 'Duel and Duality'; the fifth episode was originally billed as 'Cape and Capability'.
Q 13Rik Mayall played which vulgar, swaggering friend-turned-rival of Blackadder?
Lord Flashheart
Mayall also played Mad Gerald in the first series and a distinctly Flashheart-like Robin Hood in Back & Forth.
Q 21Which supermodel cameoed as Maid Marian in Blackadder: Back & Forth?
Kate Moss
Colin Firth's cameo as Shakespeare ends with Blackadder punching him on behalf of every schoolchild forced to study him.
Q 22In the 2004 BBC poll for Britain's Best Sitcom, Blackadder finished second behind which show?
Only Fools and Horses
Blackadder polled 282,106 votes with broadcaster John Sergeant championing its cause.
Q 23How far from the front is General Melchett's château, by Blackadder's reckoning?
35 miles
When Melchett promises Baldrick that he and Darling are 'behind you', Blackadder adds: 'About 35 miles behind you.'
Q 14Blackadder II was the first series to feature which writer alongside Curtis?
Ben Elton
A chance meeting led to the collaboration; the new co-writer also worked as the studio warm-up comic before recordings.
Q 15Who produced all four Blackadder series?
John Lloyd
Lloyd, who went on to create QI, later suggested a Batman parody called 'Batadder' as a possible fifth series.
Q 16Who composed the Blackadder theme tune, rearranged in period style for each series?
Howard Goodall
It is played with trumpets and timpani for the medieval series, on recorder and electric guitar for the Tudor one, and as a harpsichord minuet for the Regency.
Q 17In Blackadder's Christmas Carol, what kind of shop does Ebenezer Blackadder run?
Moustaches
He starts the special as the kindest man in England and ends it having concluded that 'bad guys have all the fun'.
Q 18Who played the Spirit of Christmas in Blackadder's Christmas Carol?
Robbie Coltrane
The Spirit's visions of ruthless ancestors backfire completely: Ebenezer admires them and decides to follow suit.
Q 19In 'Corporal Punishment', what was Melchett's pet pigeon, shot by Blackadder, called?
Speckled Jim
The plot nods to the capital sentences carried out under military law during the war.
Q 20Where was Blackadder: Back & Forth originally shown in 1999?
The Millennium Dome
With a budget of around £3 million, it was the only outing after the first series to return to location shooting.
Q 24In Blackadder the Third, Baldrick speculates that his first name might be what?
Sodoff
A diplomatic Blackadder records him as 'S. Baldrick', an initial his descendants appear to have kept.
Q 25In the trenches, Private Baldrick makes coffee from which unlikely ingredient?
Mud
The rat-cooking and mud-coffee are among the ways the series details the privations of trench life alongside the jokes.
Q 26What tactic does General Melchett propose because 'it'll be the last thing Fritz will expect'?
Walk very slowly toward the enemy
The line skewers the 'lions led by donkeys' view of the war's generals, a portrayal some historians later criticised as unfair.
Q 27In 'Dish and Dishonesty', Baldrick stands as a candidate in what kind of contest?
A parliamentary by-election
Real political commentator Vincent Hanna covered the count, billed as 'his own great-great-great grandfather'.
Q 28Who narrated all six episodes of The Black Adder?
Patrick Allen
The first series ended its credits with the line 'Additional Dialogue by William Shakespeare'.
Q 29Which comedian played the king whom Edmund unwittingly beheads after Bosworth in the first series?
Peter Cook
Edmund thinks the king is stealing his horse and takes his head off, then arrives late to the battle and claims to have killed 450 peasants.
Q 30Brian Blessed played Edmund's father, who reigns under which regnal name?
Richard IV
The real Richard, Duke of York, was one of the Princes in the Tower and about twelve at Bosworth, hardly old enough for two grown sons.