Trivia
As obvious on both original transmission and the DVD release, all verbal references to "Massingbird" were in fact re-dubbed (Atkinson's mouth movements do not match the audio). This was because the original name used was that of a prominent commercial barrister in London (Robert Moxon Browne) and had to be re-dubbed in post-production to avoid legal proceedings. Hugh Massingbird was the name of the obituary writer for the Daily Telegraph.
In his autobiography Moab is My Washpot, Stephen Fry recalls an incident when a man shouted "The Flanders pigeon-murderer!" at him on the street. Fry had understood him wrongly, thinking he had said "Bastard pigging murderer!", and feared he was going to be attacked.
The names of Blackadder's firing squad are a reference by writer Ben Elton to the classic sitcom Dad's Army.
Stephen Fry had great difficulty getting through his lines in the courtroom scene without laughing, as off camera Hugh Laurie was pulling faces at him. After breaking into laughter in several takes, he eventually jokingly ordered Laurie out of the room, at which point he managed to get through his lines.
Read more about this topic: Corporal Punishment (Blackadder)
Famous quotes containing the word trivia:
“The most refined skills of color printing, the intricate techniques of wide-angle photography, provide us pictures of trivia bigger and more real than life. We forget that we see trivia and notice only that the reproduction is so good. Man fulfils his dream and by photographic magic produces a precise image of the Grand Canyon. The result is not that he adores nature or beauty the more. Instead he adores his camera—and himself.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Pop artists deal with the lowly trivia of possessions and equipment that the present generation is lugging along with it on its safari into the future.”
—J.G. (James Graham)