Blackadder a vulgar friend in his first appearance and then a successful rival of Blackadder in a later episode of series 2 and 4. He also played a decidedly Flashheart-like Robin Hood in "Back & Forth". Lee Cornes also appeared in an episode of all three Curtis-Elton series. He appeared as a guard in the episode "Chains" of "Blackadder II"; as the poet Shelley in the episode "Ink and Incapability' of "Blackadder the Third"; and as firing squad soldier Private Fraser in the episode "Corporal Punishment" of "Blackadder Goes Forth". More established actors, some at the veteran stage of their careers,
Blackadder Goes Forth an oversimplified view of the war, reinforcing the popular notion of "lions led by donkeys". "Blackadder Goes Forth" is set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches of World War I. Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is a professional soldier in the British Army who, until the outbreak of the Great War, has enjoyed a relatively danger-free existence fighting natives who were usually "two feet tall and armed with dried grass". Finding himself trapped in the trenches with another "big push" planned, his concern is to avoid being sent over the top to certain death. The series thus