Blackadder thirty-five miles from the front, where he is aided and abetted by his assistant, Captain Kevin Darling (Tim McInnerny), pencil-pusher supreme and Blackadder's nemesis, whose name is played on for maximum comedic value. The series' tone is somewhat darker than the other "Blackadder"s; it details the deprivations of trench warfare as well as the incompetence and life-wasting strategies of the top brass. For example, Baldrick is reduced to making coffee from mud and cooking rats, while General Melchett hatches a plan for the troops to walk very slowly toward the German lines, because "it'll be the last thing Fritz will
Blackadder Goes Forth there are left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths." Robinson responded "to categorise teachers who would introduce something like "Blackadder" as left-wing and introducing left-wing propaganda is very, very unhelpful. And I think it's particularly unhelpful and irresponsible for a minister in charge of education." Tristram Hunt also criticised Gove's comments, but Andrew Murrison compared the series to "Oh, What a Lovely War!" as a take on history that had "sadly been in the ascendant for the past 50 years." Esther MacCallum-Stewart of Sussex University noted in her essay "Television Docu-Drama and The First World War" that ""Blackadder