Blackadder meeting between Richard Curtis and comedian Ben Elton led to the decision to collaborate on a new series of Blackadder. Recognising the main faults of the first series, Curtis and Elton agreed that "Blackadder II" would be a studio-only production (along with the inclusion of a live audience during recording, instead of showing the episodes to an audience after taping). Besides adding a greater comedy focus, Elton suggested a major change in character emphasis: Baldrick would become the stupid sidekick, while Edmund Blackadder evolved into a cunning sycophant. This led to the familiar set-up that was maintained in the following
Captain Cook (Blackadder) a ploy: instead of Paris, the chosen artist will in fact go into no man's land and draw the enemy positions. With debatable help from George and Baldrick, he returns with a sketch illustrating immense fictional enemy defensive capabilities, including large numbers of armament factories and elephants. Darling and Blackadder suggest that the push should be cancelled. Melchett responds by saying that would be exactly what the enemy would expect... and what they won't do, in order to make the Germans think that the British Intelligence is rotten. Melchett orders the attack anyway, which Blackadder, George and Baldrick avoid by