George (Blackadder) kind and hopeful individual, and shortly before the big push at the end of the final episode George finally expresses some genuine fear and sadness that he may indeed die. In the 1989 sketch Shakespeare Sketch Laurie portrays a very George-like William Shakespeare. Lord Blackadder is his agent and manages to persuade him to condense his new play Hamlet. In the series, Lieutenant George is seen wearing the following ribbons: Tim McInnerny, who had starred in "The Black Adder" and "Blackadder II" as Lord Percy Percy, was afraid to be typecast in comedic roles and decided not to appear in
Blackadder Goes Forth noted that the television series has become a pervasive view of the war in the public's perception of World War I, with Max Hastings calling the common British view of the war "the "Blackadder" take on history." Military historian Richard Holmes commented in his book "The Western Front": "Blackadder's aphorisms have become fact...A well turned line of script can sometimes carry more weight than all the scholarly footnotes in the world." Stephen Badsey, analysing trends in television programmes about the war, remarked that "Blackadder Goes Forth" as a popular comedy series was subject to particular criticism from historians, remarking that