3rd Jun 2004
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: Blackadder makes the joke, "I imagine he went to one of the great Universities, Oxford, Cambridge, Hull." This is probably around 1916, but Hull University didn't exist until 1927. We cannot put it down to the joke either, as he explains later the nurse failed to point out its quality, not its existence.
26th Jul 2004
Corrected entry: William Pitt the Elder is heard introducing his "Younger" brother as the new Prime Minister. However, Pitt the Elder was Prime Minister from 1766 to 1767, and Pitt the Younger was from 1783 to 1801, so it's inaccurate for them to follow on from each other like this. It's also worth pointing out that if Pitt the Elder is supposed to be the PM at the start of the episode (something Blackadder attests to), then the Prince Regent would have been around 4 years old at the time.
Correction: At the very start, Blackadder does indeed say about "Pit the Elder" but, the next scene (In parliament) the speaker of the house says "I call upon the new Prime Minister of Great Britain and her empires, Mr William Pitt, the Younger". Pitt the Elder never introduces his brother.
10th Dec 2004
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: Black Adder says that there are four verses to "God Save the King." There are actually five, and technically there are six. However, the final verse is very anti-Scottish (added after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745-46), and is very rarely seen and even more rarely performed.
Correction: While this may be true, Blackadder is merely trying to confuse Darling into confessing he's a German spy.
Correction: The original question by Blackadder was not a joke, it was a deliberate mistake to trick Nurse Mary. As for the explanation later when he reveals her to be the spy, his exact words are that only two of them are great universities. The mistake is only valid if he had emphasised the word universities which he does not. His words can easily be interpreted as saying that only two of them are universities which was, at the time, true.
tw_stuart