Melchett
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- Lord Melchett redirects here. For the real-life figure, see Peter Mond, 4th Baron Melchett.
Melchett is a fictional character in the Blackadder series, played by Stephen Fry. There were two main Melchetts: Lord Melchett and General Melchett.
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Lord Melchett
Image:Melchettmain.jpg The first Melchett appeared in series two of Blackadder. He was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth I. He was also a snivelling toady. Melchett was usually seen standing to the left of Queenie's throne, with Nursie on the right. As one of the Queen's favorites, he often came into conflict with Lord Blackadder. Affectionately known to the Queen as 'Melchy', the earnest Lord Melchett has set himself up as her closest personal adviser. A minister of the Church (probably a bishop, as in the 16th century it was not uncommon for bishops to hold high court offices), he guards his position jealously.
Lord Melchett's rivalry with Lord Blackadder saw such devious deeds as them try to drink each other under the table (an interesting competition considering that the two were complete lightweights). Lord Melchett once recommended to the Queen that Blackadder be made Lord High Executioner (a job at which, apparently, no one ever lasts more than a week without being murdered), and pressured Blackadder to sail around the deadly Cape of Good Hope. However, Blackadder got the last laugh, as he had never intended to go to the Cape, and instead, sailed around aimlessly for a while (via Australia), before returning to a hero's welcome and giving Melchett, as a souvenir, a 'fine wine', which turned out to be a bottle of Baldrick's urine. Blackadder's Christmas Carol also showed Blackadder getting the last laugh, as he tricks both Melchett and the Queen into "autographing" a death warrant that condemns Melchett to be executed, and leaves Blackadder with all his property.
There were also (largely confirmed) rumours about his activities with a sheep named Flossie while at a monastery in Cornwall.
General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett
Image:Melch120.jpg Although the character Melchett did not appear in series 3 of Blackadder, Stephen Fry had a show-stealing role in the final episode as The Duke of Wellington, portrayed as a loud, bellowing and bellicose warmongerer with a tendency towards casual violence aimed at the serving classes (in particular the incompetent and buffoonish Prince Regent, who was then disguised as his own butler).
The role seemed to fit Fry like a glove, and, when the character Melchett returned in the fourth and final series of Blackadder, he was no longer the sycophantic but highly intelligent toady his ancestor had been in series 2, but an insane, bellowing army General, much like Fry's portrayal of Wellington. The two also shared the trademark bellow 'Baaah!', which would be delivered at random intervals for no apparent reason. (Fry has put it down to smoker's asthma, but it frequently seems to serve as a signal of the character's insanity.)
The insane General Melchett was something of a popular caricature of World War I generals like Field Marshal Douglas Haig, who have been controversially portrayed by authors such as Alan Clark and John Laffin as sending men to a senseless death, with seemingly no tactics at all.
This is parodied in a scene where Haig is talking to Captain Blackadder on the phone. In front of him is a model of a trench with rows of men on either side. He places all the models on top of the trench, then knocks them over with a stick and sweeps them into a waste paper bin.
The General is constantly trying to lift the morale of the men, completely ignorant of the fact that they are too afraid of their impending deaths to have their spirits lifted by a Charlie Chaplin film or a drag act. He also attempted to have Captain Blackadder shot for eating his pet pigeon, tried to marry Lieutenant George (who was in character as drag queen 'Gorgeous Georgina'), and shot Captain Darling in the foot to provide a believable disguise for undercover hospital work.
In series four, the role of the snivelling creep, and Blackadder's rival, was filled by Captain Darling, who acted as General Melchett's aide and who was always by his side, right up until Melchett sent him to the front line.
It appears the General is a family friend of Lieutenant George's, and went to Cambridge University with one of his relatives. As such, he regards Oxford to be "a complete dump."
Other Melchetts
In the millennium special, Blackadder Back and Forth, Fry reprised the roles of Wellington and Lord Melchett, and also played the Roman General Melchecus (a character very similar to General Melchett) and the modern-day Bishop Flavius Melchett (a character with slight similarities to both Lord Melchett and General Melchett).
As well as this, the episode Kids Today in Ben Elton's sitcom The Thin Blue Line featured a character called Brigadier Blaster-Sump, also played by Fry, who was very similar to Melchett and runs a tough mountain expedition school. He apparently attempted to be the first man to reach the South Pole in short trousers and whose ideal present is "a large stick with a nail on the end and someone who deserves a damned good thrashing".
The Real Melchett
The origin of the name of the character is unknown. There is a real Barony of Melchett, conferred on the Chairman of ICI Alfred Mond. The present Lord Melchett, since 1977 is Peter Robert Henry Mond, 4th Baron Melchett who was a government Minister in the 1970s and later Executive Director of Greenpeace UK.