If you have not seen the final episodes of Blackadder Goes Forth, Man About the House, The Good Life, Only Fools and Horses, Upstairs Downstairs, Yes Minister or Blake's 7 please note that this article is very spoilerific of their final episodes and I will give away plot points. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk.
I am fascinated about how successful TV series ends their run. As I mentioned in other articles, I devote the entire month of May to final episodes. Anything I randomly pick during the month of May will be the last episode of that series but that often works against me. Normally May is a flop with what I pick. Sometimes I will pick a series that has a really good last episode but generally the rule seems to be that I end up picking something that just ends without any real resolution. It’s OK, it happens; it’s random. You never know what you are going to get. The way I pick these programs randomly generally involves the name of the series which I pick out of an envelope. Not very high tech! I also put in other *things* that I can choose that can break up the monotony of just picking series out of an envelope. One of them is a sheet I put in there that just says “Theme Night”. The idea behind that is that if I pick “Theme Night”, I could pick to watch a whole evening dedicated to War programs, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Crime, etc. I figured as I picked this during May, how interesting it would be to finally pick some final episodes of some of my favourite TV series.
This article is devoted to Memorable British television
Series Finales. Please note: I am not saying the best series finales but ones I
find memorable. These are just my opinion and nothing else. Also, these series
I took from are all found in my collection. I know there are a ton of other
memorable endings out there but these are some of my favourites I can just take
off the shelf. I find that final episodes fall into a couple of categories:
death, weddings, meeting a goal, cast dispersal, and storylines that involve
dreams.
This is your final warning that I am seriously going to
start spoiling the ending of these series. If you haven’t seen these series and
don’t want the ending ruined, stay away! I am not going to go into much detail
about the plot of the episodes but more as to why they were great final episodes.
Blackadder Goes Forth
Goodbyeee TX: 02/11/89

The episode has some great comedic moments such as when
Baldrick explain how he has been making coffee when they ran out of supplies
months ago or Baldrick poem titled “Boom”. During the entire episode there is a
feeling of doom hovering over them. I think the moment where we see that things
were going to get bad is when Melchett orders Darling to join Blackadder and
his team at the front instead of being Melchett’s personal assisitant. At the
end, all of them go over the top and attack the Germans. The action moves to
slow motion as they are running and we here the deep bellows of artillery go
off while a sad piano version of the theme song plays and ends with ominous
chords as the visuals switch from the trenches to a field of poppies.
Obviously this episode falls into characters dying section
but what makes this episode special is that there is a serious anti-war message
in it. Even though the series is set in 1917, the message is loud and clear as
George and Baldrick talk about their friends and how they have all died. Blackadder
himself is even somber in this ultimately knowing there is no way out. In fact,
just before they go over the top, there are a few moments that you would think
that Blackadder could use to get out of advancing on the Germans. These include
Baldrick saying he has another plan and Blackadder noticing the one of the
rungs of the ladder going out of the trench is broken. Ultimately Blackadder
resigns to his fate and leads his men into death. These are more victims of
war. I cannot help but tear up as I
watch that sequence. Blackadder is a horrible person but one cannot help but
like him especially not to see him or his men killed in a futile attack.
Blackadder would return in 1999 with Blackadder Back and Forth. I enjoyed that one off but Goodbyeee is the real final episode of
Blackadder.

Then of course there is George & Mildred. Whenever they are on screen it is magic. At the end, everyone gives Chrissy a little kiss goodbye as she and Norman about to go on their honeymoon. George goes over there and gives her a little peck on the cheek which Mildred observes, “That’s as romantic as George gets.” The last one to give Chrissy a kiss is Robin and those two kiss for a very long time in front of everyone. It’s uncomfortable and hilarious all at the same time. A great way to end a great series.
The Good Life Anniversary TX: 22.05.77

Only Fools and Horses
Time On Our Hands TX: 29/12/96

That was until 2001. For some reason, a perfect ending was
not good enough for John Sullivan. Succumbing to public pressure of people
wanting to see more Only Fools and
Horses, he brought us the first of the new final trilogy, If They Could See Us Now. I lambast it here.
Time On Our Hands was the perfect
ending for a series that lasted 16 years. The whole cast was together and it
was funny. When the series came back, it was alright but comedy is about timing
and when Only Fools and Horses
originally went off the air, it left at the right time. Wherever possible, I
consider Time On Our Hands as the
proper finale to Only Fools and Horses.

Yes Minister Party Games TX: 27/12/84

Blake’s 7 Blake TX: 21.12.81
If you have never seen the end of this series, leave this
page now! I had seen Blake way back
in the late 1980s. It actually was probably one of the first episodes of the
series I have ever seen. I really only remember the ending. It’s weird as it
seems like it was an old series when I saw the finale but in fact the episode
was probably only like 8 years old.

Everyone, including the cast and crew, thought Blake’s 7 was done at the end of Series
3. How shocking it must have been for them to hear the continuity announcer at
the end of the episode saying how the series would be returning next year!
Gareth Thomas was asked to appear one more time as Blake and he was happy to do
so only if his character would be completely killed off. Hell, they threw in
the deaths of everyone else too for good measure. Of course, that is the point
of debate. Did the rest of Avon’s crew really get killed? When Avon shot Blake,
he blew a big whole into Blake’s stomach and we saw blood. Everyone else could
have just been stunned. The producers probably did it this way as they were
watching to see if there were any more continuity announcers who were going to
re-commission their series. Of course, this really was meant to be the final
episode the series. It’s weird how Avon is looking for Blake (and conveniently
found him) to be nothing more than a figurehead. Avon was going to use him.
When Avon saw Blake and thought he betrayed everyone to the Federation, he was
shocked. Not surprised but shocked in a hammy and comedic way that only Paul
Darrow can deliver. He was also very trigger happy. Don’t think for a moment
that I didn’t recognize how profound and serious this moment was. Avon killing
Blake ended Blake’s 7. Regardless if
anyone else survived, it didn’t matter the Federation won….at least on that
front. I do wish Servalan would have been in the episode in some way.
Clearly Star Trek
Generations looked to this episode to see how a spaceship crashes. Scorpio
crash lands on Gauda Prime. It crash lands on the planet taking out tons of
trees. Inside the ship, all of the consoles and equipment get ripped up from
the floor and hurdles everything to the front destroying everything. It sounds just
like how the Enterprise D crashes. Both good ships; too bad.I have said that I have not really been able to get into this series here. Watching Blake, may have changed my mind. It was very good and had a very doom-laden feel to the whole thing, especially when Blake was on screen. The final shot before the credits of Avon surrounded by the Federation guards is excellent and the gun shots firing over the closing credits is chilling. Nice job!
Like I mentioned at the start of this article, these are just some of the great final episodes of series in my own collection. Others that are very notable (in my collection) are The Brittas Empire, ‘Allo ‘Allo! , Butterflies, Dad’s Army, Lovejoy, Men Behaving Badly, The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, and To The Manor Born. But all of those are for another day.
What are some of your favourite final episodes? Be careful
of spoilers!
Next week: On
17/5/12 Richard Marson made a documentary that was actually a love letter to
BBC Television Centre. Next week, I will be constructing a love letter to
Richard Marson’s BBC4 documentary Tales
of Television Centre.
Have a great week!
Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
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2 comments:
Very good choices to view, all excellent episodes. I have to agree with you - nothing is worse than a great series just ending.
One I would heartily recommend would be the final episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum. It really was a great ending to a wonderful 8 years of entertainment.
I have all the sets of It Ain't Half Hot Mum but never really watched it. It's probably one I should check out sooner than later.
Thanks for reminding me about it.
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