causing him to inadvertently reveal his wife's surprise presents, and having a thick German accent. King Richard III of England (Peter Cook) is a fictionalised version of the real Richard III of England. The series' first episode, "The Foretelling", explains that King Richard III was actually a kind, benevolent ruler who doted on his nephews, and that his popular image as a murderous usurper is based on lies spread by his rival, Henry Tudor. Captain Redbeard Rum (Tom Baker) – A deranged seafarer who claims to have had his legs "sliced clean off by a falling sail, and swept into the sea before [my] very eyes" and possesses "a beard you could lose a badger in". Rum is the sole captain with, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, few enough marbles to aid Blackadder in his trip around the Cape of Good Hope, and hence captains Blackadder's voyage of discovery – a trip that was intended to be little more than to France and back, but somehow ends up in Australia. Unlike the average seafarer, Rum actually seems to prefer drinking his own urine to water. Percy notes that Rum began doing so before the water ran out. Mrs. Scratchit (Pauline Melville) is a woman who appears in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. While seemingly a weak and sweet-natured woman, she is actually a very greedy con artist who has a "crippled" son called Tiny Tom, who is, in fact, morbidly obese (weighing fifteen stone and is "built like a brick privy".) She starts off swindling £17 off Blackadder in return for 17 matchsticks, claiming it is needed to feed herself and her family, claiming they are too poor to afford any meals, apart from "what Grandfather can scrape from under his big toenail." Lord Smedley (Nigel Planer) – An extremely annoying friend of George and one half of the Scarlet Pimpernel, the other half being his friend, Lord Topper. He is killed by a suicide pill given to him by Blackadder when he is disguised as Madame Guillotine in order to rescue him and Baldrick. ("Nob and Nobility") Brigadier Sir Bernard Proudfoot Smith (Bill Wallis) – A patient with thick German accent at the hospital in the fourth series episode "General Hospital." Captain Darling thinks he is the German spy, but he is revealed at the end of the episode to be the finest spy in British Army, who picked up "a