Factual error: In Blackadder's Christmas Carol, during the Elizabethan part of the 1988 Christmas special, Queen Elizabeth asks Edmund if he has any last words before she chops off his head and sticks it on the Christmas tree. Christmas trees weren't introduced to England until Prince Albert (husband of Queen Victoria) brought it from his homeland in 1840.
Factual error: Dr. Johnson completed his dictionary in 1755, 7 years before the Prince Regent was born (1762). So it's unlikely for him to be asking the Prince for patronage.
Factual error: During the theatre play you can see they are using electric stage lights. Nice move for a series plotted almost 300 years ago. (00:01:55)
Factual error: At Ms. Miggins' when she says, "There's ever so much hard work," you can see her wearing a bra under her corset. Bras didn't exist at that time. (00:06:35)
Factual error: After the Shadow has left Blackadder a captive, she says how much she hates squirrels, and fires two shots from a single shot pistol.
Factual error: When Blackadder has disguised himself as the Prince and is speaking to Wellington, Wellington says, "I have with me here the most recent briefs from my General in the field". Blackadder, deliberately misunderstanding, replies "If you would like to pop them in the laundry basket". Blackadder is referring to the short, tight style of men's modern underwear, known as briefs, which were not invented until the 1930s.
Factual error: Baldrick becomes Blackadder's navigator. The problem is, WWI aircraft did not carry navigators; they carried either only a pilot, or a pilot and an observer, and observers were officers. (00:15:30)
Answer: The closest we ever get to knowing his first name is in series 3, when he claims it's "Sod Off". Blackadder asks him in series 3 where this came from, and he replies "Well, when I was a kid, living in the gutter, I'd go up to the other kids and say 'Hello, I'm Baldrick'. And they'd say, 'Yes, we know. Sod off, Baldrick.'" The S in this series is likely a reference to that, but it's not addressed, and given this Baldrick is clearly different from the series 3 Baldrick, we can't draw a direct link.
Shay