💡 A cunning plan

This edition is a longer read than usual.

The short version is this:

Years ago some clever TV producer brought an excellent British comedy show to Catalan TV screens, dubbed in Catalan. Years later a catchphrase (frase característica) of that show is used to introduce an idea we have, to make one lucky person more fluent in English, for free.

Read on if you want the full story, otherwise click here to skip straight to the tips.

On a quiet street in Sant Joan Despí, a few miles to the South-East of Barcelona, sits a series of buildings known as Els estudis de TV3.

It was here, just under the B-23 motorway, that some time in the late 1980’s an unknown TV executive, probably with a sharp sense of humor, decided to bring the show Blackadder to Catalonia.

That decision has always fascinated me.

Blackadder (Escurçó Negre in Catalan) was a show that I grew up with, and as a kid I would watch my father’s videos on repeat.

I had always thought it would be nearly impossible to translate. The language is rich and full of clever wordplay.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that many Catalans not only knew the show, but genuinely liked it.

Up to that point, my experience of Spanish comedy had been Torrente and Aqui no hay quien viva.

As many of you know, Blackadder is historical comedy with each season set in a different periods, full of absurd situations and real historical characters.

And one of the characters, Balderick, always had a plan.

The English language provides many words to describe a plan.

A plan could be described by any of the following: solid, sound, concrete, detailed, practical, feasible, comprehensive, strategic, vague, realistic, risky, doable, half-baked or robust.

But, Balderick never had any of those plans.

He always had a cunning plan.

Now, “cunning” doesn’t translate easily into Spanish.

It means astuto or listo, but it can also sound a little tramposo or engañoso.

As a noun it might be astucia or ingenio.

You get the idea — it’s clever, but with a twist.

And that brings us to our cunning plan.

We have a plan to help one person become more fluent in English — completely free.

It’s a plan that uses AI to track your speech and measure your progress.

Our goal? To help you speak faster, more clearly, and more confidently in English.

We’re confident we can increase your words-per-minute and fluency — but, as with any good plan…

there’s a small catch. Tiene letra pequeña.

As I said, we have a cunning plan.

If you’re interested in being that one person (selected in a raffle) then please apply here. Application open until midnight on 31/10/2025:

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