Best Blackadder Moments #5: The Dunny-on-the-Wold By-election (Dish and Dishonesty)

Sorry Mr Biggun

We're now in the third series, and following the most ruthless incarnation of Edmund Blackadder. And now I'm needing to provide a little more background as the writers get more accustomed to episode-length stories.

The petulant teenager William Pitt the Younger has become Prime Minister, and seeks to strike the Prince Regent from the Civil List. Parliament is deadlocked on the issue, so Blackadder attempts to tip the balance by leaning on an MP named Sir Talbot Buxomley. Sir Talbot pledges his support for the Prince...and promptly dies, triggering a by-election in his constituency of Dunny-on-the-Wold, a rubber button rotten borough in which the landowner controls the voters and the MP. Blackadder proposes a scheme to have Baldrick run in the by-election against the Prime Minister's brother, Pitt the Even Younger.

Baldrick becoming a politician. The jokes practically write themselves, especially with the by-election coverage which spoofs contemporary British election coverage. They even got former BBC political commentator Vincent Hanna to make a guest appearance as "his own great-great-grandfather". He practically steals the scene with his deadpan delivery of such absurd lines.

There's also Ivor Biggun running for the "Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party", whose policies include the compulsory serving of asparagus at breakfast, free corsets for the under-fives, and the abolition of slavery. For the international readers of this blog, we do have candidates who run for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, such as one who recently ran in Stoke called The Incredible Flying Brick. As much as I like asparagus, I don't want it every day. Particularly if it's out of season.

There's also some historical irony in the scene, as William Pitt himself was actually elected through a rotten borough. On top of that, Pitt the Even Younger is mentioned to be running for the Whigs, who acted as the left-wing party in Parliament for a long time before the Labour Party appeared in the early 20th Century. Pitt the Younger was with the right-wing Tory party.

The episode this scene appears in has become so popular that it's often repeated whenever there's an election being held. It's absolutely sublime, and one of the best comedic moments.