13 SEPTEMBER 2008, Page 25

Lines of duty

Sir: Peter Cooch (Letters, 6 September) is correct: the line ‘What we need at this stage of the war is a futile gesture’ first appeared in Beyond the Fringe, not Blackadder. But he is wrong that the sketch ends with the commanding officer’s ‘God, I wish I was going with you, Perkins.’ It actually ends with the exchange, ‘Goodbye, sir; or is it — au revoir?’ (pause), ‘No, Perkins.’ Professor Gareth Williams

Pontypridd, Wales