6 SEPTEMBER 2008, Page 22

Famous last words

Sir: I don’t think that Martin Vander Weyer (‘Forget economic recovery, Gordon’, 23 August) is correct in intimating that Blackadder was the source of the famous line ‘What we need at this stage of the war is a futile gesture’. To the best of my recollection it was first used in Beyond the Fringe when the hapless Perkins is sent on a mission ‘from which there is no hope of you returning’, to quote his commanding officer. The sketch ends with another famous line, ‘God I wish I was going with you, Perkins’.

Peter Cooch

Great Brington, Northampton