Rotten and pocket boroughs MacDonald Fraser's "The Flashman Papers" series, the eponymous antihero, Harry Flashman, mentions that his father, Sir Buckley Flashman, had been in Parliament, but "they did for him at Reform," implying that the elder Flashman's seat was in a rotten or pocket borough. In the episode "Dish and Dishonesty" of the BBC television comedy "Blackadder the Third", Edmund Blackadder attempts to bolster the support of the Prince Regent in Parliament by getting the incompetent Baldrick elected to the fictional rotten borough of "Dunny-on-the-Wold". This was easily accomplished with a result of 16,472 to nil, even though the constituency had only one
Dish and Dishonesty votes for Baldrick, it is revealed that Blackadder is both the constituency's returning officer (whose predecessor died when he "accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving") and voter (whose predecessor "accidentally brutally cut his head off while combing his hair"), Baldrick is made an MP in a landslide victory. Once Baldrick enters the House of Commons, Pitt manipulates him into voting the wrong way, and the issue proceeds to the House of Lords. Blackadder then plans to get himself named to the House of Lords, where he will be able to vote against the bill, and he even