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
Sense and Senility Shakespearean-style dialogue. Baldrick overhears them and thinks it is a real plot to murder Prince George and his servant. As he and the Prince are cowering in the sitting room, Blackadder returns, revealing that he had actually decided to take Baldrick up on his bet, saying "Four minutes, twenty-two seconds, Baldrick. You owe me a groat." He then takes advantage of George's inability to tell fact from fiction and accuses the actors of conspiracy, claiming that "The Murder of Prince Romero" is in fact their entire conspiracy printed and published in play manuscript form. They are led off by the