The sketch begins with a preamble by Eric Idle (impersonating the British film critic Philip Jenkinson), who praises American film director Sam Peckinpah's predilection for the "utterly truthful and very sexually arousing portrayal of violence "" in its starkest form" in "Major Dundee" (1965), "The Wild Bunch" (1969) and "Straw Dogs" (1971). Throughout this speech, he constantly sniffs, despite onscreen captions telling him to stop. He then segues to a clip from Peckinpah's latest project, which is an adaptation of the musical "Salad Days".