"Parade" is the fourth episode of the second series of British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 sitcom, Bottom

Bottom (TV series)

Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...

. It was first broadcast on 22 October 1992. This was the first of three episodes not to be set in the flat at all.

Plot

The episode begins with Richie and Eddie acting as volunteers in an identity parade. A suited man is accompanied into the room by a uniformed police officer, whom Richie mistakes for the criminal. It turns out, however, to be a member of CID

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

, Chief Inspector Grobbelaar. The suspects are brought in, Eddie's friends, Spudgun and Dave Hedgehog. Spudgun's mother, Mrs. Potato, enters the room and identifies him as stealing her handbag to take to a cross-dressing party. Chief Inspector Grobbelaar orders one of the officers to take her outside and give her a good drubbing.

Next, we see Richie and Eddie entering their local pub, The Lamb and Flag. They go to order drinks with their earnings from the identity parade, and notice that there is a new barmaid. The two pretend to be health and safety officers in order to get free food and drinks. Spudgun, Dave Hedgehog and Mrs. Potato are also posing as health and safety officers, and are planning their next identity parade that afternoon. Richie tries to chat up the barmaid, and while doing so, claims he was a soldier in the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

. This catches the attention of a nearby drinker (Robert Llewellyn

Robert Llewellyn

Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...

), who actually fought in the war, who starts questioning him.

Meanwhile, the toilet door bursts open, and Tight-Mouthed Larry, the local Bookie

Bookmaker

A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...

, staggers drunkenly into the bar and collapses, vomiting all over the floor. The Falklands veteran begins questioning Richie again, and shows him his service medal

Service medal

A service medal is a military award generally of the lowest degree. A service medal is awarded to a member of the military who joins the military, or is already serving, during a designated time period...

. Richie is shocked and doesn't know what to say. The war veteran shows Richie that he lost his leg in the war and now has a false leg

Prosthesis

In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control...

 made of carved wood. He carries on questioning Richie and works out that he was lying about being in the Falklands War. Richie shows the veteran his appendix scar

Appendicitis

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...

. This doesn't impress the veteran, who beats Richie up. Presently, Tight-Mouthed Larry wakes up and tells the entire pub of a horse, Sad Ken, that is certain to win despite having 100/1 odds

Odds

The odds in favor of an event or a proposition are expressed as the ratio of a pair of integers, which is the ratio of the probability that an event will happen to the probability that it will not happen...

. He tells everyone that it is a secret and to forget it. Larry leaves the pub.

Richie and Eddie are left wishing that they had more money to bet on the horse; they think it is a shame that they only have £16 between them. The two go to the toilets and plan to steal the war veteran's leg, take it to a pawnbroker

Pawnbroker

A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral...

, sell it, place the proceeds on Sad Ken, buy the leg back with the winnings and keep the profit. They leave the toilets to find that the veteran has fallen asleep. Eddie runs over and tries to remove his leg, before realising he is twisting the veteran's real leg. Richie takes over and unfastens the false leg, and sends Eddie to the pawnbroker to sell the leg and place the bet. Richie starts feeding the veteran alcohol with a funnel to keep him asleep.

At Harry The Bastard's Pawnshop, there is a crowd of people selling various items to raise stake money for the horse race. Spudgun is trying to sell a rat, claiming it is a mink

Mink

There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and...

. Eddie enters with the leg. Harry says it must be worth at least £2,500, but offers Eddie £1.50. Eddie blackmails Harry into giving him £500 for it.

Back in the pub, the war veteran wakes up, and says that he wants to go for a walk to clear his head. Richie persuades him not to by asking to hear some war stories. In the bookie's, Eddie places the bet and goes to watch the race with the rest of the drinkers. Sad Ken, who is blind and only has three legs, runs the wrong way and falls over, then is shot.

Eddie returns to the pub and explains that Sad Ken didn't win, and now they have no money to buy the leg back with. Tight-Mouthed Larry and Dick Head, the pub landlord, enter the bar with a pile of money and reveal that the Sad Ken tip had been a scam, and the new bardmaid had been Dick's niece, Veronica.

The pair go back into the toilet and plan to mug

Robbery

Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....

 the next person who enters. A man enters who they start to beat up, but it turns out to be Chief Inspector Grobbelaar. The episode ends back in the police station, with Richie and Eddie in an identity parade. Chief Inspector Grobbelaar picks them out as the men who assaulted him, and the other police officers start beating up Richie and Eddie.

Continuity Errors

• When Eddie explains what his uncle Percy used to say when in WWI, his tie is not draped over his shoulder. However, when Richie tries to knock sense back into him, Eddie's tie is slung over his shoulder.

Cast

Cast	Characters
Rik Mayall Rik Mayall Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...	Richie
Ade Edmondson	Eddie
Robert Ashe	Ralph Maxwell
Rory Bremner Rory Bremner Roderick "Rory" Keith Ogilvy Bremner, FKC is a Scottish impressionist, playwright and comedian, noted for his work in political satire...	Mr. Brough
Lee Cornes Lee Cornes Lee Cornes is a British actor.He appeared in three series of Blackadder, as a talking extra, in two episodes of The Young Ones and in the TV show Bottom, as barman, 'Dick Head'. He made an appearance in the first episode of Filthy, Rich & Catflap as a binman. He also starred in children's drama...	Dick Head
Brian Croucher Brian Croucher Brian Croucher is an English actor and director perhaps best known for his role as Ted Hills, which he played from 1995 to 1997, in the soap opera EastEnders....	Ted Nugent/Harry the Bastard
Andy De La Tour Andy de la Tour Andy de la Tour is an English actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in such films as Plenty, Notting Hill and the Roman Polanski version of Oliver Twist. He has also written or appeared in such television series as Boon, The Young Ones, Bottom, Peak Practice and Kavanagh QC...	Chief Inspector Grobbelaar
Roy Heather Roy Heather Roy Heather is an English actor. He began as an amateur actor when he was spotted by David Tudor who gave him his first professional job in Repertory. For David he played many leading roles including Frank in "Winter Journey", Reg in "The Norman Conquests" and co-starred in the world premiere of...	Mr. Man
Chris Langham Chris Langham Christopher "Chris" Langham is an English writer, actor and comedian. He is most famous for playing MP Hugh Abbot in BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost...	Tight-Mouthed Larry
Robert Llewellyn Robert Llewellyn Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...	Mr. N. Stiles
Robert McKewley	P.C. Cholmondley-Smythe
Steven O'Donnell Steven O'Donnell (actor) Steven O'Donnell is an English actor.Before O'Donnell became an actor he worked for 5 years in Charing Cross Hospital as a Scientific Officer in a medical laboratory. He has appeared in several comedies with Rik Mayall...	Spudgun
Patsy Rowlands Patsy Rowlands Patsy Rowlands was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, as Betty in the popular ITV Thames sitcom Bless This House, and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television sitcom Hallelujah!.-Early years:She was born in Palmers Green, London and attended a...	Lil Potato
Christopher Ryan Christopher Ryan Christopher Ryan is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.-Early life:...	Dave Hedgehog
Julia Sawalha Julia Sawalha Julia Sawalha is an English actress well known for her roles as Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She also played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume...	Veronica Head