General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett

General Melchett commands from the safety of a chateau miles behind the front, treating the First World War as a jolly game of toy soldiers and disastrous strategy. Bombastic, oblivious, and thundering with plummy enthusiasm, he sends men over the top with the same relish he'd bring to a picnic, utterly untroubled by consequence.

Stephen Fry plays the bluster at full volume and never lets it curdle into mere caricature — the comic horror comes from how genuinely delighted Melchett is by carnage he can't conceive of as real. That gap between his cheerful idiocy and the audience's knowledge of the trenches is where the show's darkest, best laughs live.