Wednesday
I was watching the Channel 4 news coverage of the state visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Britain, when something I saw nearly made me fall off my chair laughing.
So what does the British Army band for the guard of honour strike up as The Man himself steps out of his limo to high-five Her Majesty?
The Darth Vader March from Star Wars (click on 'watch the report' to see for yourself). I kid you not.
Someone somewhere deserves a medal.
Perry -
Thanks for the confirmation on this. I was reading round the web last night and saw this mentioned by a single poster. It sounded too good to be true, so I googled on it and found only two references to it.
Curiously, though, over on Devil's Kitchen (the third place I found it mentioned this morning) Mr Eugenides says that the BBC's report had a different tune being played. I can only wonder whether someone, either at C4 or the Beeb, has been playing at the dubbing desk.
Posted by RobtE at October 31, 2007 11:08 PM
That they were playing this as he stepped out is almost too good to be true, I must say... but hats off to the editing boys at C4 if they are the one who made that serendipitous synchronicity occur.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at October 31, 2007 11:13 PM
I saw the video on Youtube. Is that really for real? If so then... Yippee! Please let it be true.
Posted by Nick M at October 31, 2007 11:25 PM
I can kinda see handsome Prince William (Obi Wan) fighting evil Abdullah (Count Dooku) with a lightsabre from one end of the Mall(Link) to the other.
Posted by Mrs. Albion at October 31, 2007 11:31 PM
Does anyone know the YouTube URL? Channel 4 refuse to support Macs, it seems.
Posted by knirirr at November 1, 2007 12:14 AM
Will that do knirirr? I couldn't get the link to work either bu Google and the words "King" "Abdullah" "Saudi" "UK" and "Vistit" seemed to suffice.
Posted by Nick M at November 1, 2007 12:22 AM
Heads will roll for this! Roll... over the floor laughing!
Posted by Frederick Davies at November 1, 2007 12:36 AM
Knirirr, go to www.flip4mac.com. It's a free addon that allows embedded WMV files to play on a mac through quicktime.
Just make sure that, when you install it and go to the options, do two things:
Go to the browser tab and make sure "Launch Quicktime Player" is NOT checked. Then go to the Player tab and make sure that the "create streaming movies" option is also unchecked.
Posted by Scott Ganz at November 1, 2007 02:31 AM
"You may dispense with the pleasantries, Your Majesty..."
Posted by Stephen Borchert at November 1, 2007 03:56 AM
Someone in the British military has a VERY good sense of humour!
And someone will have received a right bollocking for it as well.
I suggest we start a fund to pay for their future security.
Posted by Counting Cats at November 1, 2007 04:19 AM
We already have a small charity for UK servicemen thank you very much. It's called the 'UK Defence Budget'.
Posted by Julian Taylor at November 1, 2007 10:24 AM
Thanks, Nick and Scott.
I have heard that there are doubts as to whether that was the correct soundtrack. I showed the clip to a brass bandsman of my acquaintance who has actually played that piece (apparently it's quite popular), who asserted that the movements of the trombonists and the conductor were appropriate for the music being played.
Posted by knirirr at November 1, 2007 10:36 AM
I saw this and I couldn't believe my ears. I thought it must be the Saudi national anthem or something.
Posted by abc at November 1, 2007 02:22 PM
I dug around this a bit and discovered that apparently this sort of jape is quite common with military bands. Some canadians apparently played "Colonel Bogie" for a visiting Japanese VIP. Well, you must get sick of Souza.
Posted by Nick M at November 1, 2007 02:26 PM
I bet the King is sick that Vince Cable is boycotting his visit. That must have ruined it for him.
Posted by John K at November 1, 2007 03:15 PM
This might explain why Saudi Arabia is like the Empire.
Posted by Sunfish at November 3, 2007 12:17 PM
