um, er, ah ... wait, I've run out of ink?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Ah - the Faerie Queen's favourite, yon Braggadocchio:

In 1914, (Mansfield Cumming) was involved in a serious road accident in France, in which his son was killed. Legend has it that in order to escape the car wreck he was forced to amputate his leg using a pen knife. Hospital records have shown however that while both his legs were broken, his left foot was only amputated the day after the accident. Later he often told all sorts of fantastic stories as to how he lost his leg, and would shock people by interrupting meetings in his office by suddenly stabbing his artificial leg with a knife, letter opener or fountain pen[1]......

Sounds like an episode of the seemingly lost comedy series Ripping Yarns, written and performed by Pythons Terry Jones and Michael Palin, which relentlessly sent up the British establishment. See the first ten minutes of the pilot here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqBDv_9ar0