A spoof of the video "(Is This The Way To) Amarillo" - the recent Comic Relief number one hit for Tony Christie and Peter Kay - recorded at the end of an operational tour by personnel from the Royal Dragoon Guards proved a massive hit among colleagues and MoD staff in the UK.
The video, comically named 'Is This The Way To Armadillo', was shot at the UK base in Al-Faw, South Eastern Iraq.
The role of Peter Kay was taken on by Staff Sgt Roger Parr. In the spoof, which was e-mailed from theatre to the UK on the afternoon of Friday 13 May 2005, SSgt Parr is seen marching through the camp, mimicking the comedian and beckoning fellow soldiers, dressed in a variety of guises, along the way to join in.
A spokesperson from the MOD Press office said:
"The video is brilliant. Soldiers maintaining their morale on operations is always important."
Unfortunately, when service and civilian personnel began e-mailing the hiliarious clip to their colleagues, its large size (52MB) caused some desktop e-mail systems at Strike Command and Main Building to slow down or crash.
The Press Office stated:
"The fact that it proved so popular in the office and caused the system to crash is unfortunate but this did not affect operations."
Systems were back to normal by the end of the afternoon.
A copy of the video can be downloaded from The Sun newspaper. All proceeds will go to 'The Armed Forces Memorial Appeal'. Alternatively you may wish to make a donation to Comic Relief.
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