Bookmakers may need a cunning plan to win machines battle

There is an episode in the final series of Blackadder set during the Great War in which the titular hero shoots and eats a carrier pigeon bearing instructions to go over the top.

Unfortunately the pigeon is General Melchett's beloved 'Speckled Jim' and Blackadder finds himself in front of a court martial with Melchett as the judge.

"The case before us is that of the Crown versus Captain Edmund Blackadder, alias the Flanders Pigeon Murderer," Melchett says. "Oh, and hand me the black cap, will you – I'll be needing that."