1 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:24,040 I mean, The Young Ones - well, it all sounds very good, doesn't it? 2 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,880 But just look around you - it's trash! 3 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,680 I am an antichrist... # 4 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,760 It's 1978, and the Sex Pistols are gobbing on everyone in range. 5 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:37,560 Punk is taking Britain by storm and, for the first time since 6 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,080 the hippies ten years earlier, revolution is in the air. 7 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:43,920 Kids everywhere are kicking against the Establishment, 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:46,560 and Johnny Rotten is an antichrist, not a celebrity. 9 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:50,640 Everything seemed possible the year before Mrs Thatcher arrived to put 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,240 a stop to all that and this is where the story of The Young Ones starts. 11 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,520 I'm on board the freedom bus, heading for Good Time City 12 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,360 and I haven't even paid my fare! 13 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,480 At Manchester University, drama student Rik Mayall 14 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,520 was inspired by the spirit of punk to drop the "C" from his name 15 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,040 and team up with fellow student Adrian Edmondson, 16 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,280 performing with comedy group 20th Century Coyote. 17 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,920 The whole idea of anything straight was a joke. 18 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,080 The idea of wanting to go on television? I don't think so! 19 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,120 After graduating from uni, 20 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,640 Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson went to London's Soho, 21 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,600 where news was getting out about a new club called the Comedy Store. 22 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,280 It put a drawing pin in the cushion of mainstream comedy provided 23 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,920 by Tarby, Monky and O'Connor...y. 24 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,400 Rik and Ade formed their own double act and jumped straight in. 25 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,248 The Comedy Store was a breeding ground 26 00:01:44,249 --> 00:01:47,220 for the next generation of talent, a brat pack of funsters. 27 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:50,960 Inspired by its success, 28 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,000 Peter Richardson persuaded his partner Nigel Planer 29 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:55,600 and other new wave comedians 30 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,080 to open a new club above Raymond's Revuebar in Soho. 31 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,920 So it was that the Comic Strip was launched, 32 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,400 starring Richardson and Planer... Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson... 33 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,760 the female duo Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French... 34 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:14,480 and a loud-mouthed shiny-suited Bolshevik called Alexei Sayle. 35 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,320 Yaki-Da, Yaki-Da, Yaki-Da! 36 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,800 Fantastic moment in time. Suddenly there was this place 37 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:23,640 where everybody could do things like that. 38 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:28,120 People were generally obsessed with writing new material for next week, 39 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,000 trying new stuff out and, um... 40 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:32,600 most of it was shit. 41 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:38,000 But the comedy clubs became a huge success with London's Time Out crowd 42 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,640 and soon attracted BBC interest, not from the comedy bosses 43 00:02:41,640 --> 00:02:43,440 but further down the food chain - 44 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,200 a fledgling producer called Paul Jackson. 45 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,200 I think, the first night, I saw Alexei. 46 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,480 I certainly saw Rik and Ade performing as 20th Century Coyote. 47 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,760 I saw Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson, and I loved it. 48 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,000 I really thought, "This is fantastic, this is different." 49 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,200 It really made me laugh. I went back a couple of times. 50 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:03,760 Second or third time, I had a drink with them 51 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,760 and said, "Is anyone from TV talking to you guys?" 52 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:10,560 Although not long out of assistant floor management, 53 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:12,800 Paul Jackson was the someone from television 54 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:15,680 who managed to get these bright, new comedians onto the screen 55 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:17,880 in a 1980 show called... 56 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,520 Boom boom! Out go the lights! 57 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:25,440 This marked the official debut of alternative comedy on television 58 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,320 as Rik, Ade, Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson 59 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:29,880 performed some of the characters 60 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:32,000 they'd been developing at the Comic Strip. 61 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,480 You've been playing like this for some time? Anything wrong, officer? 62 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:38,400 COULD be. 63 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,440 It was also the TV audience's first exposure 64 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,800 to Britain's most notorious students. What's your name? 65 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,240 Neil. Neil. 66 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,720 R-I-K Rik's character, Rick, R-I-C-K, 67 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:58,280 was based on aspects of his own personality. 68 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:03,360 That was one of his skills - finding his inner monstrous qualities 69 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,440 and turning them into comedy creations. 70 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,480 Right, my name's Rik, OK? 71 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,520 LAUGHTER 72 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:13,360 Shut up. 73 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,480 It was also based on someone that he had seen 74 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,840 in the Fringe Club at the Edinburgh Festival 75 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:21,840 who stood up and started declaiming poetry 76 00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:25,880 and got very angry when people laughed or didn't pay attention. 77 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,800 "Whenever I'm near ta the thea-ta, I..." 78 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:34,480 Shut up! And the character was sort of born out of that. 79 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:40,360 Um, hello. Nigel had a character called Neil. 80 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,640 This number's sort of about a big depression that I had, 81 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:46,840 sort of half an hour ago. 82 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:49,720 He talked about all the tropical diseases he'd got 83 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:51,920 when he'd taken the Magic Bus to India. 84 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,400 Which was, in fact, what had happened to Nigel. 85 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:59,640 When I'm do-o-o-own 86 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,920 You kick me further 87 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,240 You kick me further 88 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:15,200 Further on...down... # 89 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:17,920 Ade Edmondson appeared as the more violent half 90 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,160 of a double act with Rik, called the Dangerous Brothers. 91 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:25,360 My name's Richard Dangerous, and this is Adrian Dangerous. 92 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,720 And Alexei Sayle appeared as a sort of people's poet. 93 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:33,400 Hello, John, got a new motor? Hello, John, got a new motor? 94 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,440 It was on the back of that, having looked at that and thought, 95 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:38,360 "We've seen our acts on telly now." 96 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:40,680 But it didn't make very exciting telly. 97 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,960 It wasn't as exciting as in the Comedy Store and the Comic Strip. 98 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:49,520 You just couldn't get the excitement of live performance on television. 99 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:53,080 I suddenly thought, "It would be a bloody good idea, 100 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,120 "it would be great, if all these guys lived together!" 101 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,400 One night at home, Rik and his then girlfriend Lise Mayer 102 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:03,000 cobbled together the first ever script of The Young Ones. 103 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,000 The first script I saw, with coffee cup marks on it, 104 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,600 was a bit sprawling, it lacked discipline in its presentation. 105 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,400 And I'd said this to Rik, but not with any particular vehemence. 106 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,640 I'd said, "We need to shape this up a bit." 107 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,320 He came to me later and said, "Do you mind if I bring in another writer?" 108 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,160 I said, "No. Who is he? Why?" 109 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,360 I needed someone to churn out the gear. 110 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,040 I'd have the ideas, some laughs, and so would Lise, 111 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,440 but I needed someone to churn out the gear. 112 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:33,920 Someone to say, "No, no. Yeah, yeah." And so I phoned up Ben. 113 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:38,400 Ben Elton also studied at Manchester University, 114 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,080 two years below Rik and Ade on the same drama course. 115 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,680 He also had a job on a production line, bashing out plays. 116 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:48,680 Rik had seen my plays at university, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 117 00:06:48,980 --> 00:06:52,040 and he rang me up and said, "We've got a chance 118 00:06:52,341 --> 00:06:54,940 to do something. Paul Jackson, a producer at the BBC, 119 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:59,600 has asked us to produce a pilot of anything. Want to come in on it?" 120 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:04,160 What happened next could best be described as "creative differences". 121 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:06,866 The upshot was that Peter Richardson decided 122 00:07:06,867 --> 00:07:09,880 his talents wouldn't be put to best use in The Young Ones. 123 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,123 So alongside Rik, Vyvyan and Neil, 124 00:07:12,224 --> 00:07:15,100 the part of Mike was taken by Christopher Ryan. 125 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:18,026 Paul Jackson was excited by the pilot, 126 00:07:18,027 --> 00:07:21,180 but would those TV bosses be equally impressed? 127 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:25,280 They didn't get it, it's fair to say. Nobody quite knew what it was. 128 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,760 I loved it. I was thrilled with it. It was what we had set out to do. 129 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:32,558 I remember walking away with my arm around Ben, 130 00:07:32,559 --> 00:07:35,240 thinking - I don't know if I said it or not - 131 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:39,320 "I don't care if nobody likes this because I think it's fantastic!" 132 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,358 Even so, The Young Ones could have been drowned at birth. 133 00:07:42,359 --> 00:07:44,400 But Paul Jackson had a point to prove. 134 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,870 I'd shown this tape to the man who was in charge 135 00:07:47,871 --> 00:07:50,600 of Youth Programming at the BBC at the time, Mike Boland. 136 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,944 I'd gone to a youth conference with Mike and I had shown him this tape. 137 00:07:53,945 --> 00:07:56,790 Mike got it straightaway. "It's fabulous. I love this!" 138 00:07:56,991 --> 00:08:00,780 A couple of months later, he's poached by Channel 4 to run Entertainment. 139 00:08:01,580 --> 00:08:04,066 And of course very smartly, and absolutely correctly, 140 00:08:04,067 --> 00:08:05,989 he goes and contacts these people, 141 00:08:05,990 --> 00:08:08,760 'cause he knows the BBC's not doing anything with them. 142 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,560 And he discovered, Pete Richardson, I think that Rik 143 00:08:12,561 --> 00:08:15,260 was still very committed to The Young Ones, was still hoping it would happen. 144 00:08:15,260 --> 00:08:17,535 But he got hold of Pete and Rich and French and Saunders 145 00:08:17,536 --> 00:08:19,560 by this time had emerged as part of the group, 146 00:08:19,561 --> 00:08:22,160 and he gave them a series, which was The Comic Strip. 147 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:23,982 In fact, the first ever Comic Strip went out 148 00:08:23,983 --> 00:08:26,860 on the first night of Channel 4 - Five Go Mad In Dorset. 149 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,412 The Comic Strip Presents starred not only Peter Richardson, 150 00:08:34,013 --> 00:08:36,280 Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Robbie Coltrane, 151 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:39,140 and also Rik, Ade and Nigel. 152 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,480 It finally rang a bell. 153 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,760 The BBC bosses said, "Hang on, those are those blokes on the tape." 154 00:08:44,761 --> 00:08:46,720 And they phoned me up and said, 155 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:51,640 "Can you get the other five shot quick enough to beat Channel 4 on air?" 156 00:08:51,740 --> 00:08:53,755 In fact, we didn't. We went on just before... 157 00:08:53,756 --> 00:08:57,620 We went on within a week of Channel 4 opening, with our full six. 158 00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,979 Channel 4 only had the one Comic Strip. 159 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,420 We got our full six on air and that was our first series. 160 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:06,360 Once in every lifetime 161 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:09,080 Comes a love like this 162 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,720 I need you, you need me 163 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:14,200 Oh, my darling, can't you see... # 164 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,140 When the first episode went out... 165 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:22,360 When something's broadcast, it's not like watching a video. 166 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:28,000 "It's on telly! 167 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,800 "I can't believe it!" And, er...I was aware that we were creating a stir. 168 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,120 It's a revolution! 169 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,960 Hi, kids! 170 00:09:39,060 --> 00:09:41,446 'What was good about the characters in The Young Ones was 171 00:09:41,447 --> 00:09:45,220 that although they were massively overblown,' 172 00:09:45,220 --> 00:09:47,027 they did have a root in truth. 173 00:09:47,328 --> 00:09:50,860 I mean, we'd all just been students fairly recently 174 00:09:51,060 --> 00:09:53,089 and the characters that you meet at university, 175 00:09:53,090 --> 00:09:56,340 particularly Rik, the sort of desperate wannabe lefty 176 00:09:56,740 --> 00:09:59,558 who's actually deeply reactionary at heart 177 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,320 and the minute he graduates will immediately revert to type... 178 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,760 You'll be hearing from my solicitor! I'm going to write to my MP. 179 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,161 You haven't got an MP. You're an anarchist. 180 00:10:09,662 --> 00:10:13,880 Ah...I shall write to the lead singer of Echo And The Bunnymen! 181 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:16,720 Vyv! Eat the telly! 182 00:10:17,020 --> 00:10:20,560 The sort of "I hate everything and I'm gonna eat it" character, 183 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:23,301 which is Vyvyan. You do see those at university. 184 00:10:23,502 --> 00:10:25,280 I'm sure you see them everywhere. 185 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:32,080 CHURCH BELLS Shut up, you bastards! It's only 11 o'clock! Oh, wow! 186 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:34,400 Oh, heavy, heavy, heavy! 187 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:39,880 Another house-mate given to labelling his lentils was Nigel Planer's Neil, 188 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:44,560 who'd lost his hat since Boom Boom, but still had suicidal tendencies. 189 00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:50,560 I thought you were dead! Well, that's no reason to hassle me on the toilet! 190 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:54,693 When Rik and Vyvyan weren't terrorising Neil, 191 00:10:54,994 --> 00:10:57,472 or killing each other, they spent their time looking up 192 00:10:57,573 --> 00:11:00,740 to the short guy with the shades and the business plan, Mike. 193 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:05,252 Mike the cool person really was written for Peter Richardson, 194 00:11:05,253 --> 00:11:07,720 the fourth person in the Comic Strip gang. 195 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:13,000 It was a great character, and Chris did an unbelievable job with it. 196 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,398 Get lost! I AM lost! That's why I'm here. 197 00:11:15,999 --> 00:11:18,380 There's no chance of using your toilet, is there? No. 198 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:21,660 I thought not. That's why I pissed in your garden. 199 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:31,480 The other regular characters who came into the house via unorthodox means, 200 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:35,240 'were all played by Alexei Sayle.' Let me in, boys! 201 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,800 As the Balowski Family, he hijacked the programme every week. 202 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:42,880 Greetings from South Africa. AGH! 203 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,960 What am I now? Come on, quick, quick! A pain in the arse. 204 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:51,200 Alexei's style of delivery and type of humour 205 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:54,760 wasn't really the same as Rik and Ade's. 206 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:57,080 BELL TINKLES 207 00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:59,920 Excuse me, is this the cheese shop? No, sir. 208 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:02,160 That's that sketch knackered then, innit? 209 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:04,090 Although he was part of the movement, 210 00:12:04,091 --> 00:12:07,240 his career sort of went off on a different way from the rest. 211 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,480 They all talk about me behind my back. 212 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,320 I hate him. He drinks like a fish. 213 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,080 He's got no talent. Alexei who? 214 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,889 So I think, probably, that is a sign of the fact 215 00:12:17,990 --> 00:12:21,380 that he wasn't really as integrated as the rest were with the scene. 216 00:12:24,020 --> 00:12:26,467 If Alexei Sayle seemed an alien invader, 217 00:12:26,568 --> 00:12:29,780 it may have been because the other four were a classic tight-knit group. 218 00:12:29,980 --> 00:12:31,947 As word got round about The Young Ones, 219 00:12:32,048 --> 00:12:35,080 and millions of kids discovered the existance of BBC 2, 220 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,993 the show started attracting the fanatical support 221 00:12:37,994 --> 00:12:40,120 that's usually reserved for rock bands. 222 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:45,482 Schoolyards buzzed with the exploits of Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike, 223 00:12:45,483 --> 00:12:49,320 and people started to read meanings into their relationship. 224 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,560 A lot of people likened The Young Ones to a family, 225 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:56,570 with Neil as the mum, and Mike as the dad, 226 00:12:57,071 --> 00:13:01,080 and Rik and Ade as the naughty children - 227 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:03,020 Rik as the little girl. 228 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:07,980 It's incredible - I'm not a girl at all! 229 00:13:08,780 --> 00:13:10,958 If they are a family, The Young Ones must be 230 00:13:10,959 --> 00:13:13,760 the most dysfunctional, not to say homicidal, ever. 231 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:18,920 The show seemed to be smashing up all the rules of sitcom. 232 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:20,920 I'm sorry, Vyv. 233 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:36,000 That's OK, Neil. It was bound to happen sooner or later. 234 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,880 On the face of it, this was a completely different planet 235 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:43,920 to the one inhabited by Terry And June and The Good Life. 236 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:47,240 No! No! No! No! 237 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:52,360 We are not watching The flaming Good Life! Bloody, bloody, bloody! 238 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,120 Of course, it falls into the rules of sitcom, 239 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,240 because we had sets and characters and a situation. 240 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:03,400 Dad's Army is probably a more weirdly original idea. 241 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,680 I mean, ours was in a house, on a sofa! 242 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,480 Bloody hell! 243 00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:12,860 No room for me on the sofa as usual! I have to sit on the rickety chair. 244 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,072 The fact that it was regularly set on fire or eaten by a hamster 245 00:14:16,073 --> 00:14:17,640 doesn't really make any difference. 246 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:20,600 Christ! Bo-ring! 247 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:24,560 What it was saying was surreal, but it looked like an ordinary sitcom. 248 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,485 Look, Rik, it's only five minutes. 249 00:14:26,486 --> 00:14:29,740 "Rik, it's only five minutes!" Tell that to Roger Bannister! 250 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:34,200 Roger, it's only five minutes! Oh, really? How interesting. 251 00:14:34,500 --> 00:14:36,914 The surreal demands of The Young Ones 252 00:14:36,915 --> 00:14:39,700 made it a dream for the special effects department. 253 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:42,840 Special effects loved you. 254 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:44,760 That's just typical! 255 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,263 You'd say, "I need a piano to fall through the floor." 256 00:14:47,264 --> 00:14:49,440 "Yeah, sure! Tomorrow or this afternoon?" 257 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:54,800 These guys were fantastic. So we were playing, as we've always been. 258 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:00,486 Paul Jackson said to us, 259 00:15:00,487 --> 00:15:03,320 "Don't worry about the budget, let me worry about the budget. 260 00:15:03,420 --> 00:15:06,220 Just write anything you want to write." 261 00:15:08,020 --> 00:15:10,740 Rik would bring a certain hint of madness, 262 00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:13,449 a certain understanding about what the actors could do 263 00:15:13,450 --> 00:15:15,240 and what the stage acts were about. 264 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:17,260 Neil, your bedroom's on fire! 265 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:19,640 I thought this was my bedroom! 266 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,560 Oh, no! 267 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:27,280 Lisa tended to bring the weirder stuff, the wilder stuff. 268 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:31,440 It's a bloody game, innit? What is? 269 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:33,400 Chess. 270 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,240 Mice and rats talking to each other. 271 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,920 Eaten any good books lately? 'I never liked the talking rats and things.' 272 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:44,193 It was OK, but I wasn't so into that side of it. 273 00:15:44,194 --> 00:15:47,600 I liked Vyvyan's talking socks at the launderette. 274 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,680 Get back in the sack, sock! I'm not going back in there. It stinks! 275 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:56,000 If you can't keep control of your socks, you shan't be allowed any. 276 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,952 It was seat-of-the-pants stuff. That was how it had to be done. 277 00:15:58,953 --> 00:16:01,360 Because without it, it wouldn't be the series. 278 00:16:01,385 --> 00:16:02,359 When somebody says, 279 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,120 Sometimes I really wish I was a fly on the wall. 280 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:07,360 We cut to a fly crawling up the wall. 281 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,000 Who are you? 282 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:14,400 We're just the fly-on-the-wall documentary film crew, OK? 283 00:16:14,500 --> 00:16:16,933 We're just making a short film about 284 00:16:16,934 --> 00:16:19,660 what it is really like to be a fly-on-the-wall. 285 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,920 It was our desire to do this in front of an audience for shock value. 286 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:29,503 The audience would see people cutting off their fingers 287 00:16:29,504 --> 00:16:32,320 and seeing the spurts of blood. So it all had to work. 288 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:34,360 Brilliant, eh? 289 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:38,920 Oh, dear. 290 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:40,920 Wrong finger. 291 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,496 Then it was further complicated by the fact that Paul Jackson told us that 292 00:16:45,497 --> 00:16:50,300 if we did it in variety rather than in comedy, we got a bigger budget. 293 00:16:50,500 --> 00:16:55,300 So to qualify for variety, we thought we'd have a variety act every week. 294 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,760 The fact that there would be a band on each show got established, 295 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:02,680 and it added something to the show. We quite liked it. 296 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:07,640 House Of Fun - we were playing in a pub, 297 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:09,920 The Kebab And Calculator. 298 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,360 Good morning, miss Can I help you, son? # 299 00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:17,000 And I utter the immortal line, 300 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,280 You hum it, I'll smash your face in. 301 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,320 "You hum it, I'll smash your face in." 302 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,920 Funnily enough, people still stop me in the street, 303 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:26,880 and if I had become a stand-up comedian, 304 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,600 that possibly would have been my catch phrase but unfortunately 305 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:31,040 I never made it that far. 306 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:32,240 MUSIC! 307 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:41,280 We were able to pick our own bands, which was great. We had Motorhead. 308 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:44,400 Wherever you are, Lemmy... Hi. 309 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:48,140 The Young Ones became a huge hit. 310 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:50,466 And its fans weren't just confined to the kids 311 00:17:50,467 --> 00:17:52,260 and the special effects department. 312 00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:59,880 The music's too loud! The neighbours have been complaining. 313 00:18:00,580 --> 00:18:03,068 The most surprising thing for us was 314 00:18:03,069 --> 00:18:05,560 that it was very popular with the police. 315 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,720 We had seen it as kind of politically left-wing. 316 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,680 The bathroom's free! Unlike the country, under the Thatcherite junta. 317 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:15,320 Anti-police... 318 00:18:16,500 --> 00:18:19,260 That's white man's electricity you're burning, ringing that bell. 319 00:18:19,261 --> 00:18:22,400 That's theft. I've got your number so hold out your hand. 320 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:25,780 Officer, I represent Kellogg's Cornflakes car competition. 321 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,260 Oh, sorry, John. I thought you was a nigger. 322 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,540 Every time any of us would come across anyone in the police force, 323 00:18:35,540 --> 00:18:38,705 they would say, "We all love it! It's our favourite show. 324 00:18:38,706 --> 00:18:41,520 We're always playing it down the police station." 325 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:47,200 The Young Ones, in its first series, did exactly what we hoped it would. 326 00:18:47,500 --> 00:18:49,982 It became clear to us really pretty quickly 327 00:18:49,983 --> 00:18:52,780 that it was becoming a cult amongst the audience it was targeted at. 328 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:55,820 Clearly it was targeted at a young audience. 329 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:59,080 Although I didn't set out to make a cult show, 330 00:18:59,081 --> 00:19:02,040 the intention was that your mum would hate it. 331 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,843 Like rock'n'roll, you didn't want parents to like it. 332 00:19:04,944 --> 00:19:08,120 You wanted them to be worried you were watching it. 333 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,600 It's a bloody outrage. It's a waste of the licensing fee. 334 00:19:13,500 --> 00:19:17,480 When series one of The Young Ones ended in December 1982, 335 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:21,325 it had become so popular that it was repeated inside six months. 336 00:19:21,426 --> 00:19:23,780 And another series was immediately commissioned. 337 00:19:23,980 --> 00:19:27,560 But now it was the BBC who had to wait, because The Young Ones team 338 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,780 were everything Rik Mayall had dreaded only four years earlier - 339 00:19:30,980 --> 00:19:32,820 successful and famous. 340 00:19:33,220 --> 00:19:35,411 Nigel Planer had gone over to the other side 341 00:19:35,412 --> 00:19:38,620 to play the Mike-lile character Lou Lewis in Shine On Harvey Moon. 342 00:19:39,020 --> 00:19:42,216 And as Neil, he released a cover version of Hole In My Shoe, 343 00:19:42,417 --> 00:19:44,440 which went to number two in the charts. 344 00:19:44,940 --> 00:19:47,425 In 1983, he and the rest of the cast 345 00:19:47,526 --> 00:19:49,860 toured a stage version of The Young Ones. 346 00:19:50,460 --> 00:19:53,957 Ben Elton co-wrote Alfresco, an ITV sketch show, 347 00:19:53,958 --> 00:19:55,840 where he also tried his hand at acting, 348 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:59,600 with the bright young things from the Cambridge Footlights. 349 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:01,720 You haven't spoken. 350 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:05,800 Well, sir, I know some of the fellows think I'm cock-eyed. Perhaps I am. 351 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,549 But I'm the only chap in this room 352 00:20:07,550 --> 00:20:10,800 who can look in two different directions at the same time. 353 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:13,720 Charlie? 354 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:19,000 Alfresco may not have been a hit, but Ben Elton added acting to his CV, 355 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:24,280 and duly turned up in the eagerly-awaited second series of The Young Ones. 356 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:28,160 We've been picked to go on University Challenge tonight! 357 00:20:32,060 --> 00:20:33,915 The first show of series two, 358 00:20:33,916 --> 00:20:36,800 and probably the best-remembered of all The Young Ones episodes, 359 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,546 pitted our radical alternative comedians 360 00:20:39,547 --> 00:20:42,360 against Ben Elton's posh new best friends. 361 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,600 We're going to smash the oiks! 362 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,149 In the second series, we were lucky enough to win a BAFTA, 363 00:20:50,150 --> 00:20:51,920 and the BAFTA-winning episode was Bambi, 364 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:56,720 so called because of Bamber Gascoigne, the host then, of University Challenge. 365 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,240 Welcome to another edition of University Challenge. 366 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,680 Interestingly, these new red-brick alternative comics 367 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,808 had very quickly started to meet 368 00:21:05,809 --> 00:21:09,000 the then generation of the Cambridge Revue people. 369 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,480 What is the chemical equation...? 370 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,640 I've got a Porsche. 371 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,960 Ah...ah...ah... # 372 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:26,440 If the first series of The Young Ones caused a bit of a stir, 373 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,640 the second was a smack to the bland face of comedy on TV, 374 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:31,120 followed by a mugging. 375 00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:33,120 The cult audience of the first series 376 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:35,600 swelled to mainstream proportions. 377 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,720 The Young Ones was a huge success because it wasn't just about students. 378 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:45,560 If you were young in 1980s Britain, you knew a Rik or Vyvyan or Neil. 379 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:49,600 Neil, how are you keeping that plant pot up? 380 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,240 Everyone who watched The Young Ones can quote lines from it, 381 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,480 often doing the voices, unfortunately, 382 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,240 and everyone has a favourite scene. 383 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:58,760 Open up, it's the pigs! 384 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:02,520 Knob end! 385 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:07,880 Oh, Vyvyan! What repartee! Sticks and stones may break my bones! 386 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,120 That is the first sensible thing you have said all day! 387 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,840 My favourite moment is Vyvyan doing the thing on the train. 388 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,364 They go on the train to get to the studio, 389 00:22:21,465 --> 00:22:23,520 and Vyvyan is walking along the corridor and says, 390 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:28,100 "Why can't you stick your head out of a train window when it's moving?" 391 00:22:28,500 --> 00:22:32,480 "Do not lean out of the window." I wonder why? 392 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,320 He sticks his head out and, of course... 393 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:37,060 AGH! 394 00:22:37,060 --> 00:22:38,897 ..another train comes and knocks his head off, 395 00:22:38,898 --> 00:22:41,540 and he runs down the track kicking his head in front of him. 396 00:22:41,540 --> 00:22:44,325 It was the clip we showed at BAFTA the night we won 397 00:22:44,326 --> 00:22:46,760 and it's probably one of my favourite clips. 398 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:49,560 Over here! 399 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,000 Over here! Hurry up about it, will you?! 400 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:56,840 You took your time, you bastard! 401 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,360 At the end of the second series, we'd done 12. 402 00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:07,600 Rik, particularly, but all of them, writers and performers, 403 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:11,040 had in their mind that there'd only been 12 Fawlty Towers. 404 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,720 So the basic idea was get out while you're winning. 405 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,960 I'm completely bloody sick of this! 406 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,960 The main reason for stopping was that we'd done everything we could. 407 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,520 It was about surprise and we couldn't surprise them any more 408 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,640 cos they'd be expecting surprise. 409 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:25,160 Hands up who likes me? 410 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:31,160 When the creative talents say that to you, you need to listen. 411 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,240 The BBC tried to get them to come back, but they were right. 412 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:38,600 The Young Ones had a phenomenal influence on British TV. 413 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:42,420 By 1986, the comedy map had been redrawn. 414 00:23:42,420 --> 00:23:45,032 The old guard of Tarby and Brucie were relegated 415 00:23:45,033 --> 00:23:47,100 to game shows and the golf course, 416 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,080 and new wave, alternative comedians moved into the mainstream. 417 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:55,120 Our young anarchists became the new television establishment. 418 00:23:55,120 --> 00:24:00,320 After Harvey Moon, Nigel Planer went on to Roll Over Beethoven, 419 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,760 Chris Ryan appeared in a sitcom, A Small Problem, 420 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,960 while Rik and Ade regularly performed their double act the Dangerous Brothers 421 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:11,400 on a show that became the flagship of alternative comedy. 422 00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,040 Saturday Live was produced by Paul Jackson 423 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,280 and featured a familiar shiny-suited compere. 424 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:19,320 British comedy is the best in the world. 425 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,360 British telly is its crowning glory. We've all seen Saturday Live. 426 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:23,840 Very funny. Fair enough. 427 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:29,080 In 1986 Ben Elton was brought in to co- write the second series of Blackadder. 428 00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,200 Rik Mayall appeared in it as Lord Flashheart, 429 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,240 and The Young Ones reformed as a one-off for Comic Relief. 430 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,000 Their single, Living Doll, with Cliff Richard, went to number one. 431 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:44,480 A year later, 432 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,414 Rik, Nigel and Ade were reunited with Ben as writer 433 00:24:47,415 --> 00:24:50,400 for six fleeting episodes of Filthy Rich And Catflap. 434 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,540 The Young Ones was a swipe at youth culture. 435 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,280 And lots more. 436 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,311 And then, we had a little bit of fame thrust on us 437 00:25:00,312 --> 00:25:03,200 and so that's what we attacked next. It was showbiz. 438 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,480 Showbiz I'm in showbiz! # 439 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,800 Despite being a critical success, 440 00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,320 the show only ran for one series, and has never been repeated. 441 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:18,200 I think there was a sort of, what a band would call musical differences. 442 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,280 There was some sort of shift in the creative power, 443 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,596 and so I think that's really the reason 444 00:25:24,597 --> 00:25:27,060 why there weren't any further Filthy Rich And Catflaps. 445 00:25:27,060 --> 00:25:31,000 It's just Rik and Ben going off in their own directions. 446 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,880 A shame for me, 'cause I fell through the middle. 447 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,200 Look, look, stop it, boys! Shut up, shut up. 448 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:45,000 After playing Richie Rich, Rik Mayall embraced the world of Thatch, 449 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,880 starring as Alan B'stard in The New Statesman. 450 00:25:47,980 --> 00:25:49,764 Both he and Ade Edmondson appeared 451 00:25:49,765 --> 00:25:52,600 in Blackadder Goes Forth, co-written by Ben Elton. 452 00:25:53,500 --> 00:25:56,505 Rik and Ade returned to their drama roots in 1989, 453 00:25:56,506 --> 00:25:58,880 for Waiting For Godot in the West End. 454 00:25:58,980 --> 00:26:01,056 While Nigel Planer sent up luvviedom 455 00:26:01,057 --> 00:26:04,220 as Nicholas Craig on BBC 2 in The Naked Actor. 456 00:26:05,420 --> 00:26:08,571 In 1991, Rik and Ade brought their slapstick 457 00:26:08,572 --> 00:26:13,280 to a new level of sophistication, as the TV show Bottom was born. 458 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:17,040 If you had the common decency to go out and get yourself a proper job, 459 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,220 and not hang around the flat like some vast slug, 460 00:26:21,020 --> 00:26:24,140 then perhaps I would have the opportunity to take my top off, 461 00:26:24,140 --> 00:26:27,080 and wash it without the risk of you seeing my nipples! 462 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:29,050 With Bottom, Rik and Ade returned 463 00:26:29,051 --> 00:26:31,040 to the double act they'd developed as students, 464 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,500 and they'd been honing throughout their careers. 465 00:26:33,500 --> 00:26:36,692 They'd been together so long, their relationship predated The Young Ones, 466 00:26:36,793 --> 00:26:38,580 and it has post-dated The Young Ones. 467 00:26:38,580 --> 00:26:42,840 I'm sure when they're 90, they'll still be doing jokes about bottoms, 468 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,160 and finding it very funny. As will everyone else. 469 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,914 In 1999, Rik and Ade brought their double act 470 00:26:51,915 --> 00:26:54,900 to the big screen with a movie, Guesthouse Paradiso. 471 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,847 Undeterred by the critical bottom burp it received, 472 00:26:57,948 --> 00:27:00,800 this year, Rik is back working with Peter Richardson, 473 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,780 on the feature film, Churchill - The Hollywood Years. 474 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:08,120 Nigel Planer, once again, has Ben Elton's words to speak. 475 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:13,800 One starring in, and the other writing, the Queen musical We Will Rock You. 476 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,280 Chris Ryan has appeared in several series of Absolutely Fabulous. 477 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:23,440 And Ade Edmondson has tried and failed to save the NHS in Doctors And Nurses. 478 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,600 But our four middle-aged Turks will always be remembered for their roles 479 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:32,400 in what can claim to be the most influential TV comedy of the last 25 years. 480 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,354 They're forever The Young Ones, 481 00:27:34,355 --> 00:27:38,080 riding on the freedom bus with a one-way ticket to oblivion. 482 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,720 This is it! It's really happening! 483 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,253 One of the lovely things about doing The Young Ones was 484 00:27:43,454 --> 00:27:46,220 I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, 485 00:27:46,420 --> 00:27:48,412 to have met very early in their careers 486 00:27:48,413 --> 00:27:51,360 this group of people who so clearly were multi-talented. 487 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,040 We're all going on a summer holiday. # 488 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,680 I was just lucky enough to have walked into a room 489 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,520 where all these people were sitting, and nobody else was looking. 490 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:05,000 We can do exactly whatever we want to do! And do you know why? 491 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,640 Because we're Young Ones! Bachelor Boys! 492 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,880 Crazy, mad, wild-eyed, big-bottomed anarchists! 493 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:14,920 Look out! 494 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,680 Cliff! 495 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:29,160 There was no plan, except to have a good fucking time. 496 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:33,640 Mind my language. But I don't care, 'cause I'm a punk. 497 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,320 Now that's what I call anarchy!