Original subtitles

The following programme contains strong language.

I remember primary school, so I guess I was seven.

And Mrs Anderson said, 'Now, Richard, I don't want you to sing.

I want all the other children to sing, but not you.

Because you've got a horrible voice.'

'So, you've just got to move your mouth as if you're singing.

But don't sing.'

I'm sort of showing off,

and moving my mouth and getting good laughs.

That's really where I got my first kick from getting an audience.

Oh, God, I'm so nervous.

God, what a mess.

Will they love me?

Yes, of course they will, because I'm fucking brilliant!

Oh, well, better get on with it.

All right, Jeffrey, switch on the microphone.

What do you mean it's already switched on?!

Right, that's it, you little bastard! You're sacked!

Yeah, sacked - suh-ah-cuh-eh-duh!

Right, I better get on with it. Mr Nice Guy.

OK, kids, this is it - bolt down the roof of the theatre,

and all the chicks take their pants off, just in case.

Cos here comes the funniest man in the history of the universe...

Mr Rik Mayall!

Oh, Cliff!

Sometimes, it must be difficult not to feel as if...

you really are a cliff...

when fascists keep trying to push you over it.

Are they the lemmings? Or are you Cliff?

Or are you, Cliff?

♪ MAGAZINE: The Light Pours Out Of Me ♪

Before you arrive in Manchester,

you should have already chosen your accommodation.

There is also many societies which are run from the union.

Socials organise regular midweek discos

and arrange bands for each weekend.

In 1977, I'd just gone to Manchester University. I was 18.

And that very first week of my first term, the third years...

put on a kind of little 'welcome, freshers' comedy cabaret.

I remember we all sort of shuffled in. Nobody really knew each other.

And the show started.

Rik gets up, looks at the audience,

and he says...

'Hi. I'm Rik Mayall.'

In that moment,

everybody just burst into hilarious laughter -

those who knew him, those who didn't.

Because this wonderful conceit of this kind of, you know,

slightly spotty 20-year-old walking like a star.

The suggestion was, 'Look.

I know I'm gonna be a star. You know I'm gonna be a star.

Let's get it all out of the way and just celebrate.'

♪ The light pours out of me

♪ The light pours out of me ♪

Rik was thoroughly uncomplicated.

He was a boy out for a good time.

He wanted to have a few beers,

and he wanted to go to bed with ladies.

And he wanted everyone to think he was great.

He sort of had an alter ego.

The sort of person who's walking around

thinking someone's writing their biography.

It was very funny. It was very amusing.

He was a charmer.

People loved being with him.

Because there was no kind of side.

Because he wanted... he was up for a laugh.

Both Rik and I were on the same course, which was...

drama... BA ,

1975 to 1978.

We wanted to do weird, wacky, crazy,

rude, obnoxious stuff.

As was the atmosphere at the time. The context is very important.

♪ SEX PISTOLS: Pretty Vacant ♪ The cult is called punk.

The music, punk rock - basic rock music,

raw, outrageous and crude,

like their fan magazine... ...Sniffing Glue.

We just wanted to be as obnoxious, and loud,

and daring, and two fingers up, as the Sex Pistols.

We wanted to be...

kind of punk comedians.

Punk said, like, 'Here's three chords. Go out and form a band.'

♪ Oh, we're so pretty, oh, so pretty

♪ We're vacant...

Also that punk thing about

it doesn't matter what you're doing as long as you mean it.

Do whatever you want so long as it's really interesting and genuine.

♪ And we don't care...

It was a period of extraordinary freedom,

and the freedom that punk gave us to kind of...

do whatever we liked and not care.

The not caring was very special.

Punk music really...

meant a lot, I think, to all of us.

And certainly, the social atmosphere -

it felt like... the National Front were on the rise,

Thatcher was on the rise, Labour seemed to be failing.

You know, everyone was kind of broke,

everyone was cold, but we were all excited.

And on behalf of the Workers Revolutionary Party,

actress Vanessa Redgrave is in action again,

warning of future civil war.

We were drama... Well, we were sort of Theatre Studies students.

It wasn't an acting course,

but we studied theatre and drama, and we did a lot of it.

And those of us who were minded towards comedy

sort of got into a lot of extra-curricular.

♪ And we don't care ♪

We thought about forming a comedy troupe,

saying, 'We've got to do something to get our Equity card.'

Which was the big prize that all of us...

who wanted to be actors and performers

needed to acquire at that time.

You couldn't get an Equity card unless you'd acted.

But you couldn't act unless you had an Equity card.

So it was a kind of catch-22 dilemma.

There were very few methods in.

One was to join a rep company, and they were kind of dying off.

And another was to get variety contracts.

And if you got enough of these variety contracts,

they might let you in.

We found this venue in the Northern Quarter of Manchester

called Band on the Wall.

And I approached them, and they said, 'What do you do?'

'Oh, we do comedy.'

They looked and said, 'What do you mean, you do comedy?

Why would you put comedy in a pub?'

Because you must understand, it was unheard of...

to put comedy in a pub.

Do you mind? We're trying to get into character. We'll be out in a minute.

Can you hang on? Good grief.

We started to write our own stuff.

We used to go and do a new show every two weeks

with our theatre company that was called 20th Century Coyote.

There were two guys who I was at school with, Ade and me,

and a bloke called Lloyd Peters.

Lloyd Peters was the kind of mastermind behind it.

Rik tended to play - if he wasn't playing Death...

...which he did quite a lot...

Who are you? Mary Poppins. Who do you think?

I'm Death.

...he was playing the spoilt child,

who couldn't get his end away.

And he was immature, virgin,

very frustrated and grumpy about it.

We were very inspired by the commedia dell'arte, which we were studying,

where everybody had particular roles that they took.

I was best at being sort of angry,

and petulant and selfish.

Adrian generally played either heavies or women.

We used to hand the hat round afterwards.

There's a woman and her daughter sitting there.

And I handed the hat to them, and the girl's reaching into her purse.

And her mum said, 'No, no, no, no. They're only strolling players.'

And I was... I was so pleased.

And I rushed into the toilet, which was our dressing room...

...and said, you'll never guess - we've been defined...

as strolling players.

And we were very, very pleased about that.

We thought, 'Yeah!

We can present this to Equity.'

This is a bona fide professional outfit,

and we'll get our Equity card.

Of course, Equity said to us,

'Handing round a hat isn't actually a contract.

So no, you can't have your Equity card.'

If anyone had asked us what we wanted to be,

when we started university, we'd have said actors.

But it was pretty evident that we weren't going to be that.

And then university came to an end.

And so did the group, and so did everything, really.

Everything seemed to fall to pieces.

When I left...

I went round America for six months

with the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company.

So I was quite lucky. I got out and got some experience straight away.

Whereas Ade went off and lived in Tamworth.

And when I got back, we had to try and pay off our university debts.

So we were both doing rubbish jobs.

I worked in an exhaust pipe warehouse, a pork pie factory.

Rik worked in a...

a meat-packing place.

He was living with his parents in Droitwich.

I was living on the other side of Birmingham in a council flat.

And more or less every weekend, we'd meet up.

We'd basically get pissed and perform into a tape recorder.

God, I wish I had those tapes.

They were trying to do working men's clubs.

They had an act called Flash Rik and Def Ade.

Which they didn't manage to sell.

It wasn't bleak because they were enjoying themselves,

but they were working very hard trying to just work out...

what they wanted to be.

To all intents and purposes, we were absolute failures.

And in that first year out of uni, we basically did four gigs.

We had it within us to be out of sorts and down in the dumps.

But we enjoyed each other. We really did.

♪ THE SKIDS: Into The Valley ♪

We were best friends.

♪ Into the valley

♪ Betrothed and divine... ♪

Every year, there are two Edinburgh festivals -

the official festival and the Fringe.

It's open to anyone who can find somewhere to perform.

Even this undergraduate manic conductor has his place.

Rik and Ade graduated in '78,

and I didn't see much of them over the next couple of years.

But I did see them in Edinburgh in '79

because I was up there with this university student theatre company

doing my comic plays, but Rik and Ade...

brought a show to Edinburgh called Death On The Toilet.

I can still remember the opening moments of it.

There's a knock on the door, Ade goes to the door.

He opens the door, and there's Rik as Death.

And Ade said... ...'Who the fuck are you?!'

And Rik says... ...'I'm Death!'

Ade said, 'All right, I'll speak louder. Who the fuck are you?!'

I used to go to the ticket office

and collect our takings every day,

and it would just be a huge wodge of cash.

Proper... Proper cash money.

I remember thinking in the three weeks that we did it,

I'd earnt about three months' money from the job I'd been doing before.

Which is a good whack.

They'd go to the pub every day.

Well, who wouldn't? Their only home was a two-person tent.

And in the evenings, they'd go to the Fringe club

and do a few bits and pieces there, playing it out,

putting together what was their contribution -

and it was a very large contribution -

to which would shortly be a comedy revolution.

♪ TUBEWAY ARMY: Are 'Friends' Electric? ♪

Sensational happenings here tonight, good squire.

Good evening, sir. Is this the place?

Yes, sir. This is the place. Go straight in, sir.

The opening night of a new club, full of the famous,

and the fashionable and the mildly intoxicated.

When I went to London in 1980, having also graduated by that time,

Rik and Ade were already in London and they'd... with their double act,

and scraping a living however they could.

The beginnings of what became alternative comedy had begun.

The Comedy Store had started.

Secondly, that we're masters of the art of improvisation.

The Comedy Store did have a reputation

where you could get up there and do anything, without an Equity card,

without any performance experience.

Go up there and take your chances with your own material.

You are naked, love.

It's the most frightening experience of them all.

So this is what it's like to die.

Put him out of his misery.

It was very usual to just shout out and be aggressive,

but people wanted to be there,

and the gladiatorial vibe was kind of tacit -

it was both ways.

The performer knew it, and had to be ready for it,

and the audience knew it and was up for it.

It was an exciting time.

I'll do you, sunshine. Any time.

The first performer I ever saw was Alexei.

You're not getting me off like that.

I sat in the front row to see what the club was like.

And he came out, and he had a gun, and he told me to fuck off.

And I thought, 'This is where I want to be.'

Alexei Sayle says, 'Please welcome 20th Century Coyote,'

and it was Rik and Ade, of course,

who did a very, very long, elongated,

Samuel Beckett-type sketch.

Which I...I vaguely remember - I mean, it was funny.

In the second half, Alexei said,

'Oh, will you welcome back onstage... Rik Mayall.'

Right. My name's Rik, OK?

R...

Shut up.

And Rik came on as Rik the Poet.

And I've got a couple of...

It's... It's probably a waste of time.

'When we were up in Edinburgh, I saw a lot of poets

down in this Fringe club, and I thought, "That's stupid.

Look at them entertaining people with these shit poems."'

I don't know if any of you are into poetry at all.

Shut up!

'Me and a bloke called Richard Turner,

who I'd been on the tour of America with,

we just got drunk one afternoon, wrote these poems,

and I got up the next night and did them.'

The first poem's one of my angriest of all.

And it's called Theatre.

Ah. That's got 'em.

Theatre!

What are you, theatre?

Whenever I'm near to the theatre, I...

Shut up!

He was immensely brave to go onstage with what...

is deliberately...

sort of shit material, but that's the point.

And having the guts to push through the audience wondering

what on earth are they looking at and becoming mesmerised.

Whenever I carry my spear to the theatre...

to do Hamlet...

it was based on a psychological truth.

He was presenting...

that kind of vainglorious...

...part of all our lives as students

when we think we're the cleverest, we know most, and...

you know, 'Why doesn't anybody understand me?'

This is an angry love poem that I've written. And it's called Vanessa.

But the material isn't what's funny.

Shut up!

It's the performance of it.

You can make it funny without it being funny itself.

So I don't think we'd seen that kind of...

non-material comedy.

Vanessa. I don't see anything funny about that.

The communication between himself and the audience was huge.

It was like... you know, a phenomenon.

And the conversations we had very much reflected...

that interest in...

playing with the audience,

being at one with the audience, communicating with the audience.

Right.

It was almost impossible to explain why it was so good.

But everybody knew that they were having the best time...

they'd ever had in a comedy experience.

Do you want to come down here and read a poem?!

The media realised something was going on,

and they'd better take a look.

The quickest, and the most imaginative,

and the most diligent person on the scene

was a young BBC producer called Paul Jackson.

Vanessa, I shall go to my grave with a bleeding heart!

But at least it will be a Redgrave.

Shut...!

Rik was one of those of people...

that when they walk in a room, you know they're there.

And I know that's a cliche, but there are people like that.

And Rik was definitely one of those.

As you know, we're a group of um...

alternative feminists.

What? What is it?

This movement wasn't yet alternative comedy,

but it was clearly something different from anything else we had.

Right on.

I thought that's gonna do quite well. That's gonna succeed and grow.

We left the hop

at half past nine, I had to get her home on time.

The night was dark, the road was wet.

We never saw that Boeing jet.

The plane crash-landed 30 yards ahead.

There was brains and arms and legs and heads.

I couldn't stop the car. My brakes had gone.

We just kept going on and on. On and on.

On and on. Look out! Look out!

Lumme! Cripes!

If you looked at the act as a whole,

you wouldn't think Rik was the dominant force,

but that dynamic then started to change...

when they started performing as the Dangerous Brothers.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

We are the Dangerous Brothers! Dangerous Brothers!

Now they had a dynamic which became one of the central themes of...

Rik's life - that relationship with Ade.

Knock knock! Who's there?!

Open the door!

Open the... What the fuck are you talking about?

One of the mainstays of the Dangerous Brothers

was a very simple joke,

Why did the gooseberry go into the lift?

No, what was the joke?

What's green and hairy and goes up and down?

- What?! - A gooseberry in a lift. - It kills 'em. I'll tell it.

Good evening, ladies and gentleman. I'd like to tell the gooseberry joke.

But how is a little gooseberry going to get into a lift?

How the fuck do I know? It's a joke. It's implicit.

Sounds improbable to me.

It's a good example of the early stages of a great comedy career,

when instinct is enough.

When you just find something funny,

and you gnarl away at it and make it funnier and funnier and funnier.

OK, OK, suppose a traveller brings a gooseberry into a lift.

- Yes. - Which is a bitfucking convenient.- Yes.

How's it gonna press the buttons? It's a fucking gooseberry!

It establishes...

them both as very angry characters.

I mean, within seconds, they're having a vicious argument

about something as stupid as a gooseberry joke.

- Well, has it got any arms?! It's got fuck all arms! - Oh!

- So how is it gonna press the buttons? Exactly! - Fuck!

It was a useful bit of rubbish material

on which we just performed the bollocks out of,

and um... that was always our style.

If you stop, they'll stop laughing, so just do everything...

full on, all the time - don't let up.

Get out.

We were being successful in this kind of...

very minor, culty way.

Jack Nicholson was coming to see us. Dustin Hoffman.

Bianca Jagger, you know, all these people were in a...

tiny little audience watching us at the Comic Strip.

Get in there. I've told you once to fuck off.

- All right. - You gonna listen or not? - You wanna fuck off.

Were we comedians? It seemed like... we were.

Rik was doing his double act,

but he was experimenting with solo work,

which I think... shows the creativity of the man.

I'd had this idea to do this character on the telly,

which would waste television time, and be incompetent.

I was addicted to this form of performance

the audience thought it was genuinely happening,

which I'd got from doing the poems.

Hi. Kevin Turvey here.

Investigative journalist... and trick motorcyclist.

Yes? My name's Kevin Turvey.

'Rik the Poet was designed for the cabaret.

Kevin was designed specifically for telly.'

Yes?! Not you again. Surprise, surprise!

Are you or are you not the parkkeeper?

Er... No comment, you ugly bastard!

Kevin Turvey was something he could...

look down the lens at and kind of address an audience.

This week, I've been investigating Death.

Death... the Grim Rapist.

Kevin Turvey gave him...

confidence, in a big way...

that he could make characters work on television.

What a beautiful day.

It's so great to be alive today,

because it's the early bird that gets worms.

'Well, Kevin's from my home life.

I used to go back and see my mum and dad in Droitwich,

and go and drink in the pub and listen to people talking.

The key to 50% of his success

was that people believed that he genuinely existed.'

So, this week, I thought, 'How am I gonna find out all about sex?'

And I thought, 'I know, I'll become a prostitute.'

His early instincts, which had served him so well,

had been based in a great intelligence,

and a great observation of arrogance and self-importance,

which was what he exploited in his comedy.

He's making himself look very, very unsexy,

which is interesting, cos Rik Mayall was a very, very sexy man.

He took any ounce of sexuality away from his characters.

I mean, they're completely unfanciable,

because that freed up the audience, then, just to laugh.

I said, 'Teresa Kelly, this is Kevin Turvey.

Would you like to come over and have supper with me?

What we're having is potatoes and gravy and sausages,

with nothing on it at all,

and then have sex with me afterwards.'

And she said, 'Well, I'd like to, Kevin,

but I've just been hit by a bus, and I'll be in a coma until Wednesday.'

Nine weeks ago, there wasn't a Kevin Turvey,

and then suddenly, there was.

I think by now, he's what they call a cult.

It's a great pleasure to welcome, from Redditch, Kevin Turvey.

You come from Redditch.

But a lot of people say, actually, that you're a Brum boy.

Why do they say that, do you think?

Well, they got it wrong.

♪ TOM TOM CLUB: Wordy Rappinghood ♪

'Kevin Turvey was a turning point for Rik.'Yeah, well.

And the whole atmosphere,

and the whole culture of comedy, was suddenly blooming.

Virtually every other pub or club was starting to open a comedy club.

Comedy was starting to be the new rock and roll.

The Molotov cocktail that signalled the riot

found the 40 or so police on duty hopelessly outnumbered

and unprepared for what followed.

The elements are all here of a high level of unemployment,

no future for kids,

nothing that gives them any future at all.

The beginning of the '80s was a time when a new kind of student

growing up, you know, with this sense of...

Thatcher in charge now and...

the world that they'd...

grown up in was a bit of a mess.

The old styles of comedy just weren't for them.

They wanted something new. It was an alternative audience.

Yes, it looks as though something's happening now.

The police and the army are moving in.

And from the audience comes the performer.

Right on. Rule, Britannia!

Tiny figure in the middle distance jumps over a gate.

Rule, Britannia.

They're dubbing that sound on. That's never real.

'It started when me and Lise Mayer, my girlfriend,

were talking about the character of Rik

and saying, 'Wouldn't it be funny if you lived with him?'

I was trying to think of more material I could do

than just go onstage and do poems.'

My life changed when he said...

'Farty, get to the pub now, I wanna talk to you.'

And I rushed to see him, and Rik, he was there with Lisa.

And between them, they said they had this idea for a sort of anti-sitcom.

Oh, bloody heck! Is this the new house?

And Rik had all the ideas

for what it was but no script.

More bloody students.

Oh, shut up, and put some clothes on.

I'd worked pretty much all night, and I said, 'I've written a script.'

And he said... 'What took you so long,

you lazy bastard - come and read it to me now.'

I certainly fleshed it out in terms of the political side,

and all of that, but it was Rik's creation.

Pollution...

all around.

Sometimes...

up.

Sometimes...

down.

That encapsulates my creative relationship with him,

which was kind of working towards Rik's laughter -

in a way, his laughter was the editor.

You know, and he was always so generous

with his laughter - it was a beautiful thing

Hello, kitchen. Hello, hello.

My name's Neil, but don't bother remembering it,

cos I'll probably soon be dead, anyway.

I got wind of this script,

and Ben came round, and we read it out loud at my flat.

And I just thought, 'This is fantastic.'

Right, Neil. I'm gonna give you three seconds to make supper.

Starting now! Three seconds?

'It feels homespun, like...

somehow the wrong people have been allowed a TV show.'

What do you fancy, Vyv? ...three! Where's my supper?!

Er... Well, it's not quite finished yet,

actually, you know - it's not r...

It was all the kind of knockabout, heavy-handed, violent slapstick,

but with actual, you know, walls that would fall down.

Rik is still a virgin!

I'm not! I'm not! I'm not a virgin!

Virgin! Virgin! Virgin! I am not a...!

There's one episode where we're fighting

all the way around the house.

Then we come down from the ceiling,

Rik and I, on a bed.

And we did it live in front of an audience.

I remember us lying down.

And there was about half a minute left before it went.

And we looked at each other, and it was just...

...'Can you believe we're doing this?'

Absolute joy.

- I am not a virgin! Virgin! - I am not a virgin!

Virgin! Virgin!

It was like being in a playground.

Bong!

'You know, it was like being inside a Wile E Coyote cartoon.'

Bong!

Like being... the hand of the people drawing the cartoons.

Now we want it to splat exactly like that.

Do not lean out of the window.

I wonder why!

We want it to look painful. Pain is funny.

The ability to be childish

is one of the greatest gifts a comedian has.

You can't pretend it, you can't just put it on.

You have to... It comes from somewhere inside.

It's a telescope!

A telescope with a mouse in it! Brilliant!

'There's really no doubting it. Rik just had it.'

Hello, Rhiannon. Are you glad you could come to the party?

It takes you back to the school room,

back to the absolute joy of laughter,

without any subtlety, without any learning,

without anything other than just, you know,

the sheer pleasure of stupidity.

My feeling about The Young Ones is that it was trying to destroy

the stranglehold that rock and roll had on kids.

Because in the 1920s, there was no rock and roll - there was politics.

Kids used to go out and talk to each other

in meetings and things like that.

Thatcher's Britain!

Thatcher bloody Britain!

Rik's contribution was...

a performance of instinctive brilliance.

Rik the Poet, who became this sort of politicised...

student in The Young Ones,

I think it's one of the truly great comic characters.

Who needs qualifications?!

Who cares about Thatcher and unemployment?!

We can do just exactly whatever we want to do!

And you know why? Because we're young ones! Bachelor boys!

Crazy, mad, wild-eyed,

big-bottomed anarchists!

Look out!

Cliff!

The way we found out, as it were,

that the Young Ones had had the impression it had

was not through the organs of the culture -

the newspapers, the magazines -

but through the tours that then went on

when you'd go to universities and colleges and things like that.

And you'd see what students,

young people who came to gigs,

that's where Rik was the star, and...

the lines of people for his autograph -

it was the days before selfies -

were legendary.

Hi, kids! My name's Rik Mayall.

And this is my mother. Yes, I'm Rik's mum.

My name's Ben Elton. And we're on tour on your stages now.

It's gonna be utterly brilliant. And I'm going to be the best.

No, I'm gonna be the best.

My heroes are people who create,

in a live situation, tremendous excitement.

Little Richard in particular. And it's like the Sex Pistols.

Hendrix. People who just create incredible atmosphere live.

That's a very delicate thing to engineer.

But you don't get that if you're doing,

I don't know, Hamlet, or something straight.

- Yeah. - You don't get that samekind of feeling of real excitement.

Well, do you love me? Yeah, yeah.

Do you think I'm great? Yeah, yeah.

Do you really like me? Yeah, yeah.

Well, would you like to see my pants? Yes.

- Really like see my pants? Here they are. - Yes.

Touring with Rik was some of the happiest days of my life.

We loved it. A lot of it was just Rik improvising.

Largely his own creation, his act, and it was brilliant.

And we had so much fun together. We just laughed.

We laughed for years. Double-ing. Double-ing. We loved to double.

We loved a silly, stupid, sexy knob gag.

Where I get my rude pig out, and the girlies go wild.

We tried to invent a game called Double,

where there'd be cards where you had to double - you shake a dice,

get a card, say, 'Yorkshire is the biggest county in England.'

An example answer, 'No, the biggest county in English is my knob.'

It's pathetic, but we laughed and laughed and laughed.

- Would you like to see my nipples? - Yes!

Really like to see my nips? Uh-huh.

- But do you love me? - Yeah, yeah. - Did you dig my nipples?

You know we did. Would you like to see my bottom?

- Yes, please. Really like see my bot? - Spot on.

We went on tour, and you know, just a small traffic jam,

and some people recognised Rik.

He's sort of waving and, 'Ooh, hello!' You know?

Some rec. we called it rec - recognition.

But he gets out the van. He starts chatting to them.

Everybody just wants to know him.

And the traffic jam's long gone,

and we're just all waiting for Rik.

But just the sheer pleasure he took out of being Rik.

'He just loved it.' Spot on.

Ah, ladies and gentlemen, you can't see my bottom yet!

He loved being Rik Mayall.

And he thoroughly enjoyed that other people enjoyed Rik Mayall.

He was a complete contradiction because in one sense, he was...

incredibly egotistical, which you kind of have to be...

to put yourself in the position he was in.

And he loved that sort of attention.

On the other side, it's exactly who he wasn't.

That was always a joke in the house, was like

'Always on - never off, always on.'

And, like, it was a joke between us,

because he wasn't always on with us.

But to everyone else who's not a part of that inner circle,

you're always on, because you've gotta be... funny.

Anywhere there were people that knew who he was,

he'd immediately...

you'd see him just sort of stand taller, puff out his chest,

really make a show of it, and just be flirty and silly.

It's a case of him thinking, like...

...himself just being himself isn't interesting or debonair enough.

Or it's not part of that Rik character everyone expects to see.

And being a bit self-conscious as well,

wanting to be always the funniest,

best version of himself, which tends to be a character,

cos that's what he feels comfortable with.

Ooh, God.

Oh!

I think people would just assume that he's...

the most confident person in the world.

And it kind of... It's a dichotomy, right?

Because he was, and he did believe he was amazing.

But he was quite dual in the way that he would have that,

but he would also be very, very...

kind of worried about stuff.

Yes.

I think people would probably be quite...

surprised to know about his anxieties.

Why don't you love me? 'I don't like being interviewed.'

Have you found somebody more interesting?

'Cos I haven't got a character to play.'

I just don't understand. 'I don't like being me.'

Is it something I said?

'I know I'm not as entertaining as a character would be.'

With Rik, everything is a magnification of Rik.

It is Rik, only it's enormously so.

And you can see that. It's Rik!

Only he's Flashheart.

It's me. Flash!

Flash by name, flash by nature.

Hooray! Hooray!

Where have you been? Where haven't I been? Woof!

Flashheart was an extraordinary creation.

Historical idea of a sort of Errol Flynn Robin Hood,

swashbuckling figure, and he did flash into scenes.

And, Melchie!

Still worshipping God?

Rik went out to steal scenes.

Last thing I heard, he started worshiping me!

In that scene as Flashheart, he's got that stick-on moustache,

but he's giving it so much welly.

The moustache starts to come off.

And it's flapping like this, all the time he's speaking.

Every time he speaks, the moustache flies up in the air.

It's wonderful to behold.

I've got a plan, and it's as hot as my pants!

He loved the challenge of doing Flashheart,

and he loved the challenge of winning.

He loved to win the show.

Who was best? You were, Rich.

Nursie! I like it firm and fruity.

Am I pleased to see you, or did I just put a canoe in my pocket?!

Down, boy, down!

He had that in him,

that kind of desire to be the most watched.

So long, suckers! Next time you get bored of your lives,

gimme a call, and I'll come round and kill you!

Once he was on, you couldn't take your eyes off him.

And nor did he want you to.

Mind if I use your phone?

If word gets out that I'm missing, 500 girls will kill themselves.

I wouldn't want them on my conscience.

Not when they ought to be on my face!

Dad definitely loved being hot as Flashheart.

He had a giant framed photograph

of him in this Flashheart outfit.

And every once in a while, he'd just look at me like, 'God!

I loved doing that shoot, cos I just got to look so sexy and hot.'

OK, dig out your best booze and let's talk about me till the car comes.

Most of us as comedians, there's a reason why we're standing up there.

It's because we want to be an attention seeker.

But there's a shame attached to that.

Kids get told all the time, 'Stop showing off.'

I got told it all the time as a kid. 'Stop showing off.'

And that's what Rik Mayall brought to all of us, I think,

was, 'It's all right to show off. I'm bloody good at showing off!'

My God!

Yes, I suppose I am.

Flashheart was written for Rik.

This is the greatest honour of my life!

When Rik was big and magnificent, and perfectly timed,

it was the best big performance there's ever been in comedy.

You look like a decent British bloke.

I'll park the old booties on you, if that's OK.

It would be an honour, my Lord. Of course, it would.

Talking about sitcom being pushed -

no-one can push a sitcom bigger than Rik.

Have you any idea what it's like

to have the wind rushing through your hair?

No, sir.

He has!

This is the kind of arrogant side of Rik

which is kind of so endearing and infuriating at the same time.

It's sheer arrogance and ego.

But it's what you pay your money for and it's what everybody remembers.

I've come to pick you up. Well, that's how I like my girls.

Direct and to my point. Woof! Woof!

Rik just tore through the part,

like it was just the most amazing... ball of energy.

Like a sort of tornado coming through the set, and then...

...then he was gone, and it's...

everything's gone quiet again.

I did compare him to Errol Flynn,

this figure who just burst into Hollywood with Captain Blood,

and then The Adventures Of Robin Hood

became the Swashbuckler, the ladies' man.

He was just this cult and fabulous star.

But you can't be that forever.

I remember thinking, 'Can he keep this up?'

And Flynn, of course, was famously a big drinker.

The minute the wrap is called, Rik would be in the pub,

line up three pints of lager and two whiskies,

and just get whammed.

The worst thing that happened to him...

was really getting paid.

I think getting paid changed him,

because he could afford to drink...

spirits.

When we were students, we could never afford spirits.

He became a different man when he could afford to drink

more whisky than was good for him.

I didn't want to make any more telly

until I was sure what it was going to be.

So for two years, I hardly did anything

except for little bits and bobs that I really fancied doing.

I made a few pop videos.

And really, I was just waiting for a good idea.

And eventually, I decided that...

there's no point in waiting any more - go in and do something.

I had this basic idea that I wanted to live in a flat with Ade.

Bit of a different tone now, isn't it?!

Rik didn't want to do a third series of The Young Ones,

probably wisely, I suppose.

So we thought let's reflect who we are now.

If your idea is any good, which I'll admit, is a million-to-one chance,

the Beeb are bound to pinch it.

And who we are now is we've been on telly, and we're telly stars,

so let's take the piss out of that.

Oh, yes, of course, I have known Tarby for years, yes.

We've often performed in the same pants.

Panto, love, pantomimes.

We loved to laugh...

in an affectionate way about showbiz tropes.

You know, the whole Des O'Connor, Tarby world of light entertainment,

which we'd grown up with, sort of...

kind of half-sneering at, but also half-loving.

Ooh, we've done a few!

Ooh, Cinders, Aladders, Dickers Witters.

That was terrif. My Dick was fantastic!

'I think it's the most nihilistic piece of telly we've ever done.'

I've got a whopping great talent! My name's Richie Rich!

I'm available panto or summer season any time during the rest of...

'I don't believe in privilege, I don't believe in the privilege of...

celebrities and that was something we were trying to destroy.'

- I have big mammaries! - I'ma homosexual - isn't it hilarious?

When I say my pussy, I really mean it!

'It was a complete punk statement, which is what we're really about.'

Ready, girls? And two, three, four...

Hang on. Hang on.

You're not gonna sing, are you? Of course we are.

Why else do you think we agreed to be in this load of old crap?

Ooh! A Nolan sister talking dirty to me. Wait till I tell this to the chaps.

I would say probably Filthy is one of

the most grotesquely presented pieces of comedy ever on television.

And that could be considered original.

But I think it worked against the comedy.

I thought it was very funny, but a lot of people didn't.

But I think it has a lot of brilliant stuff in it.

I think it's rubbish. I'm gonna vomit!

I can think of no higher compliment!

Rik loved Filthy,

to the extent that he would watch it, which...

was always slightly weird.

You know, we'd meet, we'd have a laugh, we'd get drunk.

And he'd say, 'Oh, don't go, farty. Let's watch an episode of Filthy.'

I wrote it on my own, and all I see is the bits I hated.

All he saw were the bits he loved.

Rik did love watching himself on telly,

so that's an aspect of Rik's personality which was quite unique.

Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

Other people are obviously comedians,

and other people are obviously actors,

and I don't fit into any of those categories.

Which is a worry, but it's also an inspiration,

because it means I can go and do anything.

Next Thursday at the polls, it won't just be Bob,

it'll be Britain saying opportunity knocks.

And what a choice you've got -

the Iron Lady, the Invisible Man or the Odd Couple.

So, who do you think you are...

Well, I don't know about Dad's Army.

I'd like to think...

that those who believe in keeping Britain strong...

belong in Mum's army.

♪ THE CURE: Just Like Heaven ♪

I've always hated snobbery.

That's something that has revolted me.

The said Margaret Hilda Thatcher...

has been duly elected to serve as a Member of Parliament.

So I've got a violent morality.

The undeserving rich -

those are the people who repel me.

Sutch, Screaming Lord...

5,019.

Up the Loonies. Up the Loonies.

B'Stard, Alan Beresford...

31,756.

♪ The one that makes me scream She said

♪ The one that makes me laugh She said

♪ Threw her arms around my neck...

I don't do sexist jokes, and I don't do racist jokes.

I do jokes that I hope will...

precipitate the downfall of capitalism,

and the Thatcher government in particular.

Hello, Alan B'Stard.

Biggest majority in the House of Commons.

Alan B'Stard was a completely corrupt...

avaricious, self-seeking Tory MP.

And we're still in the prime of the Thatcher period at this point.

That sort of 'go out and get rich and fuck everybody else' character.

Completely morally corrupt, no moral compass, lecherous.

I mean, he is now being that person who he hates.

Alan, stupendous to see you. How's the old portfolio?

Oh, getting fatter thanks to your little Post Office privatisation tip.

- Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for that budget leak. - Oh. Shh. No problem.

I enjoyed getting it out of that little Treasury Secretary

almost as much as I enjoyed putting it in first.

Rik's performance was captivating.

I was drawn into a political satire

without realising I was being drawn into a political satire.

He brought a level of charm to an...

an utterly revolting character.

- You know you want me. - Alan, concentrate on the matter in hand.

It's the nearest to the real Rik.

That's strange, but what I mean is...

the nearest to the Rik that he projected to the public.

It's the nearest to that Rik that used to walk up to the stage door

and have a crowd of groupies, and go, 'Oh!'

And it's that Rik.

Which isn't the real Rik, but it's nearest to party Rik, if you like -

to on-show Rik.

Hello, Alan B'Stard, rising star of the New Right.

The New Statesman really showed a television audience

what a really good actor Rik Mayall is.

He was still visibly Rik Mayall,

but it was a really controlled performance

and totally credible...

as a right-wing Tory MP.

So why... why should...

the nation that produced Shakespeare, Dickens,

Christopher Wren, Florence Nightingale -

and those are just the people on our bank notes, for Christ's sake -

kowtow to the continent that produced Hitler,

Napoleon, the Mafia...

...and The Smurfs?

He was just very, very, very politically engaged.

Always. And he was so...

quite serious about us knowing about politics.

So, I remember when I was 18 and it was the first time I could vote.

And he was so excited.

We all used to go and vote together as a family.

So are we, the victors of El Alamein,

going to allow these... these... these faceless people...

...to sell us into Euroblivion?

No!

Or are we going to stand up in this great British party

and demand our country back?

It seemed to be a bit of an overstatement

about the Thatcherite ministers, who weren't that terrible.

But what it turned out to be was a kind of...

trumpet blast of prophetic warning for the kind that were then to come.

You bastard!

B'Stard...

B'Stard.

Why did the pervert cross the road?

Cos he couldn't get his knob out of the chicken!

By 1989, Rik was up there,

as successful and as famous as anyone in the British comedy scene.

Toby.

I could tell you a joke that'd blow your bollocks off.

Toby says, 'Uh...

I've already heard that one.'

The audience response was extraordinary.

The audience knew that they'd been somewhere,

and that they'd had an experience.

And Rik would come into the changing room.

'He would take his suit off...' Mummy. Mummy.

...and he would wring it out, literally.

He would wring out the suit.

To see that, and the energy that comes off him, was quite something.

Rik was a man-child.

He was so desperate to be loved.

'Look at me, look at me. Look what I can do.

This is my trick. Look what I can do. Aren't I clever?'

Rik had that, that sort of childlike quality.

Argh! - Hello, snot face!

Yuck! What happened to you?

Look at you! You're all older!

You're even uglier! Ugh!

Rik Mayall has lately been in America

to play his first starring role in a feature film in Drop Dead Fred.

Boo! Argh!

Because Fred is imaginary, and can only be seen by Elizabeth,

the comic possibilities are endless.

No panties! No panties!

I don't think I'm a kind of Meryl Streep-type actor, you know,

who can make people weep just by raising an eyebrow that much.

You know? I... You know me. I prat about.

Get me an axe! No, no, get me a chainsaw!

I'm gonna slice her into tiny pieces!

I seized on the idea, cos Fred's imaginary,

so he can just be anything, and he can be over the top, loud and stupid and childish.

So that... means that I can be me.

Marking.

And action.

Mum and Dad went out to see him,

and they were just proud of him.

Cos he was doing a film in America,

and it's a big Hollywood movie.

It was a big opportunity, and it required...

a lot of investment on his part.

- You're not gonna get that out, are you? - Not now!

Drop Dead Fred was a cult for children for decades afterwards,

and probably still is, but wasn't a big hit at the time.

Mind your backs! 'And so that was a disappointment.

And there were disappointments, like Cat Flap, and that film,

that took it out of him a bit.'

He makes a film, Drop Dead Fred.

I've got some dog poo. Right here!

So he's gonna be a film star now,

and I think Drop Dead is a very funny film.

But Drop Dead Fred wasn't a hit,

and it kind of then... doesn't go on.

He doesn't make lots more movies.

He doesn't become... Steve Martin or Jim Carrey.

Wee! Oh!

Rik found it hard to be as famous as he was...

Who put that there?! '..and to maintain...'

Oh, I forgot to give you something.

...that level of comedic commitment to...

keep on pushing boundaries, to keep on...

making that audience happy,

or happier, than they were last time.

That's a huge burden.

♪ PRIMAL SCREAM: Loaded ♪

Each day, Louise passes the house that used to be home.

Eighteen months ago, she and her husband fell into debt.

Last month, the house was repossessed.

Now the family lives in bed and breakfast accommodation so small,

their two-year-old sleeps in the bathroom.

How many are avoiding the poll tax is not known,

but there is widespread concern

over the numbers apparently disenfranchised by poverty.

There were twin motors driving him

of disagreeing with what he saw happening to society,

and being angry about that...

and fascination with how bad life could be.

He was the most vibrant, and lively,

and life-consuming person you could meet,

but somewhere in his psyche,

there was this feeling about the desolation of life.

And of course, that most obviously comes out in Bottom -

the complete hopelessness of the human condition.

He could see people living at the bottom of the food chain,

and he could see how desperate that was,

but he could also see how funny it was.

Their lives were awful,

and their personalities were awful.

Their relationship was...

codependent and yet destructive.

Come and have your din-dins.

And I've always thought there was an element of, 'Well...

I'm not enjoying aspects of my life, but it's not as bad

as what these two fuckers are going through.

The verbal and physical intensity...

...really just hooked you.

Right, that's it! I'm off.

You stay where you are, mate. No.

I'm afraid I'm on my way! You're not going anywhere!

Much of the physical comedy that Rik and Adrian had right from the off

developed exponentially in Bottom.

The degree of violence is just so staggering.

It makes it funny because it does take it beyond.

It takes us into such a cartoon level.

You're out of here!

They were obviously very happy doing it.

And they were very, very funny together.

You just have to use your head. What do you mean?

This.

'There's a thing in male friendship which is hard to explain.'

Beyond the kind of prurience and kind of slapstick of Bottom,

that's basically what it's about -

why two friends stay together.

Cos they haven't got anyone else is one reason.

But now, are they secretly enjoying the fact there's no-one else?

I think they are.

Thanks a fucking lot. Thank you very much.

Laugh a lot, or we'll come around to your house and shag you to death!

Ade knows me better than anyone apart from Barbara, my wife.

We fit together. We are a unit.

Feeling poorly again, are you?

No, you are!

We loved performing.

I wonder what sort of great bird would suit me.

Blind one.

'I watched Rik in them.' Blind, deaf masochist, really.

And I think, 'God, that's brilliant.'

Really good, he was really good as that character.

It's the best programme we ever made together.

Why haven't I got a girlfriend?

I'd look great with a girlfriend.

I've never had a girlfriend.

Perhaps I'm the new messiah.

'It was fundamentally him.'

Yeah.

It was him as a kind of...

...15- or 17-year-old boy.

Wants to have it off...

can't afford anything.

Oh, God, I'm bored.

'Feels life's going nowhere.' Ha. There's the phone.

We had an awful lot in common.

We'd basically been the same boy...

but at different schools.

♪ MOTT THE HOOPLE: Born Late '58 ♪

Dad was a drama lecturer. Mum was a drama teacher.

There was a school they wanted to get me to,

called the King's School, in Worcester.

The schools we'd been to were both very similar -

they were kind of direct grant grammar schools...

albeit I was a boarder, but he wasn't.

There wasn't a drama department.

I used to do... shows after school.

It was also a way of getting off combined cadet force.

We used to be able to do plays instead.

As a boy, he was competitive.

We were a fairly competitive family.

Competition was good.

He was always a performer,

and in 1970,

my father put on a production at the Norbury Theatre

of Waiting For Godot by Beckett.

And he won the role of the boy.

That was a meaningful experience.

Godot meant a lot to Rik.

We'd both done Waiting For Godot at school.

I think Godot is the key...

to understanding what we were doing.

And Godot is about two people who don't know what's happening.

- Do you...? Oh, pardon. - Carry on.

No, no. After you. No, no. You first.

And they just bicker at each other

whilst they're waiting for the end to come.

I interrupted you.

'And then we eventually got to do Godot...'Ceremonious ape!

'..onstage, properly.' Punctilious pig!

Finish your phrase, I tell you!

'We've always found it hilarious.' Moron!

Something about enjoying bleakness...

that we both have.

How time flies when one has fun!

That's all our act ever was.

It was kind of Waiting For Godot with Wile E Coyote sort of...

violence put into it.

We took Bottom on the road, just the two of us.

Basically going back to the beginning again, really.

Oh, pack it in, Eddie. Pack it in. We're too old for this.

Oh, look at me sweating like I've been masturbating for a month.

Rik was brilliant at it.

Our double act was at its peak.

You all right? I actually hit you on the nose then, didn't I?Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah. - It's OK.

It was just the most success we've ever had.

We've never earnt money like it.

We would run offstage in our incredibly sweaty gear,

run into the van and drink all the way home.

We felt like we were...

'..tearaways.'

It's still a big adventure for me.

Constantly through my career, I've switched tack.

Because I'm scared of becoming stale.

I've watched you...

in the canteen, in the cafeteria. Yes, I've watched you watching me.

But it's been hard to make the approach, hasn't it?

A matter of, well, shyness, perhaps.

Rik was, just so warm. I mean, he was such a warm man.

And he was an easy man to be in a play with. Everybody loved him.

I went to see Cell Mates in the West End on its opening night

with his mum and dad, and they were, I think, slightly bemused

at how their renegade son had suddenly become a West End star.

Will you have a cup of tea? I'd love...

Rik was very excited. A, because he was a huge fan

of Simon Grey, the writer...

When do you get out? Oh, not soon enough. A year or so.

...and also working with Stephen Fry - he was delighted...

to be working with Stephen.

You have a friend for at least a year. Count on it.

I played the spy George Blake,

and Rik played this wonderfully charismatic Irishman -

very lovable, warm, hilarious character.

That's about all I remember of it because I was in a terrible state.

Fry doesn't feel like an actor, merely an act.

Stephen Fry does his usual Stephen Fry impersonation

of a superior manservant.

I was in Stephen Fry's flat having a drink one evening.

And he was telling me about this terrible piece that had come out

in the Evening Standard about just saying he was a complete fraud.

He wasn't clever, he was funny, he wasn't interesting.

He was an entitled, useless toff,

and nobody liked him, and Stephen was completely broken up by this.

I thought, well, you know, poor guy. Nobody likes bad reviews.

But it's only a review. It doesn't matter. He'll get over it.

There's concern for the actor Stephen Fry,

who unexpectedly left the cast of a West End play

three days after it opened and hasn't been seen since Monday.

A whole concatenation of circumstances...

somehow made me feel that I wanted to escape life generally.

I was due in the theatre Monday

to come in and carry on playing the part, and I didn't turn up.

Actually, poor Stephen - he's been out of the play, hasn't he?

Yeah, he's got the flu. I'm sure he'll be back tonight or tomorrow.

Keep buying the tickets there. Keep buying the tickets.

Mental health problems weren't really understood.

I didn't understand them. I didn't know that I had a condition called bipolar disorder.

There are times when it overwhelms your personality

to the extent you feel you're not in control of your actions, and...

this was such a case, so in that sense, I do excuse myself, but...

...I can't help saying to myself, 'I wish I had done it differently.'

Stephen's crisis was very real, and through that,

came to understand the fragility of his mental health.

Rik Mayall.

But what happened to Rik was catastrophic.

He found himself...

an also-ran, and that's something that Rik really couldn't take.

I mean, Rik and Stephen started off as equal co-stars in Cell Mates.

In fact, I would suggest Rik was the bigger star.

But suddenly, the narrative became, 'Where is the star of Cell Mates?'

People were going to see the show in dwindling numbers,

cos they were effectively being told on front page headlines...

I'm not kidding, it was front page news,

the mystery of Stephen's disappearance.

The ticket office was deserted today.

Ever since Stephen Fry dramatically walked out of Cell Mates,

ticket sales have slumped.

Rik was already fragile.

His own personality was particularly ill-attuned...

to being ignored.

Fame meant a lot to Rik.

I visited him a number of times in his dressing room

during what was a dreadful couple of weeks,

and he was becoming manic and desperate, and drinking.

The West End show that Stephen Fry walked out on

is to close next week with losses of £300,000.

Rik was in a pit of despair,

and being Rik, he was...

pretending he wasn't.

He was fronting it out with great bravado.

The more he felt people were ignoring...

...the Rik that I first met in Manchester all those years before,

the more he played it.

To the point where he'd go out drunk after the show,

and he took a prop gun with him...

and waved it about in the streets of Soho,

and was very quickly surrounded by armed police,

and was lucky not to get shot.

Well, there's no way I'm gonna clean that...

that entrance to Hades,

so I might as well call the whole bloody thing off.

Rik was already wondering about...

...I suppose how to stay being Rik.

Fuck off.

Being Rik, this fabulously successful, wonderful,

much-loved person was a big part of who Rik was

as a private individual as well,

and he wanted to maintain it.

Now, you listen to me, buster.

You're just a door.

I'm Rik fucking Mayall.

When we first started the live shows,

it was just glorious.

Except that Rik's drinking...

We have to confront Rik's drinking.

He certainly started drinking more.

Where am I?

We had a heart-to-heart, and I said, 'I'm not sure if this is...

this is working, because...

you can't do it on the booze like this.'

Have a wank, Professor!

And he went home that day, I remember, and he...

he didn't come in for a week or two, and...

...and he came in and said, 'Well, I'm gonna quit the booze.'

So he quit the booze.

And the second tour, we went out, and I didn't drink either.

Are you finished now?

Just I'm beginning to understand why Stephen Fry fucked off.

The show was good, the second one.

By the third one, he was sort of secretly drinking.

My little office was...

overlooking a pub, and...

then I'd start to see him going in for a quick couple of shorts

before he came in to write.

It's strange cos we used to enjoy alcohol so much together.

In 1998...

Dad and I were travelling from London to Devon.

He had a briefcase, and he went in his briefcase.

And he got out... loads of little miniatures.

Whisky, gin, vodka.

He just kept getting these little bottles out of the bag.

I was looking at him. I was like, 'What are you doing, Daddy?'

He said, 'Just don't tell your mother.'

Knocking them back, knocking them back.

We got to the farm,

and then I went up into the farmhouse.

I thought I'd go out for a ride on my new quad bike.

Bonnie comes running out and says, 'Oh, can I have a ride?'

There were drops of rain on my arm,

and I thought, 'This isn't very safe.'

'You go inside the house,' and off they went.

That's the last thing I remember.

My dad was lying with the quad bike on him.

So when I went round the corner,

Mum and my aunt were...

taking the quad bike off of my dad at the time.

There was a huge pool of blood around his head.

He'd fractured his skull and was completely unconscious.

There was bleeding inside the skull, and in the brain,

so they had to put him into a coma so that he could heal.

It was touch and go - would he have a brain?

Which is probably even worse than death, isn't it?

Waking up with no brain.

I was sitting alone...

with him in his room, and he was attached to everything.

They wondered whether he was gonna make it, whether he would be brain-affected.

He said, 'Oh, hello, Benji. I fucked up.'

He was very, very unwell.

Very, very, unwell. Nobody would ever know.

He was the bravest man, honestly,

and the most extraordinary man,

to have to deal with all of that.

He wasn't Dad...

for years after.

He completely had to stop drinking.

Completely, which was difficult in itself.

Socialising with friends, he did less of that, because, I think,

he obviously liked to have a drink,

so he didn't want to sit there sober while...

...people drank in his face and didn't talk about him.

You know?

Post-accident, we said, 'Shall we go on the road?'

I said, 'I don't think I can.

I don't think I can handle it, so...

...best do a movie instead.'

He was never exactly...

the same person - he was, bizarrely, more emotional.

I've said that most of our material is about...

...male friendship, but we never bloody talked about it.

Of course we didn't, you know?

But he would get emotional about it, and...

...and cried a lot.

Ah, there you are, Eddie.

It wasn't always the same old Rik, or at least,

it was a dozen different versions of the same old Rik we know and love,

which was always pretty tricky to understand anyway,

but with the head injury as well, it made it almost impossible.

Action. Well, I'm sure...

And so for several years, he was getting these drugs rebalanced.

We better check you in, then.

He hit the back of his head so badly

that he had epilepsy trauma from it.

As we snap off. Yeah.

He'd have these huge seizures, so he'd have to deal with seizures

that he'd never had to deal before, which were terrifying.

Oh, yes, I never use a stuntman. Er...

All the stuntmen here today dressed up as me

are just good friends from my fan club

Your brain chemistry changing like that when you're 40

is something that's extremely anxiety-inducing,

especially if you work in a...

in an industry that relies so heavily on your memory,

ie learning lines.

When we were doing erm... See, I've lost the name of that.

Come on, Rich. I've had a very serious head injury.

It might take me a second. Hooligan's Island!

He was always terrified of people knowing that he was epileptic,

or that he couldn't remember names, he couldn't remember dates.

He'd write himself little notes, write in his diary.

We found his diary not long ago.

'Hello, Rik, you sensational, gorgeous bastard.

You need to remember today that Rosie said...

"I've got a piano exam...

in two weeks." You've got to remember that.

He had to keep going, no matter what.

...come right up to your room, and give you a good, thorough seeing to.

He was worried about himself. Doesn't want to get it wrong.

He was legitimately afraid of...

that he might not have it any more.

Doesn't want to appear as not funny.

There was something bizarre happened.

There weren't visible changes.

You didn't think, 'Oh, my gosh, he's subdued now.'

But there was a slight feeling...

that there was... that one small piece had gone,

and that now he was having to enact...

...what he thought the Rik Mayall would do.

One last look at the pants. This is the front.

Ya-hey! And this is the back.

It was a sort of deliberation that he had to maintain the grandiosity.

But that he didn't really know why or where it was coming from.

There she is, at last.

That's me and her in the newspaper, you see? Genuine proof.

Paradiso, working with Helene. It doesn't say Rik.

It just doesn't say Rik.

You don't mind that I do not wear a brassiere?

Uh... No.

This is such a charming hotel,

unlike anywhere else I've ever been.

I feel I could stay here forever.

'He's very funny in that film.'

You're such a sweet man.

I think he's as much like Peter Sellers as he's ever been.

Really considered, really precise, good comedy.

Three, two, one... vomit!

It got a bad reception, Guest House Paradiso.

Which... I thought unfairly. It was...

It was a perfectly enjoyable, funny film.

I think that took Adrian bad.

I thought that was very unfair.

We're watching as the last year of the last century

of the old millennium...

slouches offstage...

to make way for the youthful entry of the new.

♪ FATBOY SLIM: Right Here, Right Now ♪

It was the year 2000, and everybody was full of hope.

We said, 'Hey, let's do another series of Bottom.'

And we submitted it.

But the BBC turned it down.

We were a bit devastated.

We thought, 'Let's get the best gags out of it and go on the road.'

And I thought, 'Hey, this is our future.'

He knew he could always rely on Bottom Live.

People loved it. He loved Adrian.

And he thought that that would be his meal ticket for...

as long as he needed it to be, really.

As far as Rik was concerned, there was work to be done,

but more important was the relationship with Ade, I think.

He saw it as a marriage, as a love.

Are we having a fight? Yes!

Right, here I come, buster! No, wait!

I've got a good idea!

'But as in many marriages, there's the possibility...

of marital strain.'

We spent weeks and weeks with each other,

with no-one else for company.

And perhaps we should have handled that better.

Adrian was at a point where he'd been working with him a lot.

Feeling sore? Ha!

Adrian was having to keep an eye on him.

I think there was a lot of strain on Adrian doing that, as well.

Richie! Yeah?

Ooh, fuck!

Rik could have a meltdown on a tour, you know?

He could suddenly lose it and think...

...'Where am I now? Why am I doing this?'

And that must have been scary for Rik.

Good shot! Eddie!

You've saved my life!

Have I?! Oh, shit.

We did five tours altogether.

It was a poor show, that fifth one.

The audience loved it.

But it's not my favourite show.

I think that endless touring...

did us in.

All seems to fade,

darkness comes...

and anal leakage.

I don't remember him being that ill last night!

I went to see the show,

and I was in Rik's dressing room afterwards.

Which is when Ade popped in...

and asked to talk to Rik.

And um...

Rik went outside with him, came back in looking pale.

Which was kind of odd...

and said Ade had just told him

he didn't want to work with him any more, and...

...he was in tears.

When it came to an end at that last gig -

the Watford Colosseum, I remember it well...

Just get hold of your coats...

...and fuck off out of it.

And I kind of realised we couldn't really do it any more.

And we never really got to...

...an understanding about that.

Which makes me very sad.

I remember Dad saying to me, he was like,

'I don't know what I've done wrong. I don't know why this has happened.'

I think he just felt like the carpet had been pulled from underneath him.

And he was just sort of left going, 'Well, now what?'

I can't go on like this.

And I just think that my dad deserved more...

so much more.

But then again, Adrian was completely entitled

to do what he needed to do, as well, for his own mental health.

Testing, testing. One, two - There you go. Yep. We're on.

In order for it to record, I have to click on this. We can see it there.

I can see that it's working. So we're now recording.

In summer of 2004,

Rik invited me over one Saturday afternoon.

And he just said, 'I've been offered this book deal...

to write my autobiography.

You write books. Why don't you write it with me?'

But as with so much of what he did,

he wanted to subvert it.

I don't like the idea of my autobiography.

Cos it's like the end of your career.

As if Dad would actually write a proper autobiography about himself.

It would never happen, not in a million years.

He invented alternative comedy with The Young Ones,

he brought down the Thatcher administration with The New Statesman,

and he changed the face of global culture with his masterpiece, Bottom.

He wanted to create this character of The Rik Mayall,

who shared the same history as him, but had this...

hugely egotistical, bombastic sort of outlook.

Oh, tourists.

Fuck off, riff-raff.

What I was thinking of as well was...

- Bigger Than Hitler - Better Than Christ. - Yeah.

Yeah.

That title, it works for me. In your pants.

My bedroom was right next to Dad's office.

So I'd just always hear them just...

laughing, being silly.

In this electrifying autobiography,

Rik stands naked in front of his vast legions...

of fans and disciples, and invites them...

Writing it lit that fire for that naughty boy,

that naughty Rik, to... come alive again...

...and gave him confidence,

in himself, to be funny.

So, what was it again? 'It's the greatest book ever written...

...by the greatest man that ever lived.

If you don't buy it, you're a wanker.

Someone said to me the other day,

he said, 'Well, the thing is about you is, Rik.

Every single piece in your brain has been severely damaged

except your ego.

Which I think was a rather... rather nice thing to say.

There was this slight concern about his mental state,

and I think he probably felt he wasn't getting the recognition

or the work that he deserved.

From being at the very top of the tree

and being able to do literally what he wanted,

he suddenly wasn't able to just do what he liked.

This week, I've been investigating unemployment.

I've been investigating it all week, starting on Monday.

He was always terrified people would think he...

he couldn't think straight any more, and he wouldn't get parts.

And Rik needed to work, and he worried a lot about work.

It's OK. I am normal. I AM normal.

Rik was a fantasy casting for us

throughout the development of Man Down.

We spoke about Rik Mayall as my father, almost as a joke.

Not for a second did I think he'd be interested,

and not for a second did I think he'd end up being my father in it.

You!

Rik was my hero,

from the age of 14 onwards, my comedy hero.

The celebratory nature of...

the grotesqueness of Rik and the willingness

to make a fool of yourself, I suppose, appeals to me.

And if you take the character from Bottom,

or the character of Rik from The Young Ones,

they're not pleasant people.

You absolute dick!

Oh, that's nice! To his own father!

I'd written the dad character like that,

just to turn the volume up on the madness.

Does he need a hug from the bear?

There was a lot of discussion about how

he was gonna maximise the laughs.

He was always, 'How can we make it funnier? How can we make funnier?'

Come and have a hug from the bear. No!

He was a perfectionist, my dad.

He was overly prepared for everything,

and I went through his lines with him all the time.

Ooh!

Oh, fucking hell.

So he would learn his lines, and then he'd...

call me up from his office - 'Sydney, I'm ready!'

You fat prick!

And he would just act at me.

And he'd use me as an audience - if I laughed or responded to it.

And he'd go, 'Did that work?' He'd constantly ask me...

if that was good enough. 'Are you sure?

Let's do it again. Do it again. Do it again.'

I can't wait to put you in a home.

What a nasty boy!

He must be punished.

I didn't know what to expect with Rik.

It was complicated because, you know, as a result of the accident,

there was something going on cognitively with him

that he would zone out.

Right here. Like this.

And it sort of didn't affect us, actually.

It sort of... 'Rik's not quite with us for a minute,'

and then he was back with us, and everything was fine.

What the fuck is it now?!

Morning, Daniel. Time to get up.

The thing that came across to me more than anything

was his hunger, and his love of performance.

That's the thing I'll remember more than anything.

The intention was to hugely develop that role.

Daniel, what have you done?!

So me and the other writers just went...

crazy in the writing of the second series

with our excitement of what we could do with him, and...

...how far we could push the character, but of course, sadly,

I never got to do it.

I'd been doing a voiceover or something in the West End,

and I had to walk home over Waterloo Bridge.

And that happened to be the day

London taxi drivers were complaining about the licencing.

So the whole bridge was at a standstill, mostly with black cabs.

And as I walked down over the bridge,

every one of them goes, 'Sorry for your loss, mate.'

And...

...it was amazing.

Right.

Hands up, who likes me?

Damn!

I don't think I really understood, like,

his impact until...

my boyfriend's sister collected all the newspapers on that day.

And every single...

paper, he was on the front cover.

And I was just like...'What?!'

It was literally every paper.

And even the ones he hated.

It's very hard to sum up someone

who is a mixture of a performer and a personality

and the gaps between the performance

and the personality are almost invisible.

They seem to be one. He is Rik.

Can you, like, actually kill yourself with laxative pills?

If we think about when we most laughed,

it's nearly always when we were children,

at something silly, and we laughed and laughed until our stomachs hurt.

And no amount of clever comedy, beautifully constructed,

and wonderfully shot will ever make us laugh that much again.

But Rik came the closest to making us do that.

This house will become a shrine!

And punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round,

and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader.

And all the grown-ups will say, 'But why are the kids crying?'

And the kids will say, 'Haven't you heard?

Rik is dead! The people's poet is dead!'

And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say,

'Other kids, do you understand nothing?

How can Rik be dead when we still have his poems?'

And then another kid will say...

There was something that...

...that grieved me...

...in the way he died so...

suddenly, that we never kind of repaired...

...what...

our relationship was.

So...

I've had to explain the later part of our relationship in...

in...

because people want to know.

You know, and it's obvious that something went a bit awry.

But I think we should mostly remember...

...that he was a fucking genius.

What does a man with a 2ft cock have for breakfast?

Well, this morning, I had a boiled egg!

So, you want comedy, do you?

Yes! Well, fuck off somewhere else, then!

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