After a rather busy day, I fell asleep in front of the telly last night sometime around eight o'clock. Luckily I woke up in time to make a cup of tea and be ready for two episodes of The Young Ones on GOLD. I was a latecomer to this show, only becoming aware of it through the Comic Relief single 'Living Doll', in which the characters performed a duet with Cliff Richard. Without a commercial video release, and in a time before YouTube, I had to bide my time until the BBC decided to repeat it. It finally happened in 1989, when I was in the third year of senior school. BBC2 repeated it alongside a repeat run of Police Squad, (which was recommended by our science teacher). The day after an episode of The Young Ones, our form were repeating phrases and routines with each other, just like the generation before had done with Monty Python's Flying Circus and later in my schooling the same would happen again with Vic Reeves Big Night Out. By the time I started college in 1992, a home video release ensured an audience all over again. The Young Ones has been with me all of my comedy loving life, part sitcom and part cartoon, it was dangerous, rude and most important of all, very very funny. We all loved Bottom too of course, but The Young Ones was the original and best. Even nowadays I find that I know every word of dialogue word for word.

The Young Ones was of course an ensemble work, with contributions from Mark Arden and Steve Frost, (The Oblivion Brothers to those with a good knowledge of comedy, the blokes from the 1980s Carling Black Label adverts to everyone else), Hale and Pace, French and Saunders, Alexi Sayle and plenty of others. However, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson were the stand out stars of the show in my opinion. They could do no wrong, following The Young Ones with Filthy Rich And Catflap, appearances in The Comic Strip Presents, (many of them written by Edmondson), and of course Bottom, seen by many as a follow on to The Young Ones. Rik Mayall presented Jackanory and The Grimm Tales, and made a Hollywood film, Drop Dead Fred, in which he basically played the part he has been playing since he and Ade became The Dangerous Brothers. Both comedians recorded audio-books of Doctor Seuss books, worth listening to if they're still commercially available.

Rik Mayall was involved in a quad bike accident in 1998, and as a result his reaction wasn't as it once was. This effectively ended the working relationship between Rik and Ade, as he was no longer up to the energetic performances required of him in roles like Richard Richard in Bottom.

Rik Mayall is still working, albeit with a lower profile than before, appearing in roles in Midsomer Murders, Minder, Jonathon Creek, and doing voice over work. The last starring role was All About George. To see a comedy actor of Mayall's calibre appearing in a role that should have been taken on by Robson Green or Nick Berry on an ITV comedy-drama was a sad thing for a longtime fan such as myself to see. Watching The Young Ones is a reminder of Rik Mayall's brilliance as a comedian and actor, which made GOLD broadcasting Rik in an advert for Bombardier all the more upsetting. To be reduced to essentially rehashing the Flashheart role from Blackadder, is a waste of talent and I hope the right vehicle comes along to show Rik Mayall for the talent that he is before it is too late.