Bottom: Exposed (2024)

[bunniefuu]

But this might make your eyes water.

In 1991, the world was rocked by a new and

expl*sive sitcom.

Featuring two sexually

desirable comedy gods smooth.

Suave and sophisticated Big Doug's death by

sex.

Who brought an intellectual

rigor to British television?

Checkmate. More than 30 years later, it

still packs a punch.

A few wallops to the head.

And most trips to the Natchez.

We're diving deep into bottom.

This genre busting sitcom that ran for three

series, five sell out stage shows, and one

hell of a feature film.

Aided by famous fans.

The actual physical violence made me howl

with laughter that just.

Two mates having a blast doing the best job

in the world.

It's genuinely a joy to watch.

Voice guest stars.

Those studio audiences love Rik and Ade.

Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

Crew had planned a shot for that and a shot

for that.

Not that that.

And Mr.

Eddie Hitler himself.

Is something in between art and vulgar, is

it?

I don't know.

We'll be getting to the bottom of bottom.

So let's talk bollocks.

But that's all we ever do.

Are an approximation of the set.

I spent a long time on this.

I mean, it's wrong, obviously.

It should be two doors.

Edward, Hitler, come down.

Here at once.

Kitchen's in the wrong place. Should be

there.

The organs gone. Where's me organ?

She's very famous, isn't she?

But Very tacky.

If only I had a smoking jacket.

Hang on.

No, but it's got the same kind of feel.

It's a lot cleaner, to be honest.

Bad. Not bad.

Set dressers used to love us.

They could put lots of little jokes around

the set and have fun with it.

They've got 0.30 and a second hand copy of

parade.

Look, a little porn mags here and there.

Doesn't matter how you

add it up, it's still a jazz mag.

Nice old telly. Proper telly.

Very nice indeed.

Holly, it's a long way down.

First board.

Tastic. Okay.

Do you.

Want me to tell you the birth of it?

Yes, please.

How was bottom born?

Rick and I met in 1975 at university.

We were both drama students and both got

degrees.

I think if you'd asked either of us what we

thought we were doing there and what we were

going to be, we'd have both, said actor.

I thought I'd go to university to study

drama, but then I failed my A-levels.

But I got a free place.

Because everybody made a mess of their

A-levels.

There's a load of us got in to Manchester

University who were kind of sleazy, naughty

boys, and that's where I met Ade, who was

very sleazy, naughty boy.

We bonded over the fact that our mums had

sent us with the same cap, a dressing gown.

We each had a copy of gorilla by the Bonzo

Dog Doo-Dah band, and we both thought that

waiting for Godot was the

funniest play ever written.

And I remember they did.

This sketch where.

They were both.

Sewed into pink duvets either side of the

stage, and they were just sort of talking to

each other. And the tutor said so.

Yes, it was very, very funny.

But you know what we were supposed to be.

And Rick said, oh, didn't you get it?

We were God's bollocks.

We used to be in a sketch group with some

other people.

Then we became a sketch group with two

people in it.

When are we on? We're on.

After him.

Come back! You give it all away,

you'll lose the element of surprise.

And that sketch group.

Well, a double act went to the Comedy Store

and the comic strip club.

Doorman. We are the dangerous.

My name is Richard Dangerous, and this is

Adrian Dangerous.

I was the original emcee at the

Comedy Store, and they came on after me.

And they just went down a storm.

They were just phenomenal, really.

And I hated them from the first second.

There's this extraordinary energy about

them, you know, and kind of focused.

Once in every lifetime.

And then we sort of snagged our way by being

groovy and young onto the Young Ones and the

Comic Strip Presents.

Good morning, sir. Hello.

Good morning sir.

Yes, hello. Good morning sir.

They knew each other extremely well.

They weren't frightened of anything.

They were kind of like puppies or children,

you know.

They just didn't hold back.

I shut up.

The Young Ones was mostly written by Ben.

Hai and.

The comic strip. We all wrote our own

episodes.

And after that, we made The Dangerous

Brothers.

My impression of Dante's classic film, The

Towering Inferno.

Music, please.

We made the seven minute segments of The

Dangerous Brothers, and we found it the most

painful thing we'd ever done in our lives,

because we didn't know how to write.

It faster than facts and facts about our

bloody trousers.

Stop!

But to sit down with a blank piece of paper

we used to get the piece of paper and write.

Write what's what's the most exciting thing

that can happen?

Wait a minute. I haven't got my pants off

yet.

All right, there's an expl*si*n.

All right. What would happen next?

What's better than an expl*si*n?

Ooh, a bigger expl*si*n.

They were right there. What's what's after

that?

Well, an even bigger expl*si*n.

There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, and we

get stuck.

We got completely stuck writing these

things.

Fantastic evening.

Thank you and good night.

Britain went off and did New Statesman, I

think.

I think in the end he got a bit bored with

New Statesman, and the comic strip had sort

of reached a kind of.

You know, we'd kind of done that.

We sort of met up because we were still, you

know, best of friends and decided we'd get

the band back together again, man.

And we'd write what

turned out to be bottom.

We didn't pitch it to anyone

apart from Paul Jackson.

Paul Jackson was our ally.

He was a producer who put the young ones

together.

He put Friday and Saturday live together.

He put filthy rich and catflap together.

So we we naturally just took it to him.

And he took it to the BBC.

Ha ha ha.

Have you done that? Do you get the drawings

or what?

Yeah.

Nuff said. Where do you want me?

Bottom exposed. Paul Jackson, take one.

So I went to Alan Yentob and said, Alan, do

you want the next Rik and Ade show?

And of course, what would he say except.

Yes. And I said, great.

Do you want to see the script?

And he said, yeah, what's it called?

And I said, it's called bottom.

And he said, does it have to be called

bottom?

And I said, I think it

probably does have to be.

And he said, I'd really rather it wasn't.

Because we wanted to call it your

bottom or, you know, or my bottom.

It was whichever.

And because we wanted people to say, you

know.

On the bus stop the next day.

Did you see my bottom on television last

night?

Very, very simple joke.

You wouldn't believe who they had in my

bottom yesterday.

So I said, well, let me talk to them.

So I went back to Rick, actually, and he

said, no.

The very fact he's asked that question means

we won't do it unless it's called bottom.

And bottom actually was was was a more

suitable title because it's about two people

at the bottom.

It's not about bottoms, it's

about the bottom of the pile.

That was slightly belied by the fact that

when the episode titles came out, the first

one was bottom smells, followed by bottom

hole.

Bottoms out, bottoms out.

Bottom finger, bottom gas.

I mean, you know, it's quite obvious what

the joke was.

So anyway, I went back to Ireland, said no,

it's got to be bottom.

And he said, okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ade Edmondson and Rik

Mayall.

With an uncompromised title and an

uncompromised script, would the public take

to the show? In June 1990, a pilot was

filmed before a live studio audience.

What we used to do a traditional sitcom in

front of the studio was you'd have a warm up

person and, you know, and he would he would

introduce the actors, you know, and they

would come out and we'd all be lovable and

nice and hello and popular and everything.

And then when Rick and Aida are introduced

to the studio audience, you know, this is

very different.

Oh. Thank you.

Why did the pervert.

Cross the road? Cos he couldn't

get his knob out of the chicken.

Thank you. Eddie.

That's right. It was me.

The BBC was nervous because it was being

pushed even further than it was in the young

ones. I'd just like.

To say f*cking bollocks, because these are

words we're not allowed to use during the

show. And so I just had to get them out of

the way now, and we can get the show out of

the way and start talking like real people

again.

Thanks a lot.

Cool. Look at this.

We're in bottom land.

We like. Do you want me to smash the telly

up later on?

Just that Paul got the show off the road.

In terms of it being.

Commissioned. And then he

asked me to direct and produce it.

You know, obviously there were doubts at the

BBC about a show like this, even though the

young ones have been very successful.

There's always, you know, doubts.

Well, the main setup is that my character is

called Richard Richard, and A*DS character is

called Eddie Hitler.

And. And this is our flat.

We're both single.

There's a whole reaction on the night.

Is sometimes can determine your entire

attitude to the to the show.

I know you shouldn't really rely on an

audience like that, but that's your feedback.

It'll take a couple of seconds, and then

we'll be ready.

Thanks very much for coming. And do laugh a

lot.

Otherwise I'll come round and shag you all.

I think on that first one they thought,

we've got to write a proper script.

You know, we can't write.

Richie hits Eddie and falls out the window,

and we've got to have something slightly more

substantial. And so I think they purposely

set out to have a plot, the Miss World

contest, and the argument about

watching the Miss World contest.

Itv, that's the channel for me.

Nothing to worry about and plenty of sauce

really.

And what particularly edifying programme

have the lights channel prepared for us this

evening that I'm not going to let us watch.

Miss World, actually.

How disgusting.

And they knew a lot about television.

They understood how how sitcoms work.

Get out of my house!

I beg your pardon?

You heard?

No I didn't.

Well, I'm not saying something like that

twice, young man.

Well, can't do anything about it, then, can

I?

The feedback was fantastic.

I remember it went really well and then you

kind of go, phew!

So then we had to write five more episodes.

We were petrified that it wasn't going to be

funny, but it's not funny like the Emperor's

New Clothes, you know?

That was a constant fear.

Oh, God. What are we going to do?

I'm come.

No, no.

I'm watching the good life.

Bloody bloody bloody.

I hate it is so bloody nice.

The Young Ones may have ripped up the sitcom

rule book in the early 80s, but by the end of

the decade normality had resumed, with

schedules full of safe, likeable characters

living in cosy middle class houses.

What time do you call this?

You watch the conventional sitcom in a kind

of fog of reaffirmation of your own views.

Whereas when you watch something like

bottom, it's tremendously challenging.

Oh, what a lovely day.

God, I love Sundays.

But you're constantly jolted

out of your kind of complacency.

Morning, vicar. Lovely day.

Charming.

Should be popular. But nevertheless, to do

something which is really interesting is

almost impossible in a sitcom.

And the same to you with brass

knobs on your steaming great twat.

We acquired an office space and and it was

right next door to our pub.

What could be better living in a pub?

And right then, where are we?

Here we are.

Yeah. We used to turn up at ten, and the way

we used to write was we used to talk about

the world. It's one of the most delightful

things about being in a double act writing

team is you just kind of talk about stuff.

All right, Dickens, get on with it.

Observing people in the supermarket or

someone on the bus, or what the kids are

doing at school, you know, mundane things.

And then. And then after a 45 minutes.

That is absolutely brilliant.

One of us would say, well, what about if

they.

And you'd be in.

That's good. That's good.

No, that is good.

Stoat.

Foxy stoat.

Yeah, yeah.

It's got a ring to it.

Foxy stoat seeks pig.

Foxy stoat seeks pig.

Shut up! Abby.

Feel it properly. Right till one.

Then go for lunch.

And that was the end of the day.

Really?

Two halves of mild, please.

In pint glasses and

It was a delightful period.

This bloke goes into the bank

and says to the girl, stick him up.

She says, righty h*, matey boy, and

Sellotape his bollocks to the ceiling.

We just used to laugh.

Remember? Just laughing a lot.

So when we heard the

jokes first time round.

Fantastic time.

Four hours and 17 minutes to get in next

door and remove the ill*gal gas.

That's what makes a plan so flawless.

And I don't know my next line.

It was just a delight.

You used to love going in.

It was like going out to have fun.

Right? You.

You love. When, oh when will.

The BBC wake up and realise that.

Fish fingers will double way round?

You know I don't like anyone to make a.

Leave that in.

That was the line, wasn't it?

That's what we wrote.

In that time, we'd learned how to put the

emphasis on character, not on plot.

This is where we've always gone wrong.

Before we thought, you have to

do what's the next thing you do?

It's not. It's how.

How do you explain what they think all the

time?

For inspiration.

Rik and Ade drew upon the play that first

bonded them in their early university days.

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

You. Oh. Pardon.

Carry on. No, no. After you.

I think that's where they learned that the

people at the very bottom of the pile, the

people who have got nothing, the people who

are just waiting for death to come to them,

can still be very funny.

And they learnt that from Samuel Beckett.

Sharon Moran, and of course, famously they

did the show in the West End.

They did a run at the Queens Theatre of

Waiting for Godot.

What we most enjoyed about waiting

for Godot was, was how bleak it was.

We find bleak, very funny and despair.

Very funny.

That kind of sense of despair permeates the

entire series.

And I think gives it a kind of proper

grounding.

I think that's strangely what people enjoy

more than the slapstick.

Why can't we ever bloody win anything?

Oh, don't be stupid, Richie.

People like us aren't meant to win things.

What are we meant to do then?

Look.

You get born, you keep your head down and

then you die.

If you're lucky.

He's one of my favorite lines in it.

It's a I think that's funny.

I think their situation is very funny.

Go on. Top yourself.

The telly's busted a good bit of

entertainment.

What achievements have such a well loved

sitcom which presents such an extraordinarily

negative, despairing view of the world?

There's something so desperate about Richie

and Eddie, and you know that it's not ever

going to get any better for them if they

were to Cambridge students.

You wouldn't warm to them.

You wouldn't warm to it because you'd go,

well, you'll be all right, you that'll get

you a job. You'll be all right.

Tara.

There's a lot of Laurel

and Hardy in it, you know.

The fact that you're stuck with two guys who

obviously can't operate in the real world,

and all they've got is each other, but they

hate each other.

Happy birthday, dear Richie.

Happy birthday to me.

Eddie's looking to camera. Was

just a direct steal from Oliver Hardy.

You know, he does a lot of looking at

camera, and we we stole that.

So many people stole from that situation

from Laurel and Hardy said Steptoe and Son

stole that. Hancock and Sid James in

Hancock's Half Hour stole that.

I've got the law of contract on my side.

I have the knobs on my side.

I remember when the first.

Episode went out, we thought, oh no, we're

going to get sued by Galton and Simpson

because we thought it looked exactly like

one of their shows.

You cannot put a BBC two on.

Oh yes.

I know.

No, this is stupid.

Yes.

They can't break away.

Harold cannot pull

the cart out of the yard.

The famous symbolic image from Steptoe

either couldn't survive without the other.

I mean, for Richie, it is his only friend.

Hey, everybody, the birthday boy's here.

Hooray! Hey, y'all.

See? Look how popular you are.

You know, one of the things that's

interesting throughout is how the

relationship ebbs and flows, really, that

at 1.1 is dominant and the other one is

dominant.

Oh, one more thing.

Yeah. Well, seeing as you're here, would

you like to kick Eddie in the bollocks?

Don't mind if I do. Thank you very.

Much. My guest.

They're always stabbing each other in the

back.

And then always. But always kind of come in

together.

Come on. Let's shake and make up.

Great guy. There are alter egos.

So which is the kind of version of Rick

which is the ambitious looking up to the

stars, but and vain but but completely

useless.

And aid was just a.

Psychotic, violent madman.

But when he was in character, he was a

psychotic, violent madman.

I imagine most people think Ritchie wrote

Ritchie and I wrote Eddie, but I wrote quite

a lot of Ritchie, and he wrote quite a lot

of Eddie because we were in love with each

other's characters.

Some 15 months since the pilot was shot

bottom finally hit our screens and with six

to choose from, the team went with the most

fragrant episode to introduce Richie and

Eddie to the world.

Hey, what happened there? I just don't

understand it.

I made all the right moves.

I winked, I smiled, one of my nice ones as

well.

I sat down very nicely, leaned forward, put

on my special eyes and said, hello, big t*ts.

Looking for some action.

It's a running gag about Rixx virginity.

Whichever character he's playing, and they

play that so well in smells.

Yeah. What's this?

Instant sex appeal.

You can get it in a bottle.

Look. It smells.

Actually happens to be my favorite episode,

because I always wondered what it would be

like for these guys to

actually try and meet girls.

Please. I've only got so many ribs.

Noel coward.

It shows their vulnerability a lot in it.

It's one of those episodes where they really

want something for themselves, and what they

want is women. What they want is sex, and

and they're not going to get it.

I mean, just look at them.

Can I help you, sir?

I knew that, you know I wasn't there to be

funny.

I was there to be a foil to to their comic

genius.

You know, this.

Is a sex shop, isn't it?

Yes.

I have five quid's worth, then.

I do remember walking onto

set and seeing the sex shop.

And having no words at all.

I really didn't think we'd get away with it

because some of the toys were so prominent.

There's a last frame of me laughing, which

isn't part of the scene.

I think it's me laughing

at Rick holding the dildo.

But they put it in as me sort

of laughing at them at the end.

We are men of science.

It's such a stupid idea. Sex, you know, sex

spray and all the rest of it.

The thing is, the story isn't that

important.

You're watching.

Them perform.

Whoa. Smells like the

drains have gone again.

With assaulting these girls.

He's flapping his coat around and sticking

their heads under his armpit.

But it tells you who he is.

He's a complete idiot.

He'll never get laid.

He's the only one who doesn't know it.

Excuse me, excuse me.

There's something wrong. No.

There's everything right.

My love. Is that one mine?

That's your. We better get started then.

When bottom came out, I was like 10 or.

11 and.

It was just incredible watching it.

Now it's almost impossible to believe that

it was aimed at adults.

Do you know what I mean? Obviously it was

like grown up telly.

You'd have to stay up

past 9:00 to watch it.

But, like, who was it aimed at?

What flavour?

Flavour? Yeah.

It's banana, strawberry, peanut butter.

Marmite or cheese and onion.

Well, everyone likes

cheese and onion, don't they?

Of course they.

Do. It couldn't have

been aimed at grownups.

But then at the same time, so much of it

just goes over children's heads.

Thankfully, my first go with it.

Get two. Get two?

Yeah. Wow, man.

I remember watching this with my dad.

You know, I mean, it was just the funniest

thing I'd seen.

It was ridiculous.

And it was obscene.

It was. I mean, you'd never

get it made now, would you?

Well, I don't think ultra sensitive is our

style, do you?

Just grown up boys being stupid

and naughty, like at the extreme end.

And that's what was really popular and fun

about it.

I felt it was a real Marmite show.

You either absolutely loved bottom or you

went, I'm not putting that on.

We absolutely love the show.

It was it was critically panned and that

always irked us.

But we did have an audience, you

know, so we we won the popular vote.

But that big one right on the kisser.

We were number one when we first went out

until it was toppled by my wife's program.

Oh, what a disaster.

That's my whole Sunday ruined.

But then she moved to BBC

one and we went to the top again.

Yabba dabba doo!

6.4 million viewers welcomed Rick and Ed's

unique smells into their homes, and as series

one continued, it fast became a British

comedy classic.

Well, who on earth can that be at this time

of day?

Hello. I wonder if I could just read your

meter.

Hello, Mr. Gasman.

On Saturday and Sunday, they do no work at

all.

They belong in the gospel.

Like all classic sitcoms, bottom needed a

title sequence to set the tone of the show.

So in June 1991, during production of the

first series, the team did the obvious thing

and headed to a building site on a

roundabout in west London to work it out from

there.

Damn it, how lovely to see you.

Lovely to see you.

So this is Hammersmith.

That that there.

See that? That is a bench.

Yeah, yeah, but it's not the bench, is it?

No. Yeah, yeah.

No it's not that bench has replaced a bench

that was over there.

Yeah. Where we shot the title.

Nearly everything you can see from here.

Yes is different from when we shot it.

Absolutely.

I remember the day being haphazard.

Yes. That's right.

Mainly because I was in charge.

Well we didn't really know what we were

doing.

We were looking for things weren't we.

Yeah it wasn't. There was nothing really

planned.

Well, I planned that window.

Did you. Because there was a window.

It was quite hard to get up to.

We had to get some stepladders to get up.

I had to plan that a bit.

Made you stand there for ages and ages and

ages.

I thought it'd be funny to see you guys in

that window.

Yeah, and then we take a tight shot.

Yeah. And then pull out to reveal.

Ha ha ha. You're just in a window.

And the rest of its construction.

Yeah. And then see sort of

urban life in the background.

Yeah. Because I knew by then that we weren't

going to come out once we were filming the

series. So I set it somewhere.

Hammersmith. Yeah.

So? So, what's it say?

Pan global phenomenon?

Yes.

Not quite true.

I don't think they knew he was in China.

No, no.

Rise and look around.

Do you? So you had this idea to come over

here.

So we wandered over here and you

said, we'll do something on the bench.

On the bench? Okay.

We'll set up a camera across

across the road over there.

And really, you just made it up?

Yeah, I think we made it up.

I think you also kind of polished it by

discovering the editing prowess of a bus.

My memory was that the bus

came past and Rick just ran with it.

And you were left on your own.

I didn't oh, I thought it was two buses.

So one goes.

And then another one came when?

After he. Maybe he did run.

Maybe he was clever enough to do that.

I think he was at that time.

Yeah. Do you remember when he was bright?

Yes I do.

Gosh, it was a short window,

but God, yes, I remember that.

Oh.

Yeah. So.

Oh. Hello, Adrian.

Hi. I came here

especially to see the bench.

Did you do it here?

No.

I've got. Well, how far

have you come to look at it?

And over. Bloody hell.

I was going to say bridge bench, but I had

no idea.

You know, it's not just his bench.

No. Goodbye.

I can only apologise.

It's a very sensitive subject.

Wait. Don't go to the pub without me.

How? Stand back, birds.

It's the Hammersmith hardman.

A pint, two pints.

Yeah. Sorry. Two pints.

Cheers. Cheers. Chin chin.

Cheers.

We've done very well to get this far.

Really, I think so.

I mean, considering how

we shot some of that stuff.

It's a miracle you're actually alive.

Anyway, my daughter read my autobiography

and she came to me and she said.

I didn't realize you were basically a stunt

man.

Who did jokes.

In between the.

Strokes and lines in between stunts?

Yeah.

Bottom was celebrated for its outrageous

slapstick violence, captured perfectly here

in this fan supercut by Pip Madley.

I did a study of an episode of Terry and

June.

They they spent as much time as we did.

Right, making an episode where nothing

happened.

Well, from people.

Walking in out of.

Doors. Right.

And we would have 300 stunts.

Yeah, ours were basically Road Runner

cartoons with live action people.

What?

Can we talk about the fights there?

They're so clever.

Oh.

To receive a punch with your head at the

right time and a kick in the crotch.

And for your body to convulse at the right

time is a real skill.

I mean, they're just amazing stuntmen.

We had no formal stunt or fight training.

One more take.

Yeah, fine.

We were desperate to get people to laugh.

It was just sheer desperation.

It didn't hit me in the face of that lady.

Sorry.

I've got a permanently damaged right shoulder

from throwing punches that don't connect.

So it's not even how you'd actually hit

someone.

You do it in a much more exaggerated way.

Great idea.

What you do that for?

This occasionally pops out.

I can't sleep on it one side because of my

shoulder because I was trying to get a laugh

in the 90s.

Don't.

I'm collecting for the needy.

This is for victims of domestic violence.

Tall very much.

Oh, I love Bugs Bunny and Wile E coyote and

Tom and Jerry.

And, you know, you

grow up with all of that.

This is that next level where there's blood

and broken bones.

But by the end of the episode, everyone's

back to normal again.

Do you know what I mean? No one's no one's

going to die.

It's just, like, horrifically, gratuitously

violent.

Do you know what it is? It's the sound

effects.

Cause they really sell everything.

Everything sounds really heavy and sharp

and gooey, like the pencil going through.

Kind of like a layer of.

Kind of like cartilage or gristle.

Right. And then like this.

Like squelch.

Yeah. It's brilliant.

That's. All right, let's get on, shall we?

It was definitely a challenge because there

were so many sound effects to put into it.

And also because of the the live nature.

And there's an extra punch or an extra

frying pan hit.

I've got to be very ready with my finger on

the button.

They're all from BBC sound effect libraries,

but I would often blend two together.

I might have a punch plus a sort of a

squidgy noise for a broom hitting a man.

Sellotape to the ceiling.

When I was winched up, they had a couple of

people on ladders to put the Sellotape on the

ceiling, you know, so it was quite

uncomfortable.

And then I got whacked in the goolies.

Some of the things weren't.

From sound effects. I could remember BBC

plastic spoons being crunched for some bones,

actually.

That's right. Are.

No polystyrene cups for tea, and twisting a

polystyrene cup in front of the microphone

could make sounds of bones or necks or that

kind of thing.

There was some discussion about cutting a

hole in the.

Set, but then he had to be moved as well at

the end of that scene.

So. So we made a skate for him to sit on,

and he tucked his leg underneath.

Very uncomfortable.

The slide down the stairs was really

complicated.

Well, don't you worry.

He can't get down the steps without us.

We used a stunt man for that.

He did. The damn stunt on the James Bond

film was the highest paid stunt that year, I

think. But he was pretty scared on that

stairs because he kept asking for us to go

slower. Which we didn't.

We made the pliers and all the softs that

he was banging his head on the toilet, the

table. We made a lot of

soft soft props like that.

Loads of frying pans, a couple of pokers.

It ended up looking like a shape of his

head.

And they were. They were quite difficult to

make because they really went at each other.

These these two.

My poker.

As series one continued, we saw Richie and

Eddie welcome their first visitor.

A calm.

Hello. I wonder if I could just read your

meter.

Gus is one of my favourite episodes because

it is slapstick comedy at its very best.

Got man, got man.

The performances of Braconid are spot on

from start to finish.

It's just one of the best half hours of

comedy I've ever watched.

Right. I think I'll be on my way then.

No, no.

Wait.

What is it? Do you want a cup of tea?

The Gasman goes along with.

Their shenanigans.

In a way that no normal.

Person would.

You know. Three mugs of steaming cold tea.

Better drink it before it gets warm.

I just love how desperate Richie and Eddie

get towards the end of the scene.

I'll just be on my way then.

No, you can't go.

Oh.

Why not?

Because I love you.

What? I love you, and I can't live without

you.

At least not for the next eight minutes.

It goes on and on and on you go.

It can't build anymore.

But then it does. And this is the thing

about bottom that it just builds and builds

and builds and builds.

No, I'm afraid I'm on my way now.

You're not going anywhere.

Just when you think Richie and Eddie can't

get any worse, they get even more violent.

And now that was supposed to last, like, I

don't know, 3 or 4 hits and a bash and it was

done, but they wouldn't stop.

And I think there's a little bit of a

competition going on with them a bit.

And so it kept going and kept going and I

was looking at it going, we're never going to

finish. Wake up.

It was a great sequence.

That's one of those things where you go,

this is perfect.

I'm just going to sit back and watch this.

They can go on as long as they like.

This is hilarious.

You're laughing then? Of course.

But it wasn't just bottoms violence that

created equal amounts of joy and

consternation.

Tonight's the night

I'm actually going to do.

It was the sexy stuff too.

See you in a mo a sex mo.

I. Don't say it.

Bit of a limp.

c*ck you got there.

So one homeless.

Oh, you raven haired temptress from below

stairs.

Cooking skills pork should be with.

Want to come for a ride with me.

And a pair of jokes.

Merry Bloody Christmas.

Had a fan come up to me once and talk about

how sexist it was, right?

I said, I really don't think it is.

What would you like? Oh.

Sexual favors now, is it?

No. What do you mean, no?

What's wrong with me? Well, I would have.

Thought that was patently obvious to

everyone.

The comedy is in poking funny attitudes.

I'm not a h*m*, if that's what you're

thinking.

Yeah, but you're not strictly heterosexual,

are you, Richard?

Judas, you're.

Challenging the conversation.

You're challenging people's thoughts.

You're challenging people's ideas.

And I think that's what comedy should do,

because you're doing it in a light hearted

way.

I've never done it with a bloke.

Yeah, but you've never done it with a bird

either, have you?

Rick talks about sex and not having sex and

wanting sex, and if only he could have sex.

This is his life's work.

Are you a page three girl?

Because I'm sure if you

wanted to, you could be.

Richie is sexually frustrated.

A desperate, sex obsessed virgin.

But you know, he just wants to be loved,

really, doesn't he?

Despite being a disgraceful, filthy human

being.

Have you any idea how women actually feel?

No I haven't. That's my problem.

Really?

It's a magic trick.

It is a magic trick. Like it blows my mind.

It's incredibly hard to do, to say half the

stuff that comes out of his mouth and not

have the audience go, oh, you rotter!

And if I may say so, what a charming blouse

you've got on his knickers.

Well, they were something else.

The y-fronts. I actually had to have those

made, especially so I don't know what some of

the dressmakers that were working for

thought this was all about.

Richie, and Eddie's pitiful attitude towards

women came to the fore in the first episode

of series two, when they hatched a plan to

find that special someone.

Now, what sort of woman

are you looking for?

Kim Basinger.

I remember being really, really nervous and

sitting in the makeup room on the recording

night and Rick coming over to me, and he

whispers in my ear, and he says, if I say it

or do anything really weird or off, don't

take any notice.

I just get so nervous.

I think that should work if you want to get

off with an insane.

And I was like.

Oh my God, how generous of him.

When I was feeling really nervous, he didn't

know that he was just thinking about putting

me at my ease because he gets in such a

state about it.

And I just thought, well, if he's like

that, you know, that's that's so reassuring.

They was incredibly nice during rehearsals

and made sure that everybody was having a

good time.

Come on, I want you.

And they were very particular about what to

do.

I mean, they knew what they wanted, but also

it was a really happy ship working with them.

So it was just such a pleasure.

f*ck off. Unlike their sex lives,

series two continued to satisfy.

Hoo hoo hoo! Ha ha ha.

Including a Christmas episode that was so

unfestive.

It was broadcast in October.

Merry Christmas Santa!

One of the best Christmas episodes of telly

ever made.

I'll get on with the brandy butter.

Where's the brandy? Well, that's just

marvelous, isn't it?

Oh, hold.

Your horses, Richie.

Don't panic because.

Vodka. Margarine.

Contact.

And who better to spend Christmas Day with

them than the rest of the Hammersmith

Hardmen?

I think it's about g*n and Hedgehog are my

favourite characters in it.

What is their life?

Well, you know, whenever I see

them I think, what is your life outside?

Gosh. It's been what?

Raining?

No, no, no, it's been ages wise.

Well, since we last, you know.

Whenever you know, with you, it's just got.

One of the.

Finest jokes in it.

When they've got the baby there and they

give out the gifts.

You can have my Christmas present.

It's a box of Terry's all gold.

We'll have to wait for his little teeth to

come through before he can manage the chewy

ones.

Oh.

Yeah. Look, he can have

my Frankenstein mask.

I was going to scare the sh*t out of Richie

with later.

And you can have my bottle of aftershave.

It's a new one.

It's called Gir.

Gold. Frankenstein and Girl.

I just didn't see any of the signposts

along the way to that punch line.

And it was fabulous.

And you're all wearing crowns.

I'm a virgin.

One of the things that I did like about it,

we never went outdoors.

We were always in bottomland.

Bottoms out was supposed to be an exterior.

I don't know about you, but after a long hike

like that, I'm just about ready to pitch camp

and hit the sack.

What do you mean? I can still see the bus

stop from here.

Yes, this looks like a good spot.

A natural sort of.

sh*thole.

We thought we'll not sh**t this out in

Wimbledon Common.

We'll build Wimbledon Common in a studio.

I wonder how much meat you get on a Womble.

Eddie. Eddie.

Wombles don't exist.

Oh, yes they do. I've

seen them on the telly.

I've always loved that of creating the

outdoors.

I mean, the Wimbledon common set was

fantastic, you know.

Had a pond.

We were writing for a live audience.

I think sitcom has has to have a live TV

audience.

And you need to laugh for the rest of the

show like that, only a lot louder.

Okay.

Oh, I hate it.

When people say, oh, in our day, it was

better in our day.

And it wasn't better in order.

It was different in our day.

A joke had to be tested

against an audience.

And if they didn't laugh, you cut it out.

What was that film

where they ate each other?

Deep throat, wasn't it?

Those studio audiences loved Rick and age,

and the vibe was like, we're just going to

laugh at anything.

It takes it to another level.

It's different doing a stunt in front of,

you know, 50 crew to then doing it for an

audience of 250 people, you know, whether

there were cameras there or not.

You forget about those because you're

performing for the audience, for those

laughs.

Thank you. Can I just say, what does a man

with a two foot c*ck have for breakfast?

Well, this morning I had a boiled egg.

f*ck. I bet it felt really special, like a

select few were there to witness these two at

the at the height of their game.

The atmosphere on bottom studio recordings

was electric, so Rick and Ade decided to take

that energy on the road to power a National

Theatre tour.

I forgot to mention I was actually born in

Southampton.

In 1993, after two hugely popular TV series,

Rick and took their Hammersmith hovel around

the UK. Allowing thousands of fans to

experience their bottom live.

There is no better physical humor.

I just think that ace, you know, absolutely

excellent.

I'm hoping that this is

a lot ruder than the TV.

They can get away with it.

He said, we'll do it if you build us the

exact replica of the set.

But it worked.

We played the actual theme music and the

curtains went up and there was the set and

the the cheers and the applause went on for

about ten minutes, because people were just

so relieved that we were going to do it.

Oh, God, Eddie, you complete b*stard.

And do the actual thing.

Pretend to be the real people in the real

place, but with ruder words.

Sorry.

Oh, God.

Oh.

It's a no brainer. Of course

you're going to put it on a stage.

You just need the two of them, don't you?

You just need the two of them and a stained

sofa and you know you're on your way.

That's all you need.

Oh, well. Saves money on alarm clocks, I

suppose.

Hey h*. Another day.

Good morning world, you b*stard.

Their relationship with the audience is you

can only compare it to a Bruce Springsteen

concert or something like that.

It's the energy in the room is quite

extraordinary.

Night after night. Doing that

physical stuff is really an achievement.

You know? You really have to be fit.

Morning, Eddie. Scrambled eggs?

Yes. I think I must have

twisted my trousers in the fall.

And you have to know what you're doing.

Really? Because it's dangerous.

So pack it in and pack it in.

We're too old for this. Oh, look at me.

Sweating like I've been masturbating for a

month.

Yeah, well, you have, haven't you?

Well, yeah, but it's been

a long tour, hasn't it?

On the telly. You play with camera angles to

to land punches that just go, you know, they

look like they're hitting.

But on live there's everyone's got a view

from around here so you've got to go a bit

closer. Which is why we,

we occasionally hit each other.

You're right. I actually hit

you on the nose then, didn't it?

Yeah.

And sort of ended up getting stitched up in

hospital on at least three occasions.

I'll see you later.

Take care. Eddie.

They weren't restricted to 30 minutes and

they weren't restricted to television

guidelines.

Super f*cking glue.

Ow ow ow ow ow.

Hey, look, you two, grab that.

The price is coming back.

And I think that the live shows really came

into their own because of that.

Got a bit of a girly superglued

to the end of my knob.

So be a pal and give it a bit of a yank,

would you?

All right.

Oh.

With the stage shows, with.

The audiences howling for them.

Why would they peg back what they're doing?

Following the huge success of their first

live tour, the boys went back to the studio

after a two year break to record bottom's

final six episodes.

Three of which just focused on Richie and

Eddie.

As much as I like the other stuff that they

did with other with the other guys, it for

me, it really kind of like made perfect

sense when it was just the two of them.

And the waltz's closed as well, hasn't it?

Yes. I had no idea I'd eaten so much.

Everywhere.

You look like a sprinkler

as you went round.

It was really actually very attractive.

Yeah.

Obviously bottom had been off

TV for the best part of three years.

Yeah, we'd enjoyed the video of the live

show and they come back with them trapped up

a Ferris wheel and the entire thing again,

it's like a play.

It's a two hander and it takes place

entirely in real time.

You know, if we ever get through

to the other side of this one.

I think I'm going to change the way I live.

I can't get back to Blighty.

Find myself a piece of land.

Find myself a beautiful woman.

Heck, maybe even raise some kids.

We always liked the

one on the Ferris wheel.

That is the epitome of two characters in a

small space, having only each other to bounce

off. And that's.

That's why it becomes funny.

Why are we talking such complete and utter

bollocks?

I don't know, Eddie. I guess guys are

shorter.

It's just the two of them.

They're not going anywhere.

They're sat in the same place.

Every single beat of emotion, every comedy

beat.

It's an absolute masterclass.

What's in this? Brandy?

Good. Meths.

Piano, paint stripper, Mr.

Sheen.

Brake fluid and drambuie.

Drambuie. Yeah, yeah.

All right. You've got to.

Put something in for

the birds, haven't you?

Jeez. How are you?

Alive?

I may very well not be.

We had a constant.

Battle with the idea that we were

unintellectual.

I mean, we'd been to university, you know,

we had degrees.

And people sort of constantly

saying that we were pure island.

I mean, poor is Latin for boy.

You see, I'm an intellectual.

So it's childish.

And people imagine that childish is wrong.

And I don't. I think it's pure.

Us our small rebellion

Was at the end.

Of every script when we used to write fan f I

n, which is the French for the end, as if it

was a kind of, you know, Nouvelle vague

film.

I was there for.

The fiery.

Flatulence.

Yes. Oh.

Hello. I'm looking for

little Dave Hedgehog.

What can I say?

They farted and fire came out of their

bottoms.

Oh.

He always recorded those bits.

It's one thing to set fire to your own farts

in the privacy of your own home, but to do it

in front of a television audience with the

possibility of of them catching fire as well

is is too dangerous to mention.

Sorry.

I'm Doreen Hedgehog.

It was a long time ago.

It was 30 years ago.

I can't really remember.

I'm just making this up for biscuits and a

travel card.

Let that be a.

Lesson to you, young man. Let's see how much

mischief you can get up to without any legs.

Series three continued with Richie

and Eddie attempting complex surgery.

Oh.

Bugger. I've sewn them on the wrong way

round.

Forging money.

How can you expect to pass off these

pornographic doodles as real money?

Especially when you see what the Duke of

Edinburgh is up to on the back of a tenner.

Who's that with him?

Meryl Streep.

And posing as a honeymoon couple.

Oh, Eddie. Eddie. What?

What? You've got your jugs on the wrong way

round.

What?

But appropriately, the show ended as it

began, just the two of them in their flat,

doing what they always did.

Give me five, Eddie.

Until they discovered a video recording of

something truly shocking.

What is that? A sort of model of a moon

rocket, isn't it?

What is he sticking in there for?

I mean, let's let's just

describe it as what it is.

It's it's the two of them.

Audio describing John Major.

In a three way sex, pegging it in a hotel

room.

I think they must be sisters.

Yes, that'll be it.

No, don't sit there.

She can't have seen him.

He'll suffocate. I can't think that that's

hygienic.

It's a great end to the series.

Whether or not Rik and Ade knew they might

be coming back for a fourth series or not.

Hello.

Give me the Prime Minister

because I want to blackmail him.

Richard? Richard. Oh, sh*t.

For Carnival to end like that, it's quite a

nice and brave ending for them.

Hello?

What kind of sandwiches do you do?

Sandwiches. They say they don't do

sandwiches.

They're a highly trained anti-t*rror1st

organization.

If you look at the end of most episodes, they

appear to have, as it were, reached the cliff

edge and be about to fall off it.

So almost any, any episode could be the end

of the series.

Go a squad.

Go a squad, go a squad.

Oh, sh*t.

Just to go. You know what? We're just gonna

have them gunned to death by the SAS.

May be one.

Of the most violent, most violent endings.

Absolutely. The most violent death.

Although they may not have known it at the

time.

These were to be Richie and Eddie's final

shots on TV.

But they lived on in more live shows and a

movie before things took a tragic turn.

We got to the end of the third series and we

did the second live show and the BBC never

came back, you know they didn't want any

more.

It never kind of became a BBC one smash

through.

The BBC's appetite for bottom may have been

sated, but the fans were still hungry for

more.

Reach.

And their loyalty was rewarded

with a trip to Hooligan's Island.

They made so many bottom line videos.

And stand on your special mark.

Every f*cking night.

All of my mates had different, different

ones.

It seems to be heading straight to f*cking

wards me again.

And you go around and you watch them.

And there were 18 certificates.

Aren't they rude?

You thorough and total wank biscuit.

Yeah, right.

Quack quack quack.

Quack quack quack.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa.

Rik and Ade belonged on stage, didn't they?

They started exactly.

They absolutely felt comfortable on stage.

They wrote bottom. When you look through the

scripts that they are written like a play.

Oh, Eddie, think what we're missing.

Like a script.

We're not really missing a.

Script, are we?

It's just that you can't

f*cking remember it.

But soon after the third sell out tour,

their partnership would change forever.

Oh, sh*t.

Comic actor Rik Mayall is seriously ill in

hospital tonight after an accident at his

country home.

He is in intensive care in Plymouth with

serious head injuries after the four wheel

quad motorbike he was riding turned

over and trapped him underneath.

Rick changed with the accident.

There's no doubt about it. I mean, it was a

very, very serious accident.

It was touch and go. He was in a coma for

many days immediately afterwards.

And once he was recovered and came out, he

was on very heavy medication for the rest of

his life. And I know he told me he after a

time he thought, you know, do I really need

this? And he tried just classic Rick.

He tried just stopping the medication

and he went absolutely apeshit.

Now you've got to remember that I was

assassinated.

There was an assassination attempt on me in

1998, as you know, probably by the Blair

administration.

And that's why sometimes I can't remember

things.

It was a different man.

More emotional, more complex.

Catch all phrase.

Harder. Harder to work with.

It wasn't getting better.

It was. It was getting worse.

Despite their shifting dynamic, they pushed

on with their much anticipated big screen

adaptation, with filming taking place mere

months after Ric woke from his five day coma.

Guest house Paradiso was a.

An odd fish.

I think we wanted to make it

because touring was was quite.

Hard, physically hard.

And we thought this was this might be an

easier way of, you know, doing, delivering a

two hour show.

We were doing a week in each set, like a week

in Manchester, a week in Glasgow, week in

Nottingham, whatever.

So we had nothing to do during the day and

then we sit around the hotel so much.

Even though they were nice hotels, we

thought it'd be funny if Richie and Eddie

were running the hotel, wouldn't it?

I trust you've both washed.

Actually, the water was cold.

Well, that's no reason not to wash, is it?

Good grief. We are British.

You know, we invented cold showers to stop

people masturbating.

So my introduction to bottom.

The world of bottom came through long car

journeys on holidays when me and my little

brother were probably 12 and eight, and I'm

the older one.

I only had about 3 or 4 DVDs and we picked

guest House Paradiso.

Are you sure this is the right place?

It doesn't look very nice.

It's right next to a nuclear power station.

Dad.

This is the cheapest hotel in Britain, so

we're just going to have to make the best of

it, aren't we?

We've watched it on one car journey, and then

pretty much every car journey after that, to

the point where we could, like, recite it.

I learned most of the vulgar language I'm

aware of from that film.

Look, Mr..

Twat, it's pronounced Thwaite.

Well, it's spelled twat t w a t twat.

It was.

Just. It was just brilliant.

Ha ha ha.

It really had a lot of great moments,

especially the physical comedy.

The fight in the kitchen is some of their

best work in their careers.

I think for a long, long time, my parents

were sat in the front of that car thinking we

were watching, you know, Spy Kids or

something like that, and just finding it

really, really funny.

We weren't we were watching Rik Mayall

stuck in a chest of drawers with a dildo.

It's been good. Yeah.

All the scenes with

men have been fantastic.

Are.

Two more live shows followed the movie,

putting them back where they belonged in

front of a raucous live audience.

Well.

By the time we got to the fourth and fifth

tours, I was bored.

I was bored and I didn't want to be the

person who was remembered just for Eddie.

I thought, okay, what are you doing?

You're throwing your life away.

I'm absolutely proud of it.

I love Eddie.

But I just didn't want to carry on.

Oh. Oh, hold me firm, Earth.

Oh, f*ck it, he's acting.

Wake me up when he's finished.

But the fifth one was not as good.

And when you've reached the top.

Yeah, you shouldn't plough on if you're

headed down the.

Wrong side, I.

Absolutely agree.

And so why.

Haven't you retired?

Come on, Eddie. Think of the money.

Money? What are you getting paid?

No. I'll make no bones about it.

We used to earn a shedload of money out of

touring.

And, you know, I think the reason we did

the last two tours was because we were both

addicted to the money.

Which isn't a really good reason to do it

either.

I don't get paid.

It's not me. It's just that wretch of an

actor who plays me, you know?

Come on. What's his name?

Come on. You must know him.

That tosser that fell off the quad bike.

Yeah.

They weren't as much fun, and I wanted

to be an actor, and he was getting more

complicated. And it had it had come to a

natural end.

It was one of the great sadnesses of life is

that Rick never kind of could take that on

board.

Yap yap yap.

I am here.

Richie is here.

Back where he belongs.

In the toilet.

I used to meet him sort of regularly, for

just to be chums and go out for lunch, and

His mind was already kind of Getting

forgetful by this point.

And every time we met, he'd think.

We were having a meeting to talk

about doing another another show.

And it was it was very hard.

Eventually I came up with this idea and I

said, let's write something and we'll take it

to the BBC.

And my thinking was, they.

Are a couple of old.

Gates. They're not going to want it, you

know.

So we dashed something off.

It was the mythical

fourth series of bottom.

And. If they bloody well wanted it.

I thought it was going to put an end to the

argument, but they wanted it, but it and I

hate to tell people this, it just wasn't

good.

So I just turn it down again.

Oh. Oh, it's so.

He hated me for it.

Absolutely loathe me for it.

Look at you.

What's happening?

We used to be friends.

Good friends.

What do you remember of the fateful attempt

to write something in the 2012 or whatever?

It was basically a Hooligan's Island idea.

I understand.

And that there's a there's

a typhoon of some kind.

Yeah. And so everything's going sideways.

So the coconuts and everything come flying

past them.

And, you know, now you're saying that that

that ring some bells.

And because.

Rick had had an accident and so he wasn't,

so.

He couldn't drop anything.

On his head. No.

I mean, talk about spoilsport.

Yeah. So should we cancel the show?

There were some other good bits.

There was an idea about democracy because

there's only two people on the island.

And Rick had been in the de facto leader.

And as part of his leadership campaign, he

emptied all the bottles of hooch that were on

the island, and Eddie became sober.

And we discover that when he was sober,

Eddie was a very cogent and intelligent human

being. He'd been to Eton not as a student,

but when he used to nick stuff from Eton

running through the classrooms, he couldn't

help but take things off the blackboard.

And they all went in his brain and his his

campaign was so good that Richie voted for it

and he became leader.

It was sort of all right.

It was it was torturous.

You know, it didn't really work.

It's sort of. It was bottom ish, and bottom

ish isn't enough.

Yeah. The last thing we ever did was let's

dance for Comic Relief, or I was being the

Dying Swan, and he came on, and his job was

to tell me to stop and hit me with a frying

pan. And true to form, he really whacked me

with it really quite, quite badly.

And I got through to another round and he

came and he cut the rope and the ton weight

fell on top of me. I think that

was the last bit we ever did.

Rick died on the 9th of June

2014 of a heart attack, aged 56.

I was sort of in the middle of the garden.

And there's very little phone signal in

Devon.

And My friend Nick Craig.

I said, I'm so sorry.

And I said, what about?

And he said, oh, God, you haven't heard,

have you?

And I hadn't, because, you know, my phone

and in the middle of Devon and Yeah, it was

a. A remarkable shock.

I mean, absolutely remarkable.

There was no. Hint of that going to happen.

Now. Come on.

This is a funeral, funeral, funeral.

What's the mood? Sad.

That's clever. Sad face.

Oh.

Speaking to rosy, his daughter, at the

funeral.

And her take on his death was that actually,

I had 16 more years of him than I should

have.

Had.

Because he could have

died that day as well.

Which I.

Thought was so typical of her being very

positive and, and, you know, seeing the

positive side of things.

Even now, find it hard

to believe, actually.

I mean, he was so vibrant.

So he was a force of nature.

And, you know, the fact that he's not here

is hard, really.

So I might as well call the whole bloody

thing off.

Now you listen to me. You're just a dork.

I read the f*cking mail.

It's very weird being

in a world without him.

Very weird thinking that he, you know,

didn't know anything about Brexit and didn't

know about Covid, you know.

I mean, our relationship was strained

towards the end and.

When I do things like this, and I remember

the absolute joy of sitting in that little

office in Richmond, opposite

the hole in the wall pub it was.

It was absolute, you know, the distilled

joy, the most joy I've ever had in my life, I

think. Making each other laugh.

Properly love.

Big guffawing belly laugh laughs you know

proper.

Can't stop laughing laughs.

Very rarely you.

You get a relationship like that with

someone?

Well, I have to say, he's my best friend.

Otherwise, he kicked my teeth in.

You know, I mentioned. The way we used to

write each other's characters, and

we're in love with each other's characters.

I miss. That love.

Yeah. I missed that other opinion of me.

Very loving opinion.

On record made of.

Us doing this documentary, this celebration

of a show 30 years after the initial

production of it. Rick.

Would have hated a program like this and

would have told you to f*ck off.

I mean that quite sincerely.

Safe and sound. At last.

I never thought we'd get away with it.

It's always a good way

to finish in a moment of.

You b*stard!

Feeling poorly again, are you?

No. You are.

Poof! The end.

Will that do? Fraid not.

Boys, it's just.

Trying to find that moment where you

normally freeze frame and then run the music.

Come on. Jones.

That's my.

Show that just 1 or 2 things.

Slightly careful. You can run it back.

I'll ask you to do it again.

I remember the end credits very well.

Because it was one of the most knackering

things we ever did.

Yo, can I?

I think we did it.

Five times.

Stand by please. We are running.

Opening positions.

I can't get that far back.

It's incredibly physical.

It probably doesn't look it.

You know, we were.

We enjoyed a drink and didn't do much

exercise.

We were a couple of has-beens and we were,

you know, knackered.

Well, you did it right.

As we did.

The end credits before

we did anything else.

And I remember thinking,

who are these guys?

What have I been put on?

What is this show?

And I think it was before I'd seen a script

or anything.

And they're just, you know, doing all this

against the background.

And I just thought, I don't know what this

is.

I don't know what it's going to be like.

It was quite revolutionary.

In those days. We thought that we would

sh**t them silhouette.

And then when we were running the credits

over the silhouetted figures, I said, would

you be able to make the letters white when

it's going over the black?

And can they be black when it's going over

the white?

So we started kicking the machines down in

the basement of BBC and managed to get it to

do it, and it was great.

I went mate, we've not seen anything like

this before, and we've got these two lunatics

fighting in the background and

we've got the bum notes, music.

This is it. These are great closing titles.

Okay. No. I'm f*cked.

I wasn't talking about your career.

Over three decades on from our introduction

to these unreconstructed.

It's not your fault that your lesbians.

So please give me one more chance.

Come back to my place and I'll cure you.

Unhygienic. That's not.

Chris. That's like yogurt. You

started during the Gulf w*r.

Might as well finish it.

Environmentally unfriendly.

Burn it off. What a piece o the excess gas.

Really? And how long

do you think it'll take to.

Burn off the entire North Sea gas reserves?

Underachievers.

Absolutely nothing to do for 24 hours.

That's a bit like every other day, then,

really, isn't it?

Richie and Eddie still remain one of

British comedy's greatest double acts.

We're still talking about bottom 30th on,

because I don't think anything else has

replaced it, because times have changed and

we can't roll our sleeves up and get so

filthy and dirty and violent

and immoral, we can't go there.

So there's a part of us that gets a

vicarious pleasure from seeing them do it so

well.

I think one of the enduring things of it is

that they're doing it anything that they

want. You know.

This is the life. Hey, Eddie.

Thank you. This is just like Thelma and

Louise, isn't it?

The freedom that they gave themselves.

And they do it so quickly.

The pace is amazing.

How are you feeling, by the way?

I think if you hated.

Them, it would have never have worked.

I'll help you, shall

I? It'll be more erotic.

Add a bra. Work. I've

never seen one before.

I think that they caught that sympathy while

being completely repugnant and funny at the

same time. I mean, it's

a major achievement.

What they managed to do.

Look out! Parting shot!

Get down! What? Duck!

Who? Where?

They got me with a blow dart.

The thing that some comedians forget that.

That Rick and I never forgot.

Is that what makes a comedy show?

It's the audience laughing as much and as

often as possible.

Right on the end of the knob.

When they never let.

Anybody down with that.

That was a bloody good shot.

Considering the size of the target, it

would be funny above everything else.

Hello, my name is James Bond.

Not a lot of people know that above, you

know, realism, above continuity.

It just wanted to be funny.

And that's just timeless, really.

And.

So it's agreed. Then I'm the winner.

Well. Their relationship, both on and off

screen, made them as funny as it was.

I can't find my f*cking balaclava.

I just think they had a very special bond

with each other.

And that definitely came across when you

watched it.

That's what I love about you, Richie.

What?

You're completely insane.

When you watch Rik and Ade playing them, they

are just two mates dicking about having the

time of the lives.

It just looks fun.

You want to be on set, right?

Right?

Well, it's dangerous under there.

Only from the swinging tackle.

They're never learning lessons.

They're constantly just putting themselves

in dangerous scenarios for our pleasure.

What on earth are you eating?

Lard.

He couldn't find anything that looked like

lard, so it was lard.

You are eating lard?

Yeah, I'm hungry, but I'm too.

Drunk to cook.

It was a joke.

What are you going to do? Not do it.

Wow.

Now don't get off the sofa.

That show is just.

It's like it was like nothing before and

it's like nothing since.

And I can't imagine anything like it ever

being made again.

So thank goodness we have it.

What are we doing?

Just It's called.

Television.

Where do you think Richie

and Eddie would be today?

I think it'd be quite good if Richie and

Eddie.

Actually did waiting for Godot.

If the characters did waiting for Godot.

Because that's. That's the essence of what

they are.

And. That could be quite funny.

Oh, that's a shame.

We just have to wait for a technical clear.

All right.

Oh, we are technically clear.

We are completely clear.

Oh, thank you very, very much, ladies and

gentlemen.

Well.

It's been a pleasure

talking to you about it.

You, too.

Cheers. Yes.

Thank you very much. We could have done it

without you.

And I know it's been a very long evening,

but you've been fantastic.

Thank you very much indeed. Good night.

Bottoms up.

Are.