Bottom

Minder being pretty significant in the history of Only Fools and Horses as well.

And on September 17th, the sitcom Bottom first made its debut on BBC Two starring Rick Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.

November brought us the debut of the dark comedy series Murder Most Horrid on BBC Two starring Dawn French.

I think I remember that.

You know, he played his stage character of an arrogant anarchist poet named Rik on the cult classic show The Young Ones, which he helped co-create and co-write, and that show also featured Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer, both of whom have been on Midsummer.

Mayall had a long career performing with Edmondson on stage and screen as the Dangerous Brothers and they starred in the shows Filthy Rich and Catflap, that also featured Planer, and Bottom.

And Mayall also performed in the heavy metal mockumentary Bad News with Edmondson and Planer, and that actually appeared on British TV one year before This is Spinal Tap.

Uh, he parodied the Tory Party with the show The New Statesman, playing a conservative MP named Bestard.

It was genius.

Well, I remember the very first Bottom Live tour, which I think I was 16 or 17.

It was one of the most wonderful experiences of being in a theatre.

simply because it did have that feeling of danger about it.

And of course, when you watch the videos, you realise that a lot of the danger is obviously incredibly well rehearsed.

But there was that feeling of being slightly on the edge with it, which I miss being in a theatre.

But I also wish that with Bottom...

Because the very first episode they shot is very dark and very different.

So that's still very slapstick.

And I think, you know, I grew up watching Young Ones and Bottom, which is all slapstick violence, like comedy violence.

And so I think there is an element, maybe not so much now, but of that era, slapstick was a very important part of British comedy, I think.

So do you think it's changed a lot? Because when I was younger, I'm thinking of comedies, like there are many different types, right? I felt in the UK when I was younger.

Father Ted's good, yeah.

Yeah, I quite like Father Ted.

And then obviously either Bottom or Young Ones, like Rick Mayall, you know.

Probably