The Young Ones (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Young Ones is a British sitcom
, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2
. Its anarchic
, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy
to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers. Soon afterwards, it was shown on MTV
, one of the first non-music television shows on the fledgling channel.
The main characters were four undergraduate students sharing a house
: violent punk
Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson
), pompous would-be anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall
), long-suffering hippie
Neil (Nigel Planer
), and the suave and diminutive Mike (Christopher Ryan
). It also featured Alexei Sayle
, who played various members of the Balowski family—most often Jerzei Balowski, the quartet's landlord
—and occasional independent characters, such as the train driver in "Bambi
".
The show combined traditional sitcom style with violent slapstick
, non sequitur
plot turns, and surrealism
. These older styles were mixed with the working
and lower-middle class attitudes of the growing 1980s alternative comedy boom, in which all the principal performers except Ryan had been involved. Every episode except one featured a live performance by a then-up-and-coming pop band, including Madness
, Motörhead, and The Damned
.
The show was voted number 31 in the BBC's Best Sitcom
poll in 2004.
was the prominent act, drawing attention as the manic, aggressive compere
. Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall worked as the double act
20th Century Coyote
, which later became The Dangerous Brothers
. Nigel Planer was in a double act with Peter Richardson called The Outer Limits.
As The Comedy Store became popular, Sayle, 20th Century Coyote, and The Outer Limits, with French and Saunders
and Arnold Brown
, set up their own club called The Comic Strip
in the Raymond Revue Bar club in Soho. The Comic Strip became one of the most popular comedy venues in London, and came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs
of Channel 4
. Peter Richardson then negotiated a deal for six self-contained half-hour films, using the group as comedy actors rather than stand-up performers. In response, the BBC began negotiations with Edmondson, Mayall, Richardson, Planer and Sayle to star in a sitcom in a similar style. Paul Jackson
was installed as a producer. Richardson's project, The Comic Strip Presents..., aired on Channel 4's opening night on 2 November 1982, with The Young Ones following a week later on BBC2.
The series was written by Mayall, his then-girlfriend Lise Mayer
, and Ben Elton
(who had attended the University of Manchester
with Mayall and Edmondson). Richardson was originally set to play Mike, but clashed with Jackson. He was replaced by Christopher Ryan, the only member of the group who was not a stand-up comedian.
.
When it was first broadcast, the show gained attention for its violent slapstick. Though new to mainstream audiences, Mayall and Edmondson had been using it in 20th Century Coyote
for some time. The show also featured surreal elements, such as puppets playing talking animal
s or objects. Confusion was added with lengthy cutaways with no relation to the main plot.
Throughout the series, the fourth wall
is frequently broken for comedic effect by all characters at various parts of the show. The wall is usually broken as either a punchline to a joke, or to make a plot point more obvious. Alexei Sayle breaks both the fourth wall and his character to address the audience in his real life Liverpudlian accent.
The series featured a wide variety of guest cameo appearances by comedians, actors, and singers, including co-creator Ben Elton
, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
, Hale and Pace
, Stephen Fry
, Hugh Laurie
, Mark Arden
and Stephen Frost
(The Oblivion Boys), Jools Holland
, Monty Python
alum Terry Jones
, future Red Dwarf
co-stars Chris Barrie
and Norman Lovett
, Lenny Henry
, David Rappaport
, and Emma Thompson
.
Episodes in the second series sometimes included "flash frames" (three frames, equivalent to one eighth of a second), but these were edited out of some repeats. These were included as a mockery of the British and American public's fear of subliminal messages in television and music. Unlike original flash frames, which lasted only one frame, these were long enough to be noticeable without actually being identifiable. The images included the end caption of Carry On Cowboy
, a rusty dripping tap, a leaping frog, a dove in flight, a skier, and a hand making pottery.
The episodes ran 35 minutes, and episodes were very often edited to a standard half-hour running time when repeated on the BBC
or satellite channels
.
In the United States, The Young Ones started airing on MTV
on June 5, 1985. The show also ran on PBS, USA Network
's Night Flight
, Comedy Central
in 1994, and BBC America in the early 2000s.
and The Shadows
UK No. 1 song "The Young Ones
". Throughout the series there are many references to Richard, as Mayall's character is a fan.
The theme over the end credits was written by Peter Brewis
, who also created the incidental music
on many episodes.
In 1984, after the second season, Planer (in character as Neil) reached No. 2 in the UK charts with a version of Traffic
's "Hole In My Shoe
". The accompanying Neil's Heavy Concept Album
, a loose collection of songs and spoken comedy, included appearances by The Young Ones alumni Dawn French and Stephen Fry
.
In 1986, the cast sang "Living Doll
" with Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin
for Comic Relief. The song, a reworking of his 1959 hit, reached the top of the UK and New Zealand Charts.
Eleven of the twelve episodes had a musical guest performing in the house or street. By including the groups, the show qualified as variety
rather than light entertainment
by the BBC and was allocated a bigger budget than a sitcom. This helped introduce several British bands to American viewers, such as Dexys Midnight Runners
, Motörhead, The Damned, and Madness
. The latter appeared in two episodes; they were under consideration for a Monkees-style show at the time. The one episode that featured no musical act still fulfilled the variety criteria by including a lion tamer, whose presence also directly contributed to the plot.
Some of these performances were omitted from DVD
release for copyright
reasons. Some musical acts were also edited out for similar reasons on some satellite reruns.
, Mike is the assumed leader of the group and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies; "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original
.") Mike is supposedly the 'ladies' man' and often brags of his prowess with women, although he is shown to share his bed with an inflatable Sex doll
and almost admitted his virginity
to the others in "Nasty
". He makes every attempt at wooing the opposite sex, being both forward and unsuccessful. During "Boring
" however he has an encounter with (and also instigated by) Vyv's mother, where, until a comment made by Rick, he makes progress—although her direct approach initially worries Mike.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco
and soliciting bids for the unexploded Atomic bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades, although this is contradicted by the title sequence of series 1, in which he is seen to pay a bribe in exchange for a qualification. In "Summer Holiday
" he muses; "I think I'll ask for one of those PhD
s next year."
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy. He has shown to be helpful to the others occasionally, such as trying to teach Vyvyan how to tell time in "Bambi
". He has, however, managed to nail his own legs to a table, and knocked Neil out during a game of cricket, albeit unintentionally. We only see violence inflicted on him three times:
Mike's surname is ambiguous – The Bachelor Boys book refers to him as "The Cool Person" several times, but in different styles including quotes. This could imply that "The Cool Person" is not a surname but instead a title—similar to Steve "Interesting" Davis
the snooker player or Earvin "Magic" Johnson
the basketball player—however the matter is never clarified one way or another.
, Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology
and/or domestic sciences
(depending on the episode). Rick writes bad poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet", believing himself to be the "spokesperson for a generation".
He is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing, attention-seeking Cliff Richard
fan, or, as Vyvyan describes him, "The classic example of an only child!" Rick tries to impress the others with his non-existent wit
, talent and humour. He insults Neil at every opportunity, fights and bickers with Vyvyan and attempts to impress Mike. He is portrayed as being so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" despite being disliked by virtually everyone he knows; even though his housemates hate him, he says that they "really are terrific friends". He cannot say the "R" sound correctly and instead enunciates a mixture of a "W" and "V" sound. In the episode "Bomb" he dictates his name to a woman who looks up in confusion and repeats it back as "Wick?" Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P," as it is written on Rick's name card during the University Challenge against Footlights College in the episode "Bambi".
Rick's political beliefs vary, depending on how they benefit his particular situation, but can usually be categorised as radical
. While Rick sees himself as both a revolutionary and follower of Vladimir Lenin
and Leon Trotsky
, in reality he has little understanding of the political ideals he purports to follow. He claims to dislike Margaret Thatcher
, as is noted by his threatening to blow up England with an atomic bomb in the episode "Bomb" if she "doesn't do something to help the kids, by this afternoon," and from negative references to Thatcher and the Conservative Party
mentioned in The Young Ones tie-in book Bachelor Boys. It should also be noted Rick at least once during the series becomes incredibly conservative — contrary to the image he has adopted — while talking to an old man at the DHSS office (which he has mistaken for a post office).
Rick is vegetarian, agnostic, and wishes all men to love each other like brothers, except for Neil, who he hates. Nonetheless, nearly everything he does is hypocritical and self-serving.
Rick exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class
background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday
", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class
, Conservative
background. He seems to also be a closet transvestite, as Neil finds a dress in Rick's closet with his own name stitched on it in the episode "Nasty
". In the episode "Cash
" Rick admits to Mike that he is unable to tell time, a trait that both he and Vyvyan share.
In an interview for the BBC series Comedy Connections
, Ben Elton described Rick's character as the "try-hard wanna-be Leftie" typically found on university campuses.
, Vyvyan is a psychopathic punk metal medical
student
. He has orange-dyed & spiked hair and four metal stars seemingly embedded into his forehead. In the episode "Interesting
", he drinks a pint of blue liquid which makes his hair fall out and the number 666
is visible on the side of his head. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. For some reason he looks up to Mike, whom he never attacks and often addresses as "Michael". He despises Rick more than he does Neil; for example when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode "Boring
", he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but refers to Rick as "a complete bastard." Ironically, this antagonistic relationship between Rick and Vyvyan makes them virtually inseparable, as the two spend by far more time together than with the other housemates. Unlike Neil and Rick, Vyvyan appears to come from a working class background (something Rick incorrectly believes himself to have).
Vyvyan owns a Glaswegian hamster
named Special Patrol Group
("SPG" for short) of whom he is very fond, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. This is usually provoked, such as when SPG bit Vyvyan and made him destroy his cardboard submarine
in "Flood
" or plugging in the TV after Vyvyan swallowed it in "Bomb
". His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter, who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan occasionally displays feats of superhuman strength (surviving a pickaxe through his head, moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head) and eats just about anything: televisions, dead rats, caviar
and cornflakes with ketchup.
In "Bambi
" Vyvyan displays impressive mathematical talent (working out instantly that he has worn his three pairs of knickers
269 times each since their last wash), yet also that he cannot tell the time from a watch.
In the episode "Flood
", he develops a potion
to transform a person into an axe-wielding homicidal maniac. He claims "it's basically a cure... for not being an axe-wielding homicidal maniac... the potential market's enormous!". He has more friends than the others but "...apparently he doesn't like any of them." He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb to "pep it up a bit" and adding a small car engine to the vacuum cleaner
as previously it "looked a bit on the tentative side"—which then proceeds to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's. The vacuum also prompted one of the few clashes between Vyvyan and Mike; when Mike admonished Vyv not to use it anymore, Vyv replied by calling him a "poof".
Vyvyan is the only member of the group to own a car – a yellow Ford Anglia
with red flames painted along the sides, although he is not the only house member who can drive; during "Summer Holiday
" Rick is briefly seen driving the stolen double decker bus.
, Neil Pye, the hippie
, is a clinically depressed
, pacifist
, vegetarian and environmentalist
working toward a Peace Studies degree. He is victimised by other housemates and forced to do the housework, shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong. He normally provides tea
to drink and cornflakes or lentils for his housemates to eat.
Neil is a pessimist
and believes everyone and everything hates him, although he does have three hippie friends—one also named Neil, one named Warlock
and a female hippie named Stonehenge
. This actually makes him the second most sociable character behind Vyvyan and also the only character to have a female friend. He dislikes most forms of technology except for TV and Video
. He is also an insomnia
c, believing that sleep
causes cancer
.
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or just acknowledge his presence. He claims "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing"—the force of which is sufficient to blow a door off its hinges.
In the pilot episode "Demolition
" Neil is shown to have suicidal tendencies
—attempting to kill himself at least three times—however this was not carried through for the rest of the series, with the exception of the episode "Boring", in which he attempts to kill himself in a desperate attempt at relieving boredom.
In the second series episode "Sick
", Neil's parents are revealed to be upper middle class
Tories
who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series. His father wonders why his son cannot be in a nice comedy, such as the ones Neil's mother likes.
As established in Neil's Heavy Concept Album
, Neil comes from Twickenham (his name punning on Eel Pie Island
). His middle names are revealed in Neil's Book Of The Dead.
Neil also says 'heavy' frequently. He is a fan of Hawkwind
, Marillion
, and Genesis
.
routinely appeared as many different characters, interjecting his own material into the programme in ways that emulated his stand-up comedy
routines. His main role was that of the flat's landlord Jerzei (Jeremy) Balowski, which was the only character he reprised, appearing in "Demolition
", "Flood
" and "Summer Holiday
". The rest of the time, he was billed as playing various male members of "The Balowski Family", including nephew Alexei Yuri Gagarin Siege of Stalingrad Glorious Five Year Plan Sputnik Tractor Moscow Dynamo Back Four Balowski (a protest singer), son Reggie Balowski (an international arms dealer), brother Billy Balowski (a lunatic who believed he was a taxi driver), cousin Tommy Balowski (a drunk), escaped convict Brian Damage Balowski, and a medieval jester "Jester Balowski" (with Helen Lederer
as his sidekick).
Jerzei was apparently Russian, however several times during the series he would break character, or in one case the fourth wall and declare directly to the camera "I'm not really foreign, you know—I just do it to appear more sophisticated!" Also during a discussion between the guys about his nationality Vyv comments "He certainly knows a lot about the Mersey Sound."—implying he is in fact from Liverpool
, although he is so worried when Mike lies about a visit from Moscow Dynamo
that he allows the gang to renege on their monthly rent.
In the second series, Sayle's characters also included a train driver, a Benito Mussolini
look-alike (by day the head of the local police force, by night an entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest
), "Harry the Bastard" (manager of the local Rumbelows
store, disguised as a South African vampire) and, very briefly in an aside sketch that deliberately bore no relevance to the plot, a man in a bowler hat asking if he was in a cheese shop (a reference to the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch).
" commercial in "Bambi"). He experiences little hostility from the other members of the house. If there is any "fruitful" or amicable relationship in the house it is between Mike and Vyvyan. Vyvyan accepts Mike's role as the house leader whereas Mike needs Vyvyan's physique and willingness to act forcibly to enforce his own authority (as was literally shown in "Oil
" when Vyvyan became 'Col. Vyvyan', the right-hand-man to Mike's 'El Presidente').
Neil is the third most popular of the four, although he is the only one who performs any kind of household chores and is therefore needed by the other three.
Rick is the most disliked. Rick thinks very highly of himself. He tells poor jokes and stories (but finds them hilarious himself), is a would-be anarchist (although deep-down he is quite conservative) and frequently acts like a child when he does not get his way. He generally vents his frustration (when trying to impress the others) on Neil, since Neil never sticks up for himself and is ignored by the others. The majority of his anger is generated in endless battles with Vyvyan, which he invariably loses.
Rik Mayall
has opined that the characters in The Young Ones form the basis of a classic nuclear family
, comprising Neil as the mother figure, Mike as the father figure and Vyvyan and Rick as the children.
in 1986) surmises that this experience did not kill them.
, many external scenes were filmed in Bristol
, namely the suburb of Bishopston
, where the student house is situated. All four characters attended the fictional Scumbag College. As one of the characters (Neil) sometimes wore a University of London
T-shirt, it seems likely that Scumbag is one of the University of London's constituent colleges, although they were never seen attending the institution and were rarely seen studying.
", accompanied by Richard and Shadows
guitarist Hank B. Marvin. Alexei Sayle was not involved, as he felt collaborating with Richard was against the alternative
ethos of the show, but had already achieved chart success in 1984 with "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?
".
In 1984 Nigel Planer released an album of music and skits in character as Neil, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album
. Musical direction was by Canterbury scene
keyboardist Dave Stewart. It featured Stewart's alums Barbara Gaskin
, Jakko Jakszyk
, Pip Pyle
, Gavin Harrison
, Jimmy Hastings
and Rick Biddulph. "Hole in My Shoe
", a single taken from the LP, reached number 2.
At the 1986 Comic Relief stage show, The Young Ones performed "Living Doll" live (following a short skit which involved Rick doing a comic song about showing his underwear and bodily parts, before being ejected from the group by Mike, and Vyvyan supposedly having backstage sex with Kate Bush
with Neil as his contraceptive). The skit climaxed with Neil claiming Cliff Richard could not perform with them and John Craven had been booked as a replacement, only for Cliff Richard
himself to appear on stage.
In 1986 MTV aired edited versions of the episodes.
Mayall, Planer and Edmondson reunited in 1986 for the Elton-written Filthy Rich & Catflap
. The series had many of the same characteristics as The Young Ones as did Mayall and Edmondson's next sitcom Bottom
. Ryan, for his part, was regularly recruited to play roles on associated series (such as Happy Families
, Bottom
and Absolutely Fabulous
). Mayall, Edmondson and Planer have also appeared in episodes of Blackadder
.
Both series were repeated consecutively over twelve weeks in early 1985, but went unrepeated for four years, when the second series was shown on BBC2. In the mid 1990s all twelve episodes of The Young Ones were shown on BBC2 in a 30 minute revised format, missing scenes and dialogue. The series was also shown on digital channel UK Gold throughout the 1990s. A mix of both the edited and unedited versions was shown in the 2000s on UKTVG2.
In 1999, Mayall and Edmondson starred in their co-written film Guest House Paradiso
wherein Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK which is situated beside a nuclear power plant.
DVD releases have been somewhat basic: only the U.S. "Every Stoopid Episode" edition featured documentaries and no extra footage was included. Musical references proved difficult to clear so "The Sounds of Silence" (one line) and "Subterranean Homesick Blues
" were excised from the U.S. editions. A "bloopers" tape made for the amusement of cast and crew has, according to a BBC employee, gone missing from the BBC archives.
A new DVD release of all episodes ("Extra Stoopid Edition") was launched in November, 2007, containing new documentaries and two commentary tracks (pilot and final episodes only). This edition restores the line from "The Sounds of Silence" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues
".
The UK 25th Anniversary box set also features documentaries and claims to have the full uncut episodes.
, and had a claymation opening credit sequence. Fox did not pick up the series. It was produced by David Mirkin
.
Robert Llewellyn
wrote in his book The Man in the Rubber Mask (1994):
", the housemates appeared on University Challenge
, where they played against Footlights College, Oxbridge
, a reference to Footlights
drama club at Cambridge University
. The Footlights College team was played by show writer Ben Elton
and three actors who were once members of the real Cambridge Footlights: Emma Thompson
, Hugh Laurie
, and Stephen Fry
, the last of whom had actually appeared on the quiz show while at Cambridge. The episode title is a reference to the show's presenter, Bamber Gascoigne
, impersonated by Griff Rhys Jones
.
Mayall and Edmondson elaborated on some of the series' concepts later in their sitcoms Filthy Rich & Catflap
(written by Elton, with additional material by Mayall) and Bottom
(written by Mayall and Edmondson).
Most of the regular cast (and several of the guests) also appeared in Channel 4
and BBC2
's comedy films, The Comic Strip Presents. All four main actors have since gained reputations as dramatic, as well as comic, actors.
In 1990, ITV
puppet series Spitting Image
made reference to The Young Ones when four members of the Margaret Thatcher
cabinet reminisced about their younger days, with all four playing one Young Ones character each – Cecil Parkinson
as Mike, Douglas Hurd
as Vyvyan, Michael Heseltine
as Rick, and Geoffrey Howe
as Neil.
British sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...
, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
. Its anarchic
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy
Alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...
to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers. Soon afterwards, it was shown on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, one of the first non-music television shows on the fledgling channel.
The main characters were four undergraduate students sharing a house
Share House
is a 2011 Japanese drama film directed by Ichirō Kita.-Cast:* Kazuko Yoshiyuki* Megumi Saeki* Miyoko Asada* Hana Kino* Tetsuya Makita...
: violent punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...
), pompous would-be anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
), long-suffering hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
Neil (Nigel Planer
Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...
), and the suave and diminutive Mike (Christopher Ryan
Christopher Ryan
Christopher Ryan is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.-Early life:...
). It also featured Alexei Sayle
Alexei Sayle
Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...
, who played various members of the Balowski family—most often Jerzei Balowski, the quartet's landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
—and occasional independent characters, such as the train driver in "Bambi
Bambi (Young Ones episode)
"Bambi" was the seventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 8 May 1984...
".
The show combined traditional sitcom style with violent slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
, non sequitur
Non sequitur (absurdism)
A non sequitur is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is a comment that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing....
plot turns, and surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. These older styles were mixed with the working
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and lower-middle class attitudes of the growing 1980s alternative comedy boom, in which all the principal performers except Ryan had been involved. Every episode except one featured a live performance by a then-up-and-coming pop band, including Madness
Madness (band)
In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts...
, Motörhead, and The Damned
The Damned
The Damned are an English gothic punk band formed in London in 1976. They were the first punk rock band from the United Kingdom to release a single , an album , to have a record on the UK music charts, and to tour the United States...
.
The show was voted number 31 in the BBC's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom was a poll conducted in 2004 by the BBC, to identify the United Kingdom's best situation comedy. Viewers were asked to vote for their favourite by phone, text message and on the web. The top ten went forward to a final round of voting...
poll in 2004.
History
The series originated on London's comedy club circuit during the late 1970s. Most of the cast gained popularity at The Comedy Store. Alexei SayleAlexei Sayle
Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...
was the prominent act, drawing attention as the manic, aggressive compere
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
. Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall worked as the double act
Double act
A double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
20th Century Coyote
20th Century Coyote
20th Century Coyote was a comedy group famous for first uniting Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. Mayall started the group at Manchester University with friend Lloyd Peters and some others and attempted to gain a lunchtime residency at the Band on the Wall club...
, which later became The Dangerous Brothers
The Dangerous Brothers
The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir Adrian Dangerous". Although originating before the show, they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the 1980s TV programme Saturday Live...
. Nigel Planer was in a double act with Peter Richardson called The Outer Limits.
As The Comedy Store became popular, Sayle, 20th Century Coyote, and The Outer Limits, with French and Saunders
French and Saunders
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....
and Arnold Brown
Arnold Brown (comedian)
Arnold Brown is a Scottish comedian, one of the main figures in the alternative comedy scene of the early 1980s. Originally an accountant, Brown worked hard at live standup, until he found a knack of presenting observational comedy in a slow, meandering but entertaining style...
, set up their own club called The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and...
in the Raymond Revue Bar club in Soho. The Comic Strip became one of the most popular comedy venues in London, and came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...
of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. Peter Richardson then negotiated a deal for six self-contained half-hour films, using the group as comedy actors rather than stand-up performers. In response, the BBC began negotiations with Edmondson, Mayall, Richardson, Planer and Sayle to star in a sitcom in a similar style. Paul Jackson
Paul Jackson (producer)
Kevin Paul Jackson , credited as Paul Jackson; sometimes as K. Paul Jackson, is a British television director, producer and executive.-Career in television:...
was installed as a producer. Richardson's project, The Comic Strip Presents..., aired on Channel 4's opening night on 2 November 1982, with The Young Ones following a week later on BBC2.
The series was written by Mayall, his then-girlfriend Lise Mayer
Lise Mayer
Lise Mayer is a television and film writer. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, and is best known as a creator and co-writer of the BBC comedy series The Young Ones, alongside Rik Mayall and Ben Elton...
, and Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
(who had attended the University of Manchester
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
with Mayall and Edmondson). Richardson was originally set to play Mike, but clashed with Jackson. He was replaced by Christopher Ryan, the only member of the group who was not a stand-up comedian.
Synopsis
Stories were set in a squalid house where the students lived during their time at Scumbag College. It can be classified as a comedy of mannersComedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
.
When it was first broadcast, the show gained attention for its violent slapstick. Though new to mainstream audiences, Mayall and Edmondson had been using it in 20th Century Coyote
20th Century Coyote
20th Century Coyote was a comedy group famous for first uniting Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. Mayall started the group at Manchester University with friend Lloyd Peters and some others and attempted to gain a lunchtime residency at the Band on the Wall club...
for some time. The show also featured surreal elements, such as puppets playing talking animal
Talking animal
A talking animal or speaking animal refers to any form of non-human animal which can produce sounds resembling those of a human language. Many species or groups of animals have developed forms of Animal Communication Systems which to some appear to be a non-verbal language...
s or objects. Confusion was added with lengthy cutaways with no relation to the main plot.
Throughout the series, the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
is frequently broken for comedic effect by all characters at various parts of the show. The wall is usually broken as either a punchline to a joke, or to make a plot point more obvious. Alexei Sayle breaks both the fourth wall and his character to address the audience in his real life Liverpudlian accent.
The series featured a wide variety of guest cameo appearances by comedians, actors, and singers, including co-creator Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
, Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace are an English comedy duo who have starred in several TV sketch series.-Early career:Gareth Hale and Norman Pace met at Avery Hill teacher training college in Eltham South East London. They discovered much in common, particularly humour, and began playing clubs in a comedy band. One...
, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
, Mark Arden
Mark Arden
Mark Arden is an English comedian and actor, best known for being one half of comic double act "The Oblivion Boys" with Stephen Frost....
and Stephen Frost
Stephen Frost
Stephen Frost , also known as Steve Frost, is an English comedian.Frost is known for his work in the 1980s with Mark Arden as part of the double act The Oblivion Boys on Saturday Live...
(The Oblivion Boys), Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
, Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
alum Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
, future Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
co-stars Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
and Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett is an English stand-up comedian and actor, best known for the role of Holly in Red Dwarf during the first, second, seventh and eighth series. His comedy has a quiet, dead-pan surrealism, and in 2000 he made a successful stand up tour, co-headlining with Chris Barrie, who played...
, Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry
Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
, David Rappaport
David Rappaport
David Stephen Rappaport was an English actor, probably one of the best known dwarf actors in television and film...
, and Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
.
Episodes in the second series sometimes included "flash frames" (three frames, equivalent to one eighth of a second), but these were edited out of some repeats. These were included as a mockery of the British and American public's fear of subliminal messages in television and music. Unlike original flash frames, which lasted only one frame, these were long enough to be noticeable without actually being identifiable. The images included the end caption of Carry On Cowboy
Carry On Cowboy
Carry On Cowboy is the eleventh in the Carry On series of films. It was released in 1965 and was the first film to feature series regulars Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw...
, a rusty dripping tap, a leaping frog, a dove in flight, a skier, and a hand making pottery.
The episodes ran 35 minutes, and episodes were very often edited to a standard half-hour running time when repeated on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
or satellite channels
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
.
In the United States, The Young Ones started airing on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
on June 5, 1985. The show also ran on PBS, USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
's Night Flight
Night Flight (TV series)
Night Flight is a variety show that originated on the USA Network. An eclectic mix of short films, cartoons, B movies, stand up comedy, documentaries, music videos and more, Night Flight was broadcast, in various incarnations, from 1981 to 1996....
, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in 1994, and BBC America in the early 2000s.
Music
The series' theme song featured the cast singing Cliff RichardCliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
and The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
UK No. 1 song "The Young Ones
The Young Ones (song)
"The Young Ones" is a single by Cliff Richard and The Shadows. The song, written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, is the title song to the 1961 film The Young Ones and its soundtrack album...
". Throughout the series there are many references to Richard, as Mayall's character is a fan.
The theme over the end credits was written by Peter Brewis
Peter Brewis
Peter Brewis is a composer and instrumentalist who has been active in several spheres of music from ballet and modern dance to music theatre and rock music...
, who also created the incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
on many episodes.
In 1984, after the second season, Planer (in character as Neil) reached No. 2 in the UK charts with a version of Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...
's "Hole In My Shoe
Hole In My Shoe
"Hole in My Shoe" is a song by Traffic which as a single release reached number 2 in the UK charts and number 22 in the German charts in 1967. Composed by guitarist Dave Mason, it was disliked by the other three members of the group, who felt that it did not represent the band's musical or lyrical...
". The accompanying Neil's Heavy Concept Album
Neil's Heavy Concept Album
The cassette version of the album is very similar but features the track "Cassette Jam" following "Cosmic Jam" where Neil does an impression of the album being broken on tape like in "Cosmic Jam" and then "Brown Sugar" where Neil discovers some buskers performing the track by The Rolling Stones and...
, a loose collection of songs and spoken comedy, included appearances by The Young Ones alumni Dawn French and Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
.
In 1986, the cast sang "Living Doll
Living Doll (song)
"Living Doll" is a song written by Lionel Bart made popular by Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1959. It has topped the UK charts twice; in its original version and a new version recorded in 1986 in aid of Comic Relief....
" with Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin
Hank Marvin
Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...
for Comic Relief. The song, a reworking of his 1959 hit, reached the top of the UK and New Zealand Charts.
Eleven of the twelve episodes had a musical guest performing in the house or street. By including the groups, the show qualified as variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
rather than light entertainment
Light entertainment
Light entertainment is a term used to describe a broad range of usually televisual performances. These include comedies, variety shows, quiz/game shows, sketch shows and people/surprise shows.-Light entertainment in Britain:...
by the BBC and was allocated a bigger budget than a sitcom. This helped introduce several British bands to American viewers, such as Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which went No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart....
, Motörhead, The Damned, and Madness
Madness (band)
In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts...
. The latter appeared in two episodes; they were under consideration for a Monkees-style show at the time. The one episode that featured no musical act still fulfilled the variety criteria by including a lion tamer, whose presence also directly contributed to the plot.
Some of these performances were omitted from DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release for copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
reasons. Some musical acts were also edited out for similar reasons on some satellite reruns.
| Episode number | Episode name | Band | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 1 | |||
| 1 | Demolition | Nine Below Zero Nine Below Zero Nine Below Zero are an English blues band, who have a cult following throughout Europe, and were most popular in the period between 1980 and 1982.-Career:... |
"Eleven Plus Eleven" |
| 2 | Oil | Radical Posture (with Alexei Sayle Alexei Sayle Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007... ) |
"Dr. Martens Boots" |
| 3 | Boring | Madness Madness (band) In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts... |
"House of Fun House of Fun "House of Fun" is a song by British ska/pop group Madness, credited to Mike Barson and Lee Thompson. It was released as a one-off single on April 30, 1982, and reached #1 in the UK charts, spending 9 weeks in the charts. The song was re-released in 1992, reaching #40... " |
| 4 | Bomb | Dexys Midnight Runners Dexys Midnight Runners Dexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which went No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.... |
"Jackie Wilson Said Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile) "Jackie Wilson Said " is a song written and performed by Van Morrison and featured as the opening track on his sixth studio album, Saint Dominic's Preview. It was released by Warner Bros... " |
| 5 | Interesting | Rip Rig + Panic (with Andrea Oliver Andrea Oliver Andrea "Andi" Oliver is a British Television and Radio Broadcaster.-Early career:Andi is a former member of the band Rip Rig + Panic, one of their notable television appearances came when they performed in an episode of the cult comedy show The Young Ones... ) |
"You're My Kind of Climate" |
| 6 | Flood | no band; a lion tamer Lion taming Lion taming is the practice of taming lions, either for protection, whereby the practice was probably created, or, more commonly, entertainment, particularly in the circus. The term is also often used for the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and pumas... appeared to satisfy the BBC's variety criteria |
|
| Series 2 | |||
| 1 | Bambi | Motörhead | "Ace of Spades Ace of Spades (song) "Ace of Spades" is a song by the English band Motörhead, released in 1980 as a single and the title track to the album Ace of Spades. The song spent 12 weeks in the United Kingdom Singles Chart, peaking at #15.-Overview:... " |
| 2 | Cash | Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve | "Subterranean Homesick Blues Subterranean Homesick Blues "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also... " |
| 3 | Nasty | The Damned | "Nasty" |
| 4 | Time | Amazulu Amazulu (band) Amazulu were a British ska / pop band from the 1980s. Composed of five females and one male, they achieved success in the UK charts with four top twenty hits - the biggest of these being "Too Good to Be Forgotten" in 1986.-Early days and success:... |
"Moonlight Romance" |
| 5 | Sick | Madness Madness (band) In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts... |
"Our House Our House (Madness song) "Our House" is a single by English ska/pop band Madness, from their UK album The Rise & Fall and their US compilation Madness.-About:... " |
| 6 | Summer Holiday | John Otway John Otway John Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:... |
"Body Talk" |
Characters
Mike "The-Cool-Person"
Played by Christopher RyanChristopher Ryan
Christopher Ryan is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.-Early life:...
, Mike is the assumed leader of the group and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies; "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
.") Mike is supposedly the 'ladies' man' and often brags of his prowess with women, although he is shown to share his bed with an inflatable Sex doll
Sex doll
A sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
and almost admitted his virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
to the others in "Nasty
Nasty (Young Ones episode)
"Nasty" was the ninth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
". He makes every attempt at wooing the opposite sex, being both forward and unsuccessful. During "Boring
Boring (Young Ones episode)
Boring was the third episode of The Young Ones, a British sitcom. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. It was first aired on BBC2 on 23 November 1982....
" however he has an encounter with (and also instigated by) Vyv's mother, where, until a comment made by Rick, he makes progress—although her direct approach initially worries Mike.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco
Roller disco
A roller disco is a discothèque or skating rink where all the dancers wear roller skates of some kind . The music played is modern and easily danceable, historically disco but in modern times including almost any form of dance music or pop music...
and soliciting bids for the unexploded Atomic bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades, although this is contradicted by the title sequence of series 1, in which he is seen to pay a bribe in exchange for a qualification. In "Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
" he muses; "I think I'll ask for one of those PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
s next year."
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy. He has shown to be helpful to the others occasionally, such as trying to teach Vyvyan how to tell time in "Bambi
Bambi (Young Ones episode)
"Bambi" was the seventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 8 May 1984...
". He has, however, managed to nail his own legs to a table, and knocked Neil out during a game of cricket, albeit unintentionally. We only see violence inflicted on him three times:
- At the end of the "Living Doll"Living Doll (song)"Living Doll" is a song written by Lionel Bart made popular by Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1959. It has topped the UK charts twice; in its original version and a new version recorded in 1986 in aid of Comic Relief....
video, Vyvyan knocks him unconscious with a hammer. - During a dream sequenceDream sequenceA dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element. Commonly, dream sequences appear in many...
in "Summer Holiday" Neil transforms into the Incredible Hulk, picks up Mike and throws him to the ground. - In "TimeTime (Young Ones episode)"Time" was the tenth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
" Helen Mucus (the psychotic murderess played by Jennifer SaundersJennifer SaundersJennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
) attempts to suffocate him with a pillow—Mike, however, mistakes her actions and intentions for foreplayForeplayIn human sexual behavior, foreplay is a set of intimate psychological and physically intimate acts between two or more people meant to create desire for sexual activity and sexual arousal. Either or any of the sexual partners may initiate the foreplay, and they may not be the active partner during...
.
Mike's surname is ambiguous – The Bachelor Boys book refers to him as "The Cool Person" several times, but in different styles including quotes. This could imply that "The Cool Person" is not a surname but instead a title—similar to Steve "Interesting" Davis
Steve Davis
Steve Davis, OBE is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire...
the snooker player or Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
the basketball player—however the matter is never clarified one way or another.
Rick
Played by Rik MayallRik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
, Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and/or domestic sciences
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
(depending on the episode). Rick writes bad poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet", believing himself to be the "spokesperson for a generation".
He is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing, attention-seeking Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
fan, or, as Vyvyan describes him, "The classic example of an only child!" Rick tries to impress the others with his non-existent wit
Wit
Wit is a form of intellectual humour, and a wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include the quip and repartee.-Forms of wit:...
, talent and humour. He insults Neil at every opportunity, fights and bickers with Vyvyan and attempts to impress Mike. He is portrayed as being so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" despite being disliked by virtually everyone he knows; even though his housemates hate him, he says that they "really are terrific friends". He cannot say the "R" sound correctly and instead enunciates a mixture of a "W" and "V" sound. In the episode "Bomb" he dictates his name to a woman who looks up in confusion and repeats it back as "Wick?" Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P," as it is written on Rick's name card during the University Challenge against Footlights College in the episode "Bambi".
Rick's political beliefs vary, depending on how they benefit his particular situation, but can usually be categorised as radical
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
. While Rick sees himself as both a revolutionary and follower of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, in reality he has little understanding of the political ideals he purports to follow. He claims to dislike Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, as is noted by his threatening to blow up England with an atomic bomb in the episode "Bomb" if she "doesn't do something to help the kids, by this afternoon," and from negative references to Thatcher and the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
mentioned in The Young Ones tie-in book Bachelor Boys. It should also be noted Rick at least once during the series becomes incredibly conservative — contrary to the image he has adopted — while talking to an old man at the DHSS office (which he has mistaken for a post office).
Rick is vegetarian, agnostic, and wishes all men to love each other like brothers, except for Neil, who he hates. Nonetheless, nearly everything he does is hypocritical and self-serving.
Rick exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
, Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
background. He seems to also be a closet transvestite, as Neil finds a dress in Rick's closet with his own name stitched on it in the episode "Nasty
Nasty (Young Ones episode)
"Nasty" was the ninth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
". In the episode "Cash
Cash (Young Ones episode)
"Cash" was the eighth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
" Rick admits to Mike that he is unable to tell time, a trait that both he and Vyvyan share.
In an interview for the BBC series Comedy Connections
Comedy Connections
Comedy Connections was a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows...
, Ben Elton described Rick's character as the "try-hard wanna-be Leftie" typically found on university campuses.
Vyvyan Basterd
Played by Adrian EdmondsonAdrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...
, Vyvyan is a psychopathic punk metal medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
. He has orange-dyed & spiked hair and four metal stars seemingly embedded into his forehead. In the episode "Interesting
Interesting (Young Ones episode)
"Interesting" was the fifth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
", he drinks a pint of blue liquid which makes his hair fall out and the number 666
Number of the Beast
The Number of the Beast is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the first Beast of Revelation chapter 13, the Beast of the sea. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the Beast is...
is visible on the side of his head. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. For some reason he looks up to Mike, whom he never attacks and often addresses as "Michael". He despises Rick more than he does Neil; for example when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode "Boring
Boring (Young Ones episode)
Boring was the third episode of The Young Ones, a British sitcom. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. It was first aired on BBC2 on 23 November 1982....
", he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but refers to Rick as "a complete bastard." Ironically, this antagonistic relationship between Rick and Vyvyan makes them virtually inseparable, as the two spend by far more time together than with the other housemates. Unlike Neil and Rick, Vyvyan appears to come from a working class background (something Rick incorrectly believes himself to have).
Vyvyan owns a Glaswegian hamster
Hamster
Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species, classified in six or seven genera....
named Special Patrol Group
Special Patrol Group
The Special Patrol Group was a unit of Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for providing a centrally-based mobile capability for combating serious public disorder and crime that could not be dealt with by local divisions....
("SPG" for short) of whom he is very fond, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. This is usually provoked, such as when SPG bit Vyvyan and made him destroy his cardboard submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
in "Flood
Flood (Young Ones episode)
"Flood" was the sixth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
" or plugging in the TV after Vyvyan swallowed it in "Bomb
Bomb (Young Ones episode)
"Bomb" was the fourth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
". His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter, who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan occasionally displays feats of superhuman strength (surviving a pickaxe through his head, moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head) and eats just about anything: televisions, dead rats, caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
and cornflakes with ketchup.
In "Bambi
Bambi (Young Ones episode)
"Bambi" was the seventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 8 May 1984...
" Vyvyan displays impressive mathematical talent (working out instantly that he has worn his three pairs of knickers
Underpants
-Boxer shorts:Boxer shorts, or simply boxers, have an elasticated waistband that is at or near the wearer's waist, while the leg sections are fairly loose and extend to the mid-thigh. There is usually a fly, either with or without buttons...
269 times each since their last wash), yet also that he cannot tell the time from a watch.
In the episode "Flood
Flood (Young Ones episode)
"Flood" was the sixth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
", he develops a potion
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
to transform a person into an axe-wielding homicidal maniac. He claims "it's basically a cure... for not being an axe-wielding homicidal maniac... the potential market's enormous!". He has more friends than the others but "...apparently he doesn't like any of them." He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb to "pep it up a bit" and adding a small car engine to the vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
as previously it "looked a bit on the tentative side"—which then proceeds to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's. The vacuum also prompted one of the few clashes between Vyvyan and Mike; when Mike admonished Vyv not to use it anymore, Vyv replied by calling him a "poof".
Vyvyan is the only member of the group to own a car – a yellow Ford Anglia
Ford Anglia
The 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....
with red flames painted along the sides, although he is not the only house member who can drive; during "Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
" Rick is briefly seen driving the stolen double decker bus.
Neil Wheedon Watkins Pye
Played by Nigel PlanerNigel Planer
Nigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...
, Neil Pye, the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
, is a clinically depressed
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, vegetarian and environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
working toward a Peace Studies degree. He is victimised by other housemates and forced to do the housework, shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong. He normally provides tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
to drink and cornflakes or lentils for his housemates to eat.
Neil is a pessimist
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
and believes everyone and everything hates him, although he does have three hippie friends—one also named Neil, one named Warlock
Warlock
The term warlock in origin means "traitor, oathbreaker".In early modern Scots, the word came to be used as the male equivalent of witch ....
and a female hippie named Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
. This actually makes him the second most sociable character behind Vyvyan and also the only character to have a female friend. He dislikes most forms of technology except for TV and Video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
. He is also an insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
c, believing that sleep
Sleep
Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...
causes cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or just acknowledge his presence. He claims "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing"—the force of which is sufficient to blow a door off its hinges.
In the pilot episode "Demolition
Demolition (Young Ones episode)
"Demolition" was the pilot episode for British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. Although made as a pilot episode, the five subsequent episodes had been commissioned and recorded by the time of broadcast, so instead...
" Neil is shown to have suicidal tendencies
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
—attempting to kill himself at least three times—however this was not carried through for the rest of the series, with the exception of the episode "Boring", in which he attempts to kill himself in a desperate attempt at relieving boredom.
In the second series episode "Sick
Sick (Young Ones episode)
"Sick" was the eleventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
", Neil's parents are revealed to be upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
Tories
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series. His father wonders why his son cannot be in a nice comedy, such as the ones Neil's mother likes.
As established in Neil's Heavy Concept Album
Neil's Heavy Concept Album
The cassette version of the album is very similar but features the track "Cassette Jam" following "Cosmic Jam" where Neil does an impression of the album being broken on tape like in "Cosmic Jam" and then "Brown Sugar" where Neil discovers some buskers performing the track by The Rolling Stones and...
, Neil comes from Twickenham (his name punning on Eel Pie Island
Eel Pie Island
Eel Pie Island is an island in the River Thames in England at Twickenham, in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London. It is situated on the Tideway and can be reached only by footbridge or boat...
). His middle names are revealed in Neil's Book Of The Dead.
Neil also says 'heavy' frequently. He is a fan of Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
, Marillion
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
, and Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
.
Balowski Family
Throughout the two series, Alexei SayleAlexei Sayle
Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...
routinely appeared as many different characters, interjecting his own material into the programme in ways that emulated his stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
routines. His main role was that of the flat's landlord Jerzei (Jeremy) Balowski, which was the only character he reprised, appearing in "Demolition
Demolition (Young Ones episode)
"Demolition" was the pilot episode for British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. Although made as a pilot episode, the five subsequent episodes had been commissioned and recorded by the time of broadcast, so instead...
", "Flood
Flood (Young Ones episode)
"Flood" was the sixth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
" and "Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
". The rest of the time, he was billed as playing various male members of "The Balowski Family", including nephew Alexei Yuri Gagarin Siege of Stalingrad Glorious Five Year Plan Sputnik Tractor Moscow Dynamo Back Four Balowski (a protest singer), son Reggie Balowski (an international arms dealer), brother Billy Balowski (a lunatic who believed he was a taxi driver), cousin Tommy Balowski (a drunk), escaped convict Brian Damage Balowski, and a medieval jester "Jester Balowski" (with Helen Lederer
Helen Lederer
Helen Lederer is a Welsh comedienne, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s.-Career:...
as his sidekick).
Jerzei was apparently Russian, however several times during the series he would break character, or in one case the fourth wall and declare directly to the camera "I'm not really foreign, you know—I just do it to appear more sophisticated!" Also during a discussion between the guys about his nationality Vyv comments "He certainly knows a lot about the Mersey Sound."—implying he is in fact from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, although he is so worried when Mike lies about a visit from Moscow Dynamo
HC Dynamo Moscow
HC Dynamo Moscow was a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Moscow. They were members of the Bobrov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League...
that he allows the gang to renege on their monthly rent.
In the second series, Sayle's characters also included a train driver, a Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
look-alike (by day the head of the local police force, by night an entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
), "Harry the Bastard" (manager of the local Rumbelows
Rumbelows
Rumbelows was an electrical and electronics retailer in the United Kingdom which once rivalled Currys, Dixons and Comet.-History:Fred Dawes established the company as a chain of television and radio rental shops in the 1950s, naming it Fred Dawes...
store, disguised as a South African vampire) and, very briefly in an aside sketch that deliberately bore no relevance to the plot, a man in a bowler hat asking if he was in a cheese shop (a reference to the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch).
In-house relations
Mike is the natural "leader" of the house. Always trying to make himself appear more important and exciting than he really is, he does appear to have done some of the things he claims to have done (such as getting Bambi the "BabychamBabycham
Babycham is the trade name of a light, sparkling perry invented by Francis Edwin Showering , a brewer in Shepton Mallet in Somerset, England; the name is now owned by Constellation Europe Limited. Launched in the United Kingdom in 1953, the drink was marketed with pioneering television...
" commercial in "Bambi"). He experiences little hostility from the other members of the house. If there is any "fruitful" or amicable relationship in the house it is between Mike and Vyvyan. Vyvyan accepts Mike's role as the house leader whereas Mike needs Vyvyan's physique and willingness to act forcibly to enforce his own authority (as was literally shown in "Oil
Oil (Young Ones episode)
"Oil" was the second episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson...
" when Vyvyan became 'Col. Vyvyan', the right-hand-man to Mike's 'El Presidente').
Neil is the third most popular of the four, although he is the only one who performs any kind of household chores and is therefore needed by the other three.
Rick is the most disliked. Rick thinks very highly of himself. He tells poor jokes and stories (but finds them hilarious himself), is a would-be anarchist (although deep-down he is quite conservative) and frequently acts like a child when he does not get his way. He generally vents his frustration (when trying to impress the others) on Neil, since Neil never sticks up for himself and is ignored by the others. The majority of his anger is generated in endless battles with Vyvyan, which he invariably loses.
Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
has opined that the characters in The Young Ones form the basis of a classic nuclear family
Nuclear family
Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
, comprising Neil as the mother figure, Mike as the father figure and Vyvyan and Rick as the children.
Finale
In the final episode, the four students steal a red AEC Routemaster after robbing a bank, only to drive it through a billboard with a picture of Cliff Richard on it and then over an actual cliff, which the bus rolls down until it comes to rest at the bottom, completely upright—at which point they proclaim—in unison—"Phew! That was close!", after which the bus bursts into flames. The fact that the Young Ones would reappear in future (such as at Comic ReliefComic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
in 1986) surmises that this experience did not kill them.
Setting
Although the series was set in North LondonNorth London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
, many external scenes were filmed in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, namely the suburb of Bishopston
Bishopston, Bristol
Bishopston the name of both a council ward of the city of Bristol, England, and a suburb of the city that falls within that ward. Bishopston is situated around the Gloucester Road , the main northern arterial road in the city. The ward includes St Bonaventures and Ashley Down parishes, as well as...
, where the student house is situated. All four characters attended the fictional Scumbag College. As one of the characters (Neil) sometimes wore a University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
T-shirt, it seems likely that Scumbag is one of the University of London's constituent colleges, although they were never seen attending the institution and were rarely seen studying.
After the series
The end of the series was not the last appearance of The Young Ones. For the British charity television appeal Comic Relief, the four recorded a song and video for Cliff Richard's "Living DollLiving Doll (song)
"Living Doll" is a song written by Lionel Bart made popular by Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1959. It has topped the UK charts twice; in its original version and a new version recorded in 1986 in aid of Comic Relief....
", accompanied by Richard and Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
guitarist Hank B. Marvin. Alexei Sayle was not involved, as he felt collaborating with Richard was against the alternative
Alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...
ethos of the show, but had already achieved chart success in 1984 with "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?
'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?
"Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" is a song written by the comedian Alexei Sayle, originally released as a single in the UK in 1982. The single eventually achieved UK Top Twenty success in 1984, following a reissue....
".
In 1984 Nigel Planer released an album of music and skits in character as Neil, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album
Neil's Heavy Concept Album
The cassette version of the album is very similar but features the track "Cassette Jam" following "Cosmic Jam" where Neil does an impression of the album being broken on tape like in "Cosmic Jam" and then "Brown Sugar" where Neil discovers some buskers performing the track by The Rolling Stones and...
. Musical direction was by Canterbury scene
Canterbury Scene
The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...
keyboardist Dave Stewart. It featured Stewart's alums Barbara Gaskin
Barbara Gaskin
Barbara Gaskin is a British singer who, with her musical partner, the keyboardist Dave Stewart, formed a duo in 1981. In September of that year they had a number one single in the UK with a cover version of the song "It's My Party"...
, Jakko Jakszyk
Jakko Jakszyk
Jakko M. Jakszyk is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter , multi-instrumentalist and producer...
, Pip Pyle
Pip Pyle
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France...
, Gavin Harrison
Gavin Harrison
Gavin Harrison is a British drummer and percussionist. He is best known for playing with the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree which he joined in 2002. As of 2008, he also plays with the band King Crimson....
, Jimmy Hastings
Jimmy Hastings
James Brian Gordon 'Jimmy' Hastings , is a British professional musician associated with the Canterbury scene....
and Rick Biddulph. "Hole in My Shoe
Hole In My Shoe
"Hole in My Shoe" is a song by Traffic which as a single release reached number 2 in the UK charts and number 22 in the German charts in 1967. Composed by guitarist Dave Mason, it was disliked by the other three members of the group, who felt that it did not represent the band's musical or lyrical...
", a single taken from the LP, reached number 2.
At the 1986 Comic Relief stage show, The Young Ones performed "Living Doll" live (following a short skit which involved Rick doing a comic song about showing his underwear and bodily parts, before being ejected from the group by Mike, and Vyvyan supposedly having backstage sex with Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
with Neil as his contraceptive). The skit climaxed with Neil claiming Cliff Richard could not perform with them and John Craven had been booked as a replacement, only for Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
himself to appear on stage.
In 1986 MTV aired edited versions of the episodes.
Mayall, Planer and Edmondson reunited in 1986 for the Elton-written Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap was a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast early the next year.The series featured former The Young Ones stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters respectively...
. The series had many of the same characteristics as The Young Ones as did Mayall and Edmondson's next sitcom Bottom
Bottom (TV series)
Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
. Ryan, for his part, was regularly recruited to play roles on associated series (such as Happy Families
Happy Families (TV series)
Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family....
, Bottom
Bottom (TV series)
Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
and Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...
). Mayall, Edmondson and Planer have also appeared in episodes of Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
.
Both series were repeated consecutively over twelve weeks in early 1985, but went unrepeated for four years, when the second series was shown on BBC2. In the mid 1990s all twelve episodes of The Young Ones were shown on BBC2 in a 30 minute revised format, missing scenes and dialogue. The series was also shown on digital channel UK Gold throughout the 1990s. A mix of both the edited and unedited versions was shown in the 2000s on UKTVG2.
In 1999, Mayall and Edmondson starred in their co-written film Guest House Paradiso
Guest House Paradiso
Guest House Paradiso is a 1999 British slapstick comedy film written by and starring comic duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, and directed by Edmondson his directorial debut. The film is semi-officially based on their comedy television series Bottom...
wherein Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK which is situated beside a nuclear power plant.
DVD releases have been somewhat basic: only the U.S. "Every Stoopid Episode" edition featured documentaries and no extra footage was included. Musical references proved difficult to clear so "The Sounds of Silence" (one line) and "Subterranean Homesick Blues
Subterranean Homesick Blues
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also...
" were excised from the U.S. editions. A "bloopers" tape made for the amusement of cast and crew has, according to a BBC employee, gone missing from the BBC archives.
A new DVD release of all episodes ("Extra Stoopid Edition") was launched in November, 2007, containing new documentaries and two commentary tracks (pilot and final episodes only). This edition restores the line from "The Sounds of Silence" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues
Subterranean Homesick Blues
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also...
".
The UK 25th Anniversary box set also features documentaries and claims to have the full uncut episodes.
American pilot episode
A pilot episode was filmed of an American version of The Young Ones, titled Oh, No! Not THEM! It featured Nigel Planer as Neil and Jackie Earle HaleyJackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in...
, and had a claymation opening credit sequence. Fox did not pick up the series. It was produced by David Mirkin
David Mirkin
David Mirkin is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up...
.
Robert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...
wrote in his book The Man in the Rubber Mask (1994):
Links to other series
In the episode "BambiBambi (Young Ones episode)
"Bambi" was the seventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 8 May 1984...
", the housemates appeared on University Challenge
University Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
, where they played against Footlights College, Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...
, a reference to Footlights
Footlights
Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University....
drama club at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. The Footlights College team was played by show writer Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
and three actors who were once members of the real Cambridge Footlights: Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
, Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
, and Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, the last of whom had actually appeared on the quiz show while at Cambridge. The episode title is a reference to the show's presenter, Bamber Gascoigne
Bamber Gascoigne
Bamber Gascoigne, FRSL is a British television presenter and author, most known for being the original quizmaster on University Challenge.-Biography:...
, impersonated by Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
.
Mayall and Edmondson elaborated on some of the series' concepts later in their sitcoms Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap was a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast early the next year.The series featured former The Young Ones stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters respectively...
(written by Elton, with additional material by Mayall) and Bottom
Bottom (TV series)
Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
(written by Mayall and Edmondson).
Most of the regular cast (and several of the guests) also appeared in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
's comedy films, The Comic Strip Presents. All four main actors have since gained reputations as dramatic, as well as comic, actors.
In 1990, ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
puppet series Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
made reference to The Young Ones when four members of the Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
cabinet reminisced about their younger days, with all four playing one Young Ones character each – Cecil Parkinson
Cecil Parkinson
Cecil Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC , is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister.-Early life:...
as Mike, Douglas Hurd
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
as Vyvyan, Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
as Rick, and Geoffrey Howe
Geoffrey Howe
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, CH, QC, PC is a former British Conservative politician. He was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and finally Leader of the House of Commons...
as Neil.
Series 1
| Title | Musical Performance | Original air date |
|---|
Series 2
| Title | Musical performance | Original air date |
|---|
DVD releases
Series 1 & 2 of The Young Ones have both been released on DVD individually and in a special edition boxset in both regions 2 and 4. Region 1 has released just two boxsets, one being just series 1 & 2, the other being series 1 & 2 special edition.| DVD Title | No. of Discs | Year | Episodes | DVD release | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||||
| Complete Series 1 | 1 | 1982 1982 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1982.-Events:* 1 January – Central Independent Television starts broadcasting in the English Midlands, replacing ATV... |
6 | — | 5 August 2002 | 29 August 2002 | |
| Complete Series 2 | 1 | 1984 1984 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1984.-Events:*4 January – Patricia Phoenix leaves Coronation Street for the second and final time as Elsie Tanner goes to live with old flame Bill Gregory in Portugal.... |
6 | — | 18 August 2003 | 1 October 2003 | |
| Complete Series 1 & 2 | 2 | 1982 1982 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1982.-Events:* 1 January – Central Independent Television starts broadcasting in the English Midlands, replacing ATV... & 1984 1984 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1984.-Events:*4 January – Patricia Phoenix leaves Coronation Street for the second and final time as Elsie Tanner goes to live with old flame Bill Gregory in Portugal.... |
12 | 17 September 2002 | — | — | |
| Complete Series 1 & 2 Special Edition |
3 | 1982 1982 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1982.-Events:* 1 January – Central Independent Television starts broadcasting in the English Midlands, replacing ATV... & 1984 1984 in British television This is a list of British television related events from 1984.-Events:*4 January – Patricia Phoenix leaves Coronation Street for the second and final time as Elsie Tanner goes to live with old flame Bill Gregory in Portugal.... |
12 | 13 November 2007 | 29 October 2007 | 7 November 2007 | |
External links
- The Young Ones at The bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy