Time (Young Ones episode)
Encyclopedia
"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. It was first aired on BBC2 on 5 June 1984.
); Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson
); Rick (Rik Mayall
) and Neil (Nigel Planer
). Alexei Sayle
starred as a medieval
jester (and, extremely briefly, a cheese shop customer). Jennifer Saunders
(who later married Adrian Edmondson
in 1985) plays the murderess Helen Mucus, while Helen Lederer
plays the female sidekick of the jester's show. Hale and Pace
play peasants. This episode also features a very brief role from Paul Merton
who plays one of the three yokels in his first television appearance before shooting to fame with Have I Got News For You
. Dawn French also appears briefly as the Easter Bunny.
. Neil (or E.T.) is running a Texas
oil company, with Rick as an American client furious at Neil's way of business - signing over oil wells and giving away money to the public. Neil is woken from this dream by a deeply hungover
Vyvyan yelling at the Sunday bellringers
to be quiet. Rick wakes up next to an attractive but unknown lady, fully clothed. His initial shock and confusion (he has no memory of how she got there) is tempered by his realisation that he can boast about a sexual conquest to the others. His description of the act, when pressed by the others, prompts Vyvyan to vomit and Mike to make a genuine attempt to seduce the girl in question, who calls herself Helen Mucous. However, when she reveals that she merely went to sleep in an empty bed, the others turn on Rick. Neil calls him a liar and Vyvyan accuses him of still being a virgin, sparking hefty denials from Rick. This argument leads to an escalating confrontation between the two, which spreads around the house.
Meanwhile, the radio has revealed Helen is an escaped murder
ess, and so she decides to kill the four, beginning with Mike. He mistakes her violent actions to him as rough foreplay
. The appearance of a medieval knight
sends the front door crashing on top of Helen. This confuses the quartet, who soon discover the house has gone through a time warp. Neil is concussed and kidnapped, along with Helen, by the knight who takes him outside to some Middle Ages hutkeepers, to offer them as maidens. Having been thrown off the knight's horse, Neil regains consciousness and starts a conversation with the villagers, but their hut blows up from a howitzer
shot poorly aimed by Vyvyan at Rick in the "virgin" argument. Neil is chased back to the house, after being accused of sorcery
, and, with Rick promising to have a T-shirt confirming his virginity printed, the four quickly check the television
to see if programming has been altered by their time loop. They watch a programme called Medieval Torture Hour. Rick begins to freak out about the time warp, asking what they're going to do, to which Vyvyan responds "Oh, who cares?", which begins the credit roll. During the credits, the boys settle down to a game of cards, while around them, all of the episode's characters enter the house. As a stinger, Neil gets hit on the head with a giant bone by one of the peasants, which only seems to annoy Neil more than anything.
The episode features a performance by reggae
band Amazulu
.
The Young Ones (TV series)
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...
. It was written by 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....
, 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...
and 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 directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 5 June 1984.
Characters
As with all episodes of The Young Ones, the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (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:...
); 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...
); 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...
) and 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...
). 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...
starred as a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
jester (and, extremely briefly, a cheese shop customer). 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...
(who later married 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...
in 1985) plays the murderess Helen Mucus, while 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:...
plays the female sidekick of the jester's show. 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...
play peasants. This episode also features a very brief role from Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
who plays one of the three yokels in his first television appearance before shooting to fame with Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
. Dawn French also appears briefly as the Easter Bunny.
Plot
The episode begins with credits and scenes spoofing popular 80's soap DallasDallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
. Neil (or E.T.) is running a Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
oil company, with Rick as an American client furious at Neil's way of business - signing over oil wells and giving away money to the public. Neil is woken from this dream by a deeply hungover
Hangover
A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...
Vyvyan yelling at the Sunday bellringers
Campanology
Campanology is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing....
to be quiet. Rick wakes up next to an attractive but unknown lady, fully clothed. His initial shock and confusion (he has no memory of how she got there) is tempered by his realisation that he can boast about a sexual conquest to the others. His description of the act, when pressed by the others, prompts Vyvyan to vomit and Mike to make a genuine attempt to seduce the girl in question, who calls herself Helen Mucous. However, when she reveals that she merely went to sleep in an empty bed, the others turn on Rick. Neil calls him a liar and Vyvyan accuses him of still being a virgin, sparking hefty denials from Rick. This argument leads to an escalating confrontation between the two, which spreads around the house.
Meanwhile, the radio has revealed Helen is an escaped murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ess, and so she decides to kill the four, beginning with Mike. He mistakes her violent actions to him as rough foreplay
Foreplay
In 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...
. The appearance of a medieval knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
sends the front door crashing on top of Helen. This confuses the quartet, who soon discover the house has gone through a time warp. Neil is concussed and kidnapped, along with Helen, by the knight who takes him outside to some Middle Ages hutkeepers, to offer them as maidens. Having been thrown off the knight's horse, Neil regains consciousness and starts a conversation with the villagers, but their hut blows up from a howitzer
Howitzer
A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
shot poorly aimed by Vyvyan at Rick in the "virgin" argument. Neil is chased back to the house, after being accused of sorcery
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, and, with Rick promising to have a T-shirt confirming his virginity printed, the four quickly check the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
to see if programming has been altered by their time loop. They watch a programme called Medieval Torture Hour. Rick begins to freak out about the time warp, asking what they're going to do, to which Vyvyan responds "Oh, who cares?", which begins the credit roll. During the credits, the boys settle down to a game of cards, while around them, all of the episode's characters enter the house. As a stinger, Neil gets hit on the head with a giant bone by one of the peasants, which only seems to annoy Neil more than anything.
The episode features a performance by reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
band 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:...
.