Edmondson and Mayall gained their reputation at the Comedy Store, from 1980.[8] Apart from performing in their double act, 20th Century Coyote, Mayall developed solo routines, using characters such as Kevin Turvey and a pompous anarchist poet named Rick.[9] This led to Edmondson and Mayall, along with Comedy Store compere Alexei Sayle and other upcoming comedians, including Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, French and Saunders, Arnold Brown and Pete Richens, setting up their own comedy club called The Comic Strip in the Raymond Revuebar, a strip club in Soho.[2] Mayalls Kevin Turvey character gained a regular slot in A Kick Up the Eighties, first broadcast in 1981. He appeared as Rest Home Ricky in Richard OBriens Shock Treatment, a sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He played Dentonvales resident attendant as the love interest to Nell Campbells Nurse Ansalong. Mayalls television appearances as Kevin Turvey warranted a mockumentary based on the character titled Kevin Turvey – The Man Behind The Green Door, broadcast in 1982. The previous year, he appeared in a bit role in An American Werewolf in London. His stage partnership with Edmondson continued, with them often appearing together as The Dangerous Brothers, hapless daredevils whose hyper-violent antics foreshadowed their characters in Bottom.[10] Channel 4 offered the Comic Strip group six short films, which became The Comic Strip Presents..., debuting on 2 November 1982. The series, which continued sporadically for many years, saw Mayall play a wide variety of roles. It was known for anti-establishment humour and for parodies such as Bad News on Tour, a spoof rockumentary starring Mayall, Richardson, Edmondson and Planer as a heavy metal band. At the time The Comic Strip Presents... was negotiated, the BBC took an interest in The Young Ones, a sitcom written by Mayall and then-girlfriend Lise Mayer, in the same anarchic vein as Comic Strip. Ben Elton joined the writers. The series was commissioned and first broadcast in 1982, shortly before Comic Strip. Mayall played Rik, a pompous sociology student and Cliff Richard devotee. Despite the sitcom format, Mayall maintained his double-act with Edmondson, who starred as violent punk Vyvyan. Nigel Planer (as hippie Neil) and Christopher Ryan (as Mike the cool person) also starred, with additional material written and performed by Alexei Sayle. The first series was successful and a second was screened in 1984. The show owed a comic debt to Spike Milligan, but Milligan was disapproving of Mayall. Milligan once wrote: Rik Mayall is putrid – absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the arsehole of British comedy.[11] In 1986, Mayall played the Detective in the video of Peter Gunn by Art Of Noise featuring Duane Eddy.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:06:56 +0000
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