The Young Ones
As you no doubt know, the Young Ones was a BBC2 series that originally aired in 1982. If you didn’t know this, or indeed have never seen the Young Ones, you should!
Shown on successive Tuesday nights in the winter of that year it was a huge success. Created by Ben Elton, Lise Mayer and Rik Mayall it was the most widely watched program for young lads – and for a good reason. The comedy and wit of the sketch show can still be appreciated today.
I remember sneaking into my dad’s study to watch it away from the eyes of my mum, as she probably wouldn’t approve of some of Rik’s antics!
The show starred Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Christopher Ryan, Nigel Planer as students Rick, Vyvyan, Mike and Neil Pye.
Alexei Sayle also appeared as their landlord, an eastern European immigrant, Jerzei Balowski.
Of all the episodes of the first series, my favourite has to be ‘Demolition’.
Although the plot is fairly simple – the council want to demolish their house, which elicits different responses from all characters – the show is by far my favourite of all time.
Vyvyan naturally decided the best course of action is to do it first from the inside, Niel decides to try and enter the wall cavity and pretend to be thermal insulation while Rick hangs himself from a crucifix outside the house. Mike on the other hand attempts to seduce the female council representative with inevitable results.
Sadly for both the students and the council, an aircraft crashes into the building before either party could demolish it themselves!
Excellent comedy that’ll be appreciated for many, many more generations.
