Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: The People's Poet is dead!

Steve Barnes

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:20:07 +1200

I would rather nail myself to a cross than go to the Parachute Music Festival, dubbed "THE HAPPIEST LITTLE FESTIVAL ON EARTH" apart from the fact that there is no way yyou can hammer in the last nail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rd87yC3wRc

Rich of Observationz

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:46:51 +1200

So were Rik, Vivian, Neil and Mike to be reincarnated in NZ and go to Fieldays*, they wouldn't be able to take SPG?

*Which itself would have golden comic potential, on a par with the "Parachute on acid" thing at the same venue.

Steve Barnes

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:56:48 +1200

We were going to go to Te Feeldays but after having read the draconian regulations regarding dogs, decided not to...
"Animals
"Seeing eye" dogs are the only animals allowed on site at Fieldays (no exceptions). If you bring your pet to Fieldays, or leave your pet in your vehicle, you…

DexterX

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:17:44 +1200

The Young Ones – were illustrative of how the early 20s bachelor pod and associates I mixed with lived in a range of squalid dank inner city Auckland flats. We were all a mix of part of the characters the characters were all parts of us – you look back…

Mr Mark

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 09:41:48 +1200

"Mr Jolly Lives Next Door"

"We're going out with Nicholas BLOODY Parsons !!!"

"Never ever bloody anything ever !!!"

Nicholas (totally mystified) "And that was your winning slogan ?"

"That's right, Nicky, I've lived my life by that rule"

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 08:34:20 +1200

try this on for scythe…
Feel days.
field, eh?
nice…
is there a Cockney aspect too?

Coulda bin Field hay > field’ay > Fielday
Cockies like a good mown…
Baling each other up…
...as the Black Singlet Chorale
bring in their good ’Ar Vests

…and plenty of John Barleycorn of…

Sacha

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 07:55:14 +1200

... 'feel like buying a ute mate?'

Ross Mason

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 23:00:53 +1200

How they think Fieldays works is beyond me?

Feel days. Farmers day: "Gidday, howsit garn?". "Aww mate. Feelin priddy gud."

Lilith __

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:24:46 +1200

Rik Mayall Presents had some real gems. Dancing Queen, with Mayall opposite Helena Bonham-Carter, is my all-time fave. What can be done with a 50-minute time-slot. Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d0kkton-Iw

Lilith __

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:20:42 +1200

For me Rick Mayall and Ad Edmondson’s greatest achievement was “Mr Jolly Lives Next Door”

Who would have thought Fairy Liquid could be so ominous? :-)

nzlemming

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 21:54:49 +1200

How they think Fieldays works is beyond me?

It's a field, eh?

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:23:15 +1200

What's behind the force field?
Fielddays
I reckon that's how it should be spelt, too,
hyphenated even...
How they think Fieldays works is beyond me?

(actually I suspect it is something boring like Copyright and Registered IP that all looked like a good idea at the time...)

Kumara Republic

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:16:22 +1200

If I had the means I would do a split screen

I have access to some video editing software, so I might try giving it a crack.

Hebe

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:03:48 +1200

Funny parallel: Twitter feed today shows a pic of John Key with an enormous drill at the Fielddays. Last night I was watching a News Statesman episode that has Alan B'stard pulling out an enormous (very similar drill) to use on Piers. If I had the means I would do…

Kumara Republic

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 10:51:28 +1200

Ah, now this is why his New Statesman episodes were so incisive and spot-on. It’s such a damned shame we don’t have a political comedy show that similarly skewers the Key regime on the end of a sharp satirical poke.

I'm not even sure there are any for David Cameron,…

Craig Young

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 09:15:34 +1200

Ah, now this is why his New Statesman episodes were so incisive and spot-on. It's such a damned shame we don't have a political comedy show that similarly skewers the Key regime on the end of a sharp satirical poke.

Ben Austin

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 06:28:31 +1200

I found the Bad News CD in Queenstown one summer for a tenner, which was quite a bargain. Dammed if I know what happened to it though

Simon Grigg

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 03:21:00 +1200

More Bad News never gets tired.

And the fact that they actually played Monsters of Rock.

http://youtu.be/N88N0M5dzEA

Greg Wood

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 00:12:18 +1200

Peter Richardson as Mike... I will never watch it the same again. But why am I writing this here, anyway? Nobody ever listens to me. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record.

Kumara Republic

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 22:42:06 +1200

I've just noted it on Wikipedia.

Stewart

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 22:24:53 +1200

From Kevin Turvey right through to Mr Jolly Lives Next Door

From a cold flat in Peel, Isle of Man to the Comic Strip box-set just 2m from my shoulder, Rik Mayall has amused me for over 30 years.
RIP Rik.

BenWilson

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 21:22:17 +1200

I don’t want to re-watch The Young Ones because I have a sneaking suspicion it’s one of those things that had it’s time and place

That was my feeling upon fighting my way through a few of them. The golden moments were still golden, but the bits in between dragged…

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:37:29 +1200

out.standing

Ben Austin

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:36:01 +1200

I think I first saw the Young Ones at primary school, sometime in the late 1980s – early 1990s, probably about the same time as the the New Statesman. He was a huge early influence on us at school – I think someone taped it on TV and we shared…

Rich Lock

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:32:58 +1200

Yeah, all the 'tube ones are geoblocked where I am for some reason.

Virginia Brooks

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:36:56 +1200

'community viewing'

Absolutely. Genius.

Che Tibby

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:09:23 +1200

gary mccormack hosts a rock special on rick springfield... remember how bleak i said the 80s were?

some crimes should never be forgotten.

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:42:27 +1200

semi-bestial?
#spg

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:40:29 +1200

Cliff singing at the funeral

I'd sponsor that

HORansome

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:05:42 +1200

For me Rick Mayall and Ad Edmondson's greatest achievement was "Mr Jolly Lives Next Door", which is what I'm about to watch in remembrance. Everything about it is fried gold, from Nicholas Parsons to Peter Cook.

Robyn Gallagher

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:54:51 +1200

Ah, so I was 10 in 1985. I remember watching the Young Ones involved the ritual of programming our crappy Beta video, so it must have been a Saturday morning treat for my brother and I. Better than What Now!

Blair Rogers

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:50:27 +1200

Wow first screened on 30th Aug 1985 in NZ despite airing originally on the 9th Nov 1982 in the UK. NZ was so awkwardly behind back then.

I remember watching that very first show in NZ and I must say that it was very influential to a just turned 15…

Alan Perrott

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:36:22 +1200

what do you reckon the odds of Cliff singing at the funeral are?

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:34:32 +1200

Here’s a listing in the Listener for the very first screening of the first episode in NZ;

Shot!

Josh Petyt

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:11:20 +1200

I was 12 in 1985 and going through Form 2 at primary school. In my class there was (and it still seems pretty surreal) a punk with dyed hair, safety-pins the whole shebang. A 12-year-old punk. Anyway, I don't remember being friends but I'll never forget that she put me…

Gabor Toth

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:12:06 +1200

Here’s a listing in the Listener for the very first screening of the first episode in NZ;
Friday 30th August 1985 on TV One followed by a five-minute news catch-up and then Gary McCormick hosting “12 O’Clock Rock” (which IIRC was generally pretty crap). Though I have a lot of…

81stcolumn

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:01:26 +1200

Goodbye to one dangerous brother.

http://youtu.be/_30mqmWMvbs

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:45:50 +1200

you need to include the http at the front of the full url (not shortened)

Richard Grevers

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:24:07 +1200

remind me how we embed video again? Just the URL format doesn't seem to work. (Should it be in the mini-help below?)

Grant McDougall

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:02:34 +1200

I was in my mid-teens when The Young Ones first screened in NZ in '85. It became a weekly ritual for my friends and I to go into town on Friday evenings, get someone to buy us under-agers a flagon of beer, then go around to someone's place to watch…

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:54:16 +1200

The soliloquy that gave this post its title.

http://youtu.be/6q0CkeuSqxk

Julian Melville

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:34:33 +1200

In fact, I think the first most New Zealanders saw of it was when the second series of The Young Ones won a Bafta in 84 or 85 (and they showed the scene of Vyvian kicking his head along the railway tracks on the way to University Challenge).

Yup, that's…

Brent Jackson

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:29:36 +1200

My Friday night ritual in 1986 was to walk from my hovel in Commercial Road via the Connon's Bakery for a six-pack of cream doughnuts, to my friends' flat in Third Ave, 'cos they had a TV, just to watch the Young Ones. We were so delighted to see something…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:21:37 +1200

Ade’s tribute.
snap!
;- )

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:20:05 +1200

community viewing

this, most of all.
genius.

Tamara

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:13:09 +1200

My older brother had that book and I loved it to bits. I wish I knew where it was now!

Janet Digby

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:06:19 +1200

Feel compelled to say something. I was just going into my teenage years when I started watching The Young Ones on the fervent recommendation of my cousin who had seen it in England. I didn't understand all of the jokes at first, being that age, although my father, who is…

Mr Mark

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:51:24 +1200

At 3:16 – 3:17 Vicar (Terry Jones) says "Ahhhh, fucken hell !!!"
And then Rik replies "Fuck, it's a bit early for that, isn't it ???"

When that episode was first broadcast here in 85, the censors (inadvertently ?) left the fucks in and I'm pretty sure that was the…

thegirlstefan

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:49:04 +1200

an affectionate tribute from the recent Harry (Enfield) & Paul (Whitehouse) 50 years of BBC2 sketch show. Sums up the Mike factor too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzIaxNIPq40

Tom Ackroyd

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:36:49 +1200

Don't forget, Kevin's ear!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CpHEqxy1jM
And "What are you, Theatre?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmtuVuZj8fk#t=226

Bevan Shortridge

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:36:29 +1200

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwKFGEu7MgI

Bevan Shortridge

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:33:25 +1200

(could only find this on myspace, oddly). Found it on Youtube Bad News – Warriors of Genghis Khan

Rob Hosking

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:18:15 +1200

Impromptu, wordless, rude and yet....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT1cUTJE1Ac

Nick Russell

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:07:25 +1200

Someone, somewhere ought to do a cover version of "I want to drink till I die"...

Samuel Scott

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:04:07 +1200

The Young Ones was like Sunday School in our house. We re-watched it every weekend. And I love all the Comic Strip Presents shows so much. Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, Bad News Tour etc.

More Bad News never gets tired.

Hebe

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:51:20 +1200

Alan B’stard captured the Thatcher Tories so painfully well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvH_hq5WrE#t=80

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:41:25 +1200

This popped up in my Twitter stream – a couple of funny bastards who fire off each other and really know how to work an audience.

Isn't that wonderful? The audience is in tears*.

*In a good way.

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:40:18 +1200

Ade's tribute.

Bob Williams

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:33:58 +1200

Back in the late 70s my then partner was on the same drama school course as Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It was my pleasant duty to attend every performance of their (then) only routine, the infamous Two Americans sketch. Time passed, the audiences got into double figures and one…

Rob Hosking

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:25:15 +1200

Mid '85, it was first shown here. VERY late at night, so as not to upset people.

It became a ritual, at a Very Large Flat I was in, to go to the pitchers on Friday night, come home, let off some fireworks (a flatmate was a dangerous goods inspector…

Lyndon Hood

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:10:55 +1200

That Times front page:

ALL SCHOOLS MUST TEACH WHAT IT IS TO BE BRITISH [photo of Rik]

Lyndon Hood

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:08:28 +1200

This popped up in my Twitter stream – a couple of funny bastards who fire off each other and really know how to work an audience.

(The description says "Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson momentarily break character" but it's more than five minutes.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_X_7TrcHGM

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:06:50 +1200

I always loved the story about how, for some sort of funding or programming reasons, they had to have a music act each week as part of the show.

Well, that bit's true — if they had a musical act then it was classed as "variety" rather than "light entertainment"…

Tim Michie

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:57:57 +1200

So UK TV, who's up for retrospective then, starting with Comic Strip Presents... please. Jennifer Saunders spoke of the early days as friends making each other laugh and I loved these exactly for that.

Danielle

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:49:58 +1200

It's just getting dark in London
and raining, there's no-one on
the real crossing at the moment...
but it can be quite diverting over
our antipodean evenings.

I've done it. I am not ashamed. :)

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:42:50 +1200

Abbey Road pastiche scene
It's just getting dark in London
and raining, there's no-one on
the real crossing at the moment...
but it can be quite diverting over
our antipodean evenings.

(It looks like they've put some devices to stop people parking in camera shot, outside Abbey Road Studio.)

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:41:29 +1200

Amazing ... the front pages.

Kebabette

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:29:59 +1200

One more, just for fun. And Trotsky. Was always going to name my cat Trotsky ...

Kebabette

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:29:10 +1200

Love hearing your stories everybody. I was raised on Young Ones milk ... The People's Poet shows how it is done. Including "raunchy" tribute to Felicity Kendall. From my 1984 copy of Bachelor Boys which has survived earthquakes and too much love. The Poetry of Rick "Have got a tin…

Nick Russell

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:19:46 +1200

I was about about 15 when the Young Ones first hit, and living in England – it probably had the same sort of profound impact Monty Python had on the generation before. I always loved the story about how, for some sort of funding or programming reasons, they had to…

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:17:58 +1200

Well, that didn’t work, did it ?

I fixed your URL above, but I will let the words "complete and utter bastard" stand :-)

Mr Mark

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:14:52 +1200

Well, that didn't work, did it ?

Let's try Filthy, Rich and Catflap again. And if doesn't work this time, you can call me a complete and utter bastard. ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKOc6OG1FJY

Kumara Republic

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:10:13 +1200

The Young Ones first broadcast here in 1985, if I remember rightly. In fact, I think the first most New Zealanders saw of it was when the second series of The Young Ones won a Bafta in 84 or 85 (and they showed the scene of Vyvian kicking his head…

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:06:14 +1200

This wonderful line ...

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:03:07 +1200

Motorhead!

http://youtu.be/YOAz4nPNvLI

Mr Mark

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:02:03 +1200

Sad news.

The Young Ones first broadcast here in 1985, if I remember rightly. In fact, I think the first most New Zealanders saw of it was when the second series of The Young Ones won a Bafta in 84 or 85 (and they showed the scene of Vyvian kicking…

Russell Brown

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:00:31 +1200

We had many (p)Riks at Southampton Uni in the early 1980s. Come third year, most of them cut their hair and interviewed for Andersen Consulting. I suspect they are now CEOs.

Rick's probably a Lib Dem councillor and lost his seat last week.

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:56:09 +1200

I don't want to re-watch The Young Ones because I have a sneaking suspicion it's one of those things that had it's time and place but won't age at all well. (Who does?) But everything I read about Mayal, he came across as someone who really took thinks seriously enough…

Robyn Gallagher

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:53:58 +1200

I was about eight years old when I first saw The Young Ones, and like a lot of kids, I loved it, literally rolling on the floor laughing and memorising lines. And the magic of the show was how its comedy appealed to different audiences, with there being more to…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:51:41 +1200

Going into the West Country...
Adrian Edmondson pays tribute:
"There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing. They were some of the most carefree stupid days I ever had, and I feel privileged to have shared them with him. And now he's died…

Robert Fox

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:49:49 +1200

Rik Mayal and the Young Ones Commic strip brought great joy during pretty bleak times in the UK. Feeling nostalgic and very sad today.

Alan Perrott

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:43:31 +1200

and the show was perfectly timed in so many ways, but mostly because the scheduling allowed for the last call at the Windsor, a dash to the car, then back to whoever had the nearest telly. like radio with pictures that was community viewing.
and as for the ska on…

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:33:22 +1200

We had many (p)Riks at Southampton Uni in the early 1980s. Come third year, most of them cut their hair and interviewed for Andersen Consulting. I suspect they are now CEOs.

Rich Lock

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:24:37 +1200

https://myspace.com/mayallrik/video/warriors-of-ghengis-khan/7752475

(could only find this on myspace, oddly).

Craig Young

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:04:53 +1200

As a twentysomething back in the eighties, I loved the Young Ones...and later Blackadder and the New Statesman, Rik's wickedly funny skewering of the hypocritical self-serving nature of the Thatcher personality cult during that overly long period of UK Conservative Party dominance. RIP Rik, you will be much missed and…

Nik Dirga

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:01:34 +1200

Growing up in small-town America in the 1980s, discovering 'The Young Ones' for the first time was revelatory. It made me realise there was a world outside my country, and that I'd like to see it. (And here I am 30 years later, living in New Zealand.)

Rik was the…

Che Tibby

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:55:37 +1200

your quote is very apt. being a teen in the 80s was just so goddamn bleak, what with the economy in the loo and the very real threat of nuclear annilation. discovering a series of lunatics on the TV was what helped keep us sane.

to this day i resent…

Public Address

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:55:37 +1200

Discussion from blog post.