Remembering Rik Mayall

Bambi. The first episode of Series 2. Broadcast on BBC2 on 8th May 1984.

It’s probably the most famous half-hour The Young Ones ever did, and when you look at who was in it, it’s not hard to see why.

Sitting directly below Scumbag College on the University Challenge set were Footlights College — Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, and Ben Elton. Griff Rhys Jones was the host. You also had Robbie Coltrane, Tony Robinson, Alexei Sayle, and Mel Smith making appearances. Oh, and Motörhead playing “Ace of Spades” in the living room just for good measure.

It was an absolute collision of British comedy talent. Almost every significant name from that era crammed into one chaotic, joyful, completely unhinged episode.

Everyone knows the gr***de, the cheating, and the giant éclair. It’s an episode that is burned into the memory of anyone who watched it.

If you had to pick one moment from Bambi that still makes you laugh out loud, what is it?

Eddie, you stupid b-stard. You actually think I believe you, don’t you? Waltzing in here at half past ten this morning, stinking of Old Spice and whatever you’ve been drinking since Tuesday, with that ridiculous smug look on your fat, stupid face.

You spent the night at Ethel Cardew’s. Ethel Cardew. The woman who looks like she’s been hit repeatedly with a shovel and enjoyed it. I mean, it’s disgusting. It really is.

And you expect me — Richie Richard, the Hammersmith Casanova, a man who has to practically fight the ladies off with a stick — to sit here and listen to this? While you are out there supposedly getting your leg over with Ethel Cardew? It makes me want to be physically sick, Eddie. Right here, on the carpet. Not that you’d notice — you’d probably just drink it.

It’s a lie, of course. It’s a desperate, grubby little lie from a desperate, grubby little drunk. You probably just passed out in someone’s front garden and couldn’t find your way home. But oh no, not Eddie. Eddie’s been with a woman.

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you — why don’t you crawl away and die in a ditch somewhere, you b-stard.

Poor Richie, all he wanted was the love of a good woman... well not even a good one, any old one would do.

Look at those prices, a bargain back then.

It would have been amazing to see Rik Mayall in his early days. I saw him in Bottom Live in the early 2000s, which was incredible, seeing him and Ade in full flow like that.

To have watched him doing other live shows in the 80s must have been something else.

What’s your favourite live performance of his that you’ve seen on TV or online? Or maybe you were lucky enough to see him live yourself.