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The Young Ones (TV series)

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The Young Ones was a British sitcom about four male students sharing a house. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, and Lise Mayer, with additional contributions by Alexei Sayle (usually involving his own performances). The show was directed by Geoff Posner and produced by Paul Jackson for the BBC between 1982 and 1984. The show developed a cult following throughout the English-speaking world.

File:YOUNG ONES.jpg
The Young Ones; Left to right: Jerzei Balowski (Alexei Sayle), Neil (Nigel Planer), Rikk (Rik Mayall), Mike (Christopher Ryan) & Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson)

Synopsis

The show was mostly set in the shared house where the students lived, whilst they studied at Scumbag College, and satirized British universities in the early 1980s with the use of stock characters and gags based around class issues. It can be classified as a comedy of manners. It was noted at the time of its first airing for its violent slapstick: jokes often involved the main characters hitting each other with various objects within reach. There was also a large amount of surrealism, with each episode also including scenes with puppets playing the part of talking animals or objects.

Many episodes originally included "flash frames" lasting only a fraction of a second, but these were edited out of most reruns. These were included as a mockery of the paranoia that was rife at the time of subliminal messages in television, music and music played backwards. These frames only appeared in the second series. The series originally ran to 35 minutes per episode, and many episodes were cut for timing when repeated on the BBC or satellite channels.

Theme music

The theme tune to the series was the cast singing the Cliff Richard song "Young Ones"; there are also many references to Richard, who is the main characters' idol, an ironic contrast to Richard's "old granny" image. Suprisingly, although the show featured many celebrity and music guests, Richard never appeared in person. However, in 1986, two years after the show went off the air, the four housemates got to sing with him for Comic Relief (despite being "dead.") The song, a reworking of Richard's 1950s smash "Living Doll" was a number one hit in the UK. Two years earlier, in the aftermath of the second series, Nigel Planer (who portrayed Neil on the show) got to No.2 in the UK charts with a version of "Hole In My Shoe".

Famous bands would often make guest appearances on the show, playing, for no apparent reason, in the house or the street. By including the groups, the show qualified as light entertainment and therefore got a higher budget than a mere sitcom - useful, considering the amount of set that got smashed up every week. Some of these performances were omitted from the DVDs for lack of copyright clearance, although the DVDs on current release in the UK have all musical performances included.

Characters

Neil Pye

Played by Nigel Planer, Neil - a hippie - is a clinically depressed pacifist, insomniac and vegetarian. Studying the nonexistent degree of "Peace Studies," Neil is forced by the others to do all the housework, shopping and cooking. Neil dislikes technology, and speaks out for "Vegetable Rights and Peace" (Bambi). Neil tends to drone on, and gets caught out when exposed to expressions and figures of speech, but is also the most knowledgeable of the four. Neil is (the only?) son of doting but pushy high society parents who visit him in one episode. (neil - usually written entirely in lowercase - is also referred to as Watkins-Weedon-Pye in the Young Ones book).

Rick

Played by Rik Mayall, Rick (no last name known) is a self-described anarchist and poet, studying sociology. Rick is a tantrum-throwing attention seeker. Vyvyan said in Bambi that "Rick" is spelt with a silent P at the beginning (as in PRick), and Rick is indeed portrayed as intensely unlikeable. He is so self-absorbed that he believes that he is the "most popular member of the flat," and calls himself the "People's Poet" and the "spokesperson of a generation." In reality, Rick exaggerates or outright lies about his endeavours, and is easily the most despised of the four. His claims of political activism and working class heroism are exposed as a sham in the last episode, when it is revealed that he in fact grew up in an upper-class suburb. Rick tries desperately to express his wit, talent and humour to no avail, as he lacks all three qualities. He sucks up to Mike, who ignores him.

Vyvyan Bastard

Played by Adrian Edmondson, "Vyv" was a punk medical student, studying to be a doctor. Vyvyan's mother has been a shoplifter and a barmaid who, before Boring, Vyvyan hadn't seen in 10 years. He does not know anything about his father: "I do wish you would stop asking me [how Dad is] Vyvyan, you know I have no idea who he is." Vyvyan displays feats of inhuman strength on occasions (removing entire walls with his bare hands, throwing full-sized TV sets out of the window, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick), and eats just about anything (TV's, cornflakes with tomato sauce, dead rats and pigeons, etc.) Vyvyan hates Rick the most out of his flatmates, and victimises Neil although doesn't dislike him half as much. He has some respect for Mike, however, and is often active as Mike's personal enforcer (see Oil) or sidekick. He owns a yellow Ford Anglia with flames painted along the sides. Despite being a homicidial maniac, Vyvyan seemed quite sociable and creative; he has often mixed up potions of his own creation, is a whiz at electrics, to the extent of causing havoc or damage (he created a vacuum cleaner that sucks up the carpet and floorboards in Interesting, and attached the doorbell to a bomb in Nasty. Vyvyan's favourite party game is one he made up called "Dissection."

Michael "Mike" TheCoolPerson

Played by Christopher Ryan, Mike was unintentionally the odd one out of the four. Mike was supposedly a cool, unflappable ladies' man who had wrangled grants and a University place without having to study because he had compromising photographs of the Dean. He refers to his major as "the school of life." Mike has a high opinion of his skill with women, although he is eventually forced to admit his virginity to the others (see Nasty). He enjoys Vyvyan's company, merely tolerating the others. A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick, dirty money, such as renting out Rick's room as a roller-disco in Oil, and his own room to a lion-tamer in Flood.

(Ryan was selected for the part at the last minute after original actor Peter Richardson fell out with producer Paul Jackson; he was the only one of the cast with no experience as a comedian.)

Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle played various different roles, including the students' Polish landlord, Jerzei Balowski, and members of his family (nephew Alexei, a protest singer; son Reggie, an international arms dealer; brother Billy, a lunatic taxi driver; and cousin Tommy, a drunk), as well as other characters in the second season, which included a train driver, a Mussolini cabaret act, and "Harry the Bastard," a man who lends the lads a VCR, but pretends to be a South African vampire to make them pay £500 for a late return; Brian Damage, an escaped convict; a medieval jester (with Helen Lederer as his sidekick); and, extremely briefly, a customer at a cheese shop (in a daft homage to Monty Python.) He would routinely interject his own material into the program.

Recurring characters

There was also a regular puppet character, Vyvyan's pet hamster, SPG (Special Patrol Group.) SPG is basically a hamster version of Vyvyan who likes curries (Oil) and is a fan of the Jaws movies (Flood). In Oil, Vyvyan mentions that he starves SPG often because he doesn't want to spoil him, and tells the other flatmates not to feed him; in the same episode Vyvyan said he was going to change SPG's name to 'Cliff Richard' to annoy Rick, and uses Rick's roll-on deodorant - because SPG "was a bit wiffy" - eliciting protest from SPG, who doesn't think much of smelling like a student's armpit. SPG also uses carrots to stick "down his trousers to impress the girls". SPG has often ended up as the target of Vyvyan's violence. SPG died in Summer Holiday, on the radiator of Vyvyan's yellow Ford Anglia.

A secret character, looking similar to Neil, can be observed in at least 5 episodes, usually seated in the background and rather hard to notice.

Finale

Template:Spoiler The four students are rendered homeless during the summer holiday period, and decide to rob a bank. They make their escape in a red London double-decker bus, only for them to crash through a giant billboard advertising Cliff Richard and go over a real seaside cliff, exploding into flames at the bottom. This was atypical of many sitcom endings, as it ended the show's popularity on a high, without a loss of good ideas, storylines, or jokes, and allowed the cast and writers to move on to new projects before they became too typecast.

Mayall and Edmondson elaborated on some of the series' concepts later in their sitcoms Filthy, Rich and Catflap (written by Elton) and Bottom.

Most of the regular cast (and several of the guests) also appeared in Channel 4's anthology of comedy films, The Comic Strip Presents. All four main actors have gained reputations as dramatic, as well as comedic, actors.

In one episode of the show, Bambi, the four appeared on University Challenge, where they played against Footlights College, Oxbridge. The episode title is a reference to the show's presenter, Bamber Gascoigne. In a bizarre example of life imitating art, a contestant on a real-life edition of University Challenge who did not know the answer to a question answered "Toxteth O'Grady, USA", the answer of two questions used on the fake version.

Mayall made guest appearances in the first, second and fourth seasons of Blackadder, another cult British comedy series.

Guests

Guest appearances

  • Mark Arden - as policeman #1 in Boring; as cornflakes box dad in Bomb; as gatecrasher #1 in Interesting; as gravedigger #1 and police victim #1 in Flood; as headless ghost #1 in Cash; as spy #1 in Nasty; as manure deliverer #1 in Sick
  • Helen Atkinson-Wood - as the woman in the painkiller advert in Nasty
  • Nicholas Ball - as Rick's lecturer in Interesting
  • Gary Beadle - as the DJ's servant in Time
  • Chris Barrie - as the ship captain in the wall-poster in Nasty
  • Paul Bradley - as the pilot in Demolition; as Warlock in Interesting and Cash
  • Arnold Brown - as the criminal cast in the pit in Flood
  • Robbie Coltrane - as the doorman in Oil; as Dr Carlisle in Bambi; as the one-eyed DJ in Time
  • Andy de la Tour - as the co-pilot in Demolition; as the road safety announcer in Cash
  • Ben Elton - as the TV presenter in Demolition; as the blind DJ in Flood; as Mr Kendal-Mintcake in Bambi; as the campaigning schoolboy in Sick; as the drinker in the lager advert in Summer Holiday
  • Alan Freeman - as God in Cash and Summer Holiday
  • Dawn French - as the religious visitor in Interesting; as the devil in the painkiller advert in Nasty; as the Easter bunny in Time
  • Stephen Frost - as policeman #2 in Boring; as gatecrasher #2 in Interesting; as gravedigger #2 and police victim #2 in Flood; as headless ghost #2 in Cash; as spy #2 in Nasty; as manure deliverer #2 in Sick; as the bank manager in Summer Holiday; and as Lord Snot in Bambi
  • Gareth Hale - as medieval guard #1 in Flood; as gravedigger #1 in Nasty; as yokel #1 in Time
  • Lenny Henry - as the postman in Summer Holiday
  • Terry Jones - as the vicar in Nasty
  • Hugh Laurie - as Lord Monty in Bambi
  • Helen Lederer - as Gwendolyn the jester's assistant in Time; as the repetitive bank teller in Summer Holiday
  • Norman Lovett - as the penny arcade owner in Summer Holiday
  • Paul Merton (under his real name of Paul Martin) - as yokel #3 in Time
  • Norman Pace - as medieval guard #2 in Flood; as gravedigger #2 in Nasty; as yokel #2 in Time
  • Daniel Peacock - as the stabbed man in Nasty
  • David Rappaport - as Futumch the devil in Boring; as Shirley in Flood
  • Tony Robinson - as Dr Not The Nine O'Clock News in Bambi; as a convict on the wall-poster in Nasty
  • Griff Rhys-Jones - as Bambi in Bambi
  • Jennifer Saunders (Edmondson's wife) - as Sue the party guest in Interesting; as Helen the murderess in Time
  • Mel Smith - as the commissionaire in Bambi
  • Emma Thompson - as Miss Money-Sterling in Bambi

Musical guests

No musical act appeared on the episode Flood; instead, a lion tamer was recruited to fit the criteria for a light entertainment budget. He did his act in Mike's bedroom (for the purposes of the plot - in reality he was super-imposed) and did not receive a crediting. Vyvyan refers to him at the end as 'Bobby'.

Episode List

Series 1 (1982)

  • Demolition - The boys get a letter from the council telling them their squalid house will be demolished
  • Oil - Upon moving into a new house, Vyvyan strikes oil in the cellar
  • Boring - The boys attempt to fight off boredom whilst several very exciting things go unnoticed around them
  • Bomb - An unexploded atomic bomb falls through the boys' roof and blocks the refrigerator
  • Interesting - The flat hosts a party that gets out of hand
  • Flood - During heavy rains, London floods and the boys are trapped in the house with a homicidal, axe-wielding Mr. Balowski

Series 2 (1984)

  • Bambi - The boys go to the laundrette and compete on University Challenge
  • Cash - cash-strapped, Neil is forced (by his flatmates) to join the police force
  • Nasty - a strange package from South Africa interferes with plans to watch porn on a rented VCR
  • Time - For a first, Rick wakes up in bed next to a beautiful girl, and Neil is forced to change a light bulb while subsequently becoming a human vacuum cleaner
  • Sick - While ill, the boys must deal with an escaped criminal and Neil's parents
  • Summer Holiday - When the summer break comes, things only get worse

Quotes

  • (Neil to Rick) I really hate to lay this one on you man, but you can't crucify yourself. I've tried it hundreds of times, there's no way you can hammer in the last nail.
  • (Rick, pointing to band) Amazulu. (SPG, in reply) Is that right? I'm a Glaswegian.
  • (Vyvyan) My knickers are so old, it's only the stubborn understains that are holding them together.
  • (Policeman #1): I had a row with the wife last night about the Pope. (Policeman #2): that was stupid, you know she's Catholic. (Policeman #1): Yeah, I know she's Catholic, but I didn't know the Pope was.
  • (Policeman #2): That's a laugh, innit. (Policeman #1): What is? (Policeman #2): That noise you make in the back of your throat when you hear a joke. (Policeman #1): Yeah, that's a laugh.
  • (Woman): Excuse me, do you dig graves? (Neil): Yeah, they're alright.
  • (Rick): I'm having the bed, Neil, you can sleep on the floor! (Neil): Oh, okay then, Rick. (Rick, annoyed): What did you say! You just called me a bastard didn't you?
  • (Rick, to Madness): Do any of you know "Summer Holiday" by Cliff Richard? (Graham "Suggs" McPherson) You hum it, I'll smash your face in!
  • (Vyvyan) When the vampire comes then we'll all know who's a sissy virgin! (Aside) Gosh, I hope snogging with SPG counts!
  • (Rick) Oh Cliff/Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if/You really are a cliff/when fascists keep trying to push you over it/Are they the Lemmings/Or are you cliff?/Or are you Cliff?
  • (Vyvyan) This calls for a very special blend of psychology....and extreme violence.
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