hwong
Subject: British Comedy: The Rik Mayall FAQ v1.36
Date: 2 Apr 1996 18:58:01 GMT
Summary: This is an information file on the British comedic actor Rik Mayall
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]


Posting-Frequency: monthly
Version: 1.36
Last updated: 13 January 1996
URL: http://www.brad.ac.uk/%7Eachwong/Comedy/Mayall.html


                        RIK MAYALL F.A.Q. (v1.36)
                        -------------------------

1. Who is Rik Mayall?
2. Personal info
3. What's he done?
3a. TELEVISION
3b. Film
3c. Video
3d. Theatre
3e. Live - 'Stand Up'
4. His agent
5. Contributions and thanks


1. Who is Rik Mayall?
=====================

He is one of the best British comedic actors in the U.K., right now, known
especially for his brand of physical, violent portrayals. He said himself once
that he preferred to play characters that the audience hated.

He's best known for his roles in The Young Ones, Bottom, The New Statesman
and Rik Mayall Presents...

2. Personal info
================

He only got DDN at A-levels, but got to read for Drama at Manchester 
University through Clearing. Whilst there he formed a Theatre Company 
called 20th Century Coyote which he later took to the Edinburgh Festival 
with great critical success and subsequently to the Comic Strip in Soho. 
On leaving university he played Dromio of Syracuse in the Oxford and 
Cambridge Shakespeare Company production of COMEDY OF ERRORS which 
toured America for 3 months.

He was going out with Lise Meyer at the time of The Young Ones, but
ditched her when she was pregnant for his current wife. "He
refuses to discuss it now, even to give his side of the story".

3. What's he done?
==================

TELEVISION
==========

THE YOUNG ONES
--------------
This programme made him famous. As well as co-writing it with Lise Meyer and
Ben Elton, he also played 'Rik' - a middle-class student trying to be a
left-wing radical while at the same time annoying everyone. Students of
the 1990s would call him "sad". Two series were made in 1982 and 1984.

There is a Young Ones F.A.Q. file available (see below)

BOTTOM
------
Some have called this the sequel to The Young Ones, in that it takes the two
main characters Rik and Vyvyan, updates them, changes their names and puts them
together in a flat somewhere trying to get girls. It's written by Rik Mayall
and Adrian Edmondson and three series have been made.

There is also a Bottom F.A.Q. available (see below)

THE NEW STATESMAN
-----------------
Rik plays a radical right-wing Yorkshire Tory MP, always out to
make a quick buck and a bang at the expense of anyone else. Heavy-handed
political satire but it still manages to be funny. Produced by Yorkshire
Television, there were four serials and a 90-minute special.
.It won many awards including the International Emmy Award 1989, the
BAFTA Best Comedy Series for 1990 and at the International Film & TV Festival
of New York in January 1991, it was awarded the Special Craft Gold Medal
for Best Perfomer and Narrator.
.A script book of the series is available of the series. The ISBN
number is 0 233 98797 5, and is published by Andre Deutsch. It's written
by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.

BLACKADDER 1
------------
"Mad Gerald" - who is, no doubt, rather loopy...

BLACKADDER 2 and 4
------------------
Appearing in a cameo role as Lord or Lieutenant Flash-heart, an
arrogant larger-than-life ladies' man.

RIK MAYALL PRESENTS....
-----------------------
A series of 1-hour TV films for Granada TV (available individually on
videotape) broadcast in Easter 1993 in which :

1. MICKY LOVE - He plays a washed-out paranoid game show host

2. BRIEFEST ENCOUNTER - features Amanda Donohoe (the bi-sexual leather-jacket
   lawyer from LA Law), as a woman Rik Mayall picks up at a party and takes
   to her apartment. They both start thinking the other is a
   potential homicidal maniac... (I haven't seen this yet !)

3. DANCING QUEEN - starring Rik Mayall as a Southern rich upper-class bloke
   on his stag night who meets a Yorkshire stripper with a vaguely
   Lancastrian accent played by Helena Bonaham-Carter (the saving grace
   of Howards' End) when his friends put him on a one-way train to
   Scarborough.... Nice, warm, romantic... made me miss home an awful lot !

A second series of RIK MAYALL PRESENTS was shown in February 1995.
Alas I missed it completely, but it was about:

4. THE BIG ONE - Rik plays an estate agent who assumes the identity of
   a dead man (as yer do...)

5. DIRTY OLD TOWN - Rik is a tramp who, after an unfortunate accident, is
   mistaken for a hot new scriptwriter

6. CLARE DE LUNE - Rik is a widowed taxi driver who, with his daughter,
   gets taken hostage by an attractive young lady.

He has also appeared in:

A KICK UP THE EIGHTIES as Kevin Turvey - BBC TV
COMIC STRIP PRESENTS.... - series for Channel 4
FILTHY, RICH AND CATFLAP - BBC TV
SATURDAY LIVE as The Dangerous Brothers - LWT / CH 4
GRIMM TALES - Series 1 & 2, GRIMMS FAIRY TALES - Initial / Central TV
GEORGE'S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE for Jackanory, 5 episodes - BBC TV
THE FROG PRINCE - THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH, again for Jackanory, BBC TV
HOW TO BE A LITTLE SOD (voice only)
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (voice only)

(* Jackanory is a BBC childeren TV regular series where a guest star sits
down and tells the children a story using pictures to accompany the text.)

FILM
====

DROP DEAD FRED
--------------
This was his big Hollywood movie, starring opposite Phoebe Cates as her
invisible childhood friend up to no general good. Produced in 1991 by Working
Title Films, it completely flopped.

He has also appeared in:

SHOCK TREATMENT (sequel to Rocky Horror Picture Show) as Ricki (male nurse)
THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE                   Dir : Richard Marguant
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)   Lyncanthrope Films
COUPLES AND ROBBERS (short film)        Dir : Claire Peploe
WHOOPS APOCALYPSE as SAS Commander      Dir : Tom Busman (1986)
LITTLE NOISES as Mathius                Monument Films
EAT THE RICH (1987)
LITTLE NOISES (1991)
HORSE OPERA                             Initial / CH 4
CARRY ON COLUMBUS (1992)                Comedy House
THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN (1993 - voice only)

VIDEO
=====
KEVIN TURVEY INVESTIGATES...

BOTTOM LIVE, the tape of their stage version of BOTTOM is now available
on PAL format via BBC Enterprises.

BOTTOM LIVE 2 - THE BIG NUMBER TWO TOUR (their second tour)

OUT OF MY HEAD - WITH RIK MAYALL - a video about drugs and drug education.

THEATRE
=======
BOTTOM stage tour, with Adrian Edmondson from April to June 1993
MAN EQUALS MAN as Uriah                         Manchester Contact Theatre
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR as Khelstakov          National Theatre
THE COMMON PURSUIT by Simon Gray (as Nick)      Phoenix Theatre, London
WAITING FOR GODOT as Vladimir                   Queens Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave.
CELL MATES, with Stephen Fry, Feb.1995          Albery Theatre, London.
BOTTOM: THE BIG NO.2 TOUR with Ade Edmondson.Autumn 1995, nationwide

He also appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 1979 in a show called DEATH
ON THE TOILET. He was charging one pound to see it at the time. However,
according to the Festival programme, it's written by Nanker Phelge. In the
programme, they write:

--
"Twentieth Century Coyote

Death on the Toilet by Nanker Phelge.

Where will you be when the day of judgement comes? More to the point - 
what will you be doing? Hmmm. I don't know, but I'm changing my 
underwear regularly just in case. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if you 
died on the .. the er... um... it would be. And what happens when you 
get up there? I mean all the judging and that? Hmmm. I don't know, I 
only hope you can get legal aid."

"More moving than All-Bran" B Max.
"An emotional laxative" Marjorie Poops. (agony aunt for the Daily Mirror)
"I ran out of paper" The Times."
---

And at another point in the program, it says :-

"Phoenix Festival Co. - Liz - ...by the writers of our 1978 hit "The Young Ones"

Now maybe, just maybe, that inspired the title.....

LIVE - 'Stand up'
================
in the U.K. and Australia. All tours SOLD OUT

COMIC STRIP                             UK                              1982
KEVIN TURVEY and BASTARD SQUAD          UK                              1983
RIK MAYALL, BEN ELTON, ANDY DE LA TOUR  Edinburgh Festival / UK Tour    1983
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                UK                              1984
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                UK                              1985
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                UK                              1985
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                Ibitha                          1985
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                Australia                       1986
RIK MAYALL and ANDY DE LA TOUR          UK 67 dates                     1989
RIK MAYALL and ANDY DE LA TOUR          UK March 2 weeks                1990
RIK MAYALL and BEN ELTON                UK June                         1992

Also, in 1987 Rik Mayall and Ben Elton did a series of stand-up shows in Perth,
Western Australia.  According to Des Shaw, Managing Director of Triple M,
a local FM radio station, the shows were at what used to be called
Club 242 at the Leederville Hotel in West Perth.  During this period,
Rik & Ben also did a one-off evening radio slot at 96FM, during which they
played Living Doll, and did quite a lot of funny stuff live in the studio.

BOOK
====

BATCHELOR BOYS: THE YOUNG ONES BOOK
-----------------------------------

First published in 1984, it was last re-printed in 1989, though
there was an Australian re-print in September 1993. According to
the sleeve, it was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Meyer
but according to the credits in the beginning, it was written by
Terence Blacker. The ISBN number is 0 7221 5765 7.
 
Published by : Sphere Books
               27 Wrights Lane
               London W8 5TZ
               UNITED KINGDOM
 
Priced at 5.99 pounds, or Australian/Canadian $12.99, or New
Zealand $19.95
 
It's a book written by the "gang" and contains tips on how to cheat
in exams, how to spot a French exchange student, the joys on hitch-
hiking, an interview with David Bowie, and nude shots of the boys!!

4. His agent?

Agent : Aude Powell
.The Brunskill Management Limited
        Suite 8A
        169 Queens Gate
        LONDON SW7 5EH
        Tel. (+44) (0) 171 584 8060
        Fax. (+44) (0) 1768 881 850

5. Contributions and thanks

Please E-mail me if you have any corrections, additions or comments....

All info taken from press releases and what I've read, with help from
Chris Bone, Greg Hawkins, Greg O'Beirne and Rich Johnston. However all 
mistakes rest with me !

There are other files available from me concering Ben Elton, Adrian
Edmondson, and The Young Ones. These files can be found by FTPing to:

cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/
src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/media/tv/collections/tardis/uk/comedy/

Or using your WWW browser and pointing it to:

http://cathouse.org/BritishComedy/
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/media/tv/collections/tardis/
http://www.brad.ac.uk/~achwong/comgfx.html

In the last resort, you can mail me at achwong@bradford.ac.uk, for
comments, brickbats, insults or if you're just plain bored!

By the way, if you want any British items, let me know. I can accept 
American currency...

Finally, this FAQ is postcard-ware i.e. if you really liked it then I 
would appreciate a postcard from you! The address is:
....10 Gerllan
....Tywyn
....Gwynedd
....LL36 9DE
....UNITED KINGDOM

Thank you very much and good night...

Andrew Wong..     WWW: http://www.brad.ac.uk/%7Eachwong/comgfx.html
-----x-----..Internet: achwong@bradford.ac.uk
Rick: "Honestly, I don't know why I        Take a look at the Web page for
       bother sometimes..."                the Young Ones FAQ and other biogs.
 Vyv: "I don't know why you bother ever."  Ask me for more details !
