Young Ones, The

The Young Ones is an 80's surreal comedy about four students who share a flat together in London. It stars Rik Mayall as Rick, Adrian Edmondson as Vyvyan, Nigel Planer as Neil and Christopher Ryan as Mike. It also features Alexei Sayle, who plays landlord Jerzy Balowski. Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who studies sociology, Vyvyan is a punk medical student (which is somewhat ironic, due to the fact that he likes to inflict pain on others, especially Rick) Neil is a hippy with a mild obsession with lentils, and Mike is the cool, mysterious one who the others look up to and respect the most. I love this show because it's so different from any other comedy. ...  Read the complete review

The Young Ones was to television comedy what some of the more outrageous pop artists are to rock'n'roll. The programme was the Eminem of comedy. Loved by a section of society separated from the remainder almost entirely on the grounds of age. While young people loved it, anyone over 35 probably hated it and probably didn't understand it. It was either brilliantly innovative or brilliantly exploitative whichever way you looked at it. Fans can recite huge tracts of the script verbatim, detractors would consider this silly. It did however mark a new watershed in comedy for it defined that humour was not universal and could be honed to appeal to a narrow section ...  Read the complete review

Created by Rik Mayall, Lise Mayer and Ben Elton Starring Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan and Alexei Sayle. This comedy show began it life in 1982 until 1984, creating 12 episodes split into 2 series. Its style of humour being new to the BBC at the time (and it did receive a lot of complaints), but soon became a hit, especially with the younger, more rebellious of the audience. The format for the show was simple, it involved a the lives of a group of 'mature' students living in a grotty shared house. Following their day to day antics as they struggle to survive on a their student income. **THE ...  Read the complete review

Around 1981 comedy was undergoing a change. What was later to be branded “alternative comedy” was delivering a brash, scathing and irreverent tirade of anti establishment humour in response to too many years of safe sitcoms and golf playing forty something stand up comedians telling mother in law jokes and predictable stories. Doing the rounds were a couple of youngsters performing an act called the Dangerous Brothers in which Rik Mayall had perfected a pompous off-the-wall prat of a poet to play off Ade Edmondson’s, mad, fearless, self abusing punk whirlwind in a small TV show called Boom Boom…Out Go the Lights. At this time TV was showing more interest in this new ...  Read the complete review

Running for two series of six episodes each, the Young Ones starred Rik Mayall as Rick the 'peoples' poet' virginal fan of Cliff Richard, Adrian Edmondson as insane and violent punk Vyvian, Christopher Ryan as 'cool guy' Mike and Nigel Planer as depressed hippie Neil. Alexei Sayle would also often show up as part of the Russian/scouse/cockney Balowski family, crack a joke, and leave. British alternative comedy was at its satirical prime in the 1980s, and shows such as the Young Ones managed to tread new ground with the franchise as well as make a lot of over-emphasised comments on Thatcher's Government. The series was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and ...  Read the complete review