Adrian Edmondson says his time shooting ‘Bottom’ with Rik Mayall led to them both landing in hospital.
Adrian Edmondson says his time shooting ‘Bottom’ with Rik Mayall led to them both landing in hospital
The comic, 67, made the anarchic sitcom with Rik, who died aged 56 in 2014, in the 1990s, which featured the pair as flatmates Eddie Hitler and Richard ‘Richie’ Richard battering each other to near death in every episode.
Adrian, who also starred in ‘The Young Ones’ with Rik, says in a new documentary on the show: “A long time ago, deep in the mists of time, two blokes – I was one of them, Rik Mayall was the other – decided to make a career out of beating (up) each other.
“It was a tempestuous, an anarchic and occasionally quite a dangerous time – we both required hospital treatment on occasion – but above all, it was good fun.
“We made each other laugh and, luckily for us, we made audiences laugh.”
Adrian revisits the show in comedy channel Gold’s ‘Bottom: Exposed’, which will featured never-before-broadcast footage and a look at the relationship between Adrian and Rik.
The Gold special will be narrated by Stephen Fry, 66, with whom Rik worked on ‘Blackadder’ when he played swashbuckling ‘Lord Flashheart’.
Bottom saw Adrian play Edward ‘Eddie’ Elizabeth Hitler and starred Rik as Richard ‘Richie’ Richard as flatmates living in a squalid flat in Hammersmith, London, with the pair constantly trying to find women.
A film of the show called ‘Guest House Paradiso’ that saw them run a guest house was released in 1999.
Executive producer of the ‘Bottom’ documentary Matt Crook said: “It was such a huge show and has never had a documentary until now, so we feel incredibly privileged and excited to be given this opportunity by UKTV to work with Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall’s estate to celebrate one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.”
‘Bottom: Exposed’ will air on Gold later this year.
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