Bottom's Back! Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson to reunite

Spin-off series of the classic BBC comedy will see Richie and Eddie marooned on an isolated tropical hell-hole

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-08-23/bottoms-back-rik-mayall-and-ade-edmondson-to-reunite-in-hooligans-island-on-bbc2

I've been buzzing off this ever since I saw Ade tweeing he was "writing with this b****rd again."

At the same time I'm both excited and a little worried. Excited that these two comedy greats are going to be back on tv together again. I've been rewatching Bottom recently and was lamenting that we have nothing like it on TV at the moment. When I also saw Ade Edmondson on (I think it was) Sport Relief with Rik making a cameo appearance, it showed to me they could still definitely be funny. However when you see other older comedians who have had comebacks on BBC in recent years such as Reeves and Mortimer, part of you thinks that they've had their day and we really should be getting new talent in. Where are the modern Rik and Ade? Where is the modern 'Young Ones' on the BBC? We need fresh blood.

Having said that, can't wait to see 'Hooligans Island' anyway!

Weren't Richie and Eddie machine-gunned in the last episode? I am sure I remember this.

Didn't stop them coming back for several live shows and a film after that episode was made Though I suppose the film did technically have different characters in it.

Just in time! I LOVE that show!!

I don't know much about the film. How were they technically different characters?

They were killed off a few times before - in the Funfair episode for example.

Not the biggest difference, but in the series, they're called Richard Richard and Eddie Hitler, in the films they're called Richard T**t and Eddie Ndingombaba. COMPLETELY different characters i'm sure you'll agree Even if they do wear the same outfits

They've essentially been playing variations of the same characters for about 30 years now.

Rick and Vyvian, The Dangerous Brothers, Dreamy Time Escorts, Richie Rich and Eddie Catflap ... that's just the 1980's!
All the same hilariously puerile, extremely silly, OTT slapstick comedy violence. Only character names have changed.

4oD on YouTube - The Comic Strips Presents ... Mr Jolly Lives Next Door

Rik admitte,d when he and Ade appeared on The Big Breakfast, that they'd had been playing the same characters for years, albeit with different names. I think the clip's on Youtube somewhere.

Highly anticipating this - for several years I'd assumed they wouldn't write another Bottom, much less it being on the BBC*, so I'll say it came as a bit of a surprise!

With them stuck on Hooligan's Island, if it's similar the stage play (sans messing-up the already flimsy plot ), be interesting to see if / how they manage a whole series as a two-hander, and in practically one scenario.

That said, I've always considered 'Hole' from Series 3 - with the two trapped on a ferris wheel at midnight for the entirety - to be a great episode. So, if the writing's good...


* To be honest, I'd have expected the Beeb to turn it down. A big-in-the-90s, what some might call 'cult' sitcom with an ageing cast, two marooned central characters who get on each others nerves... And yet by some miracle this one's back on its home channel of BBC 2.

And so it should be - but I do wonder what prompted it... Sudden interest in the audience it used to attract? Or someone decided that actually, they didn't want Dave picking this up?