A Young One

Rik Mayall. Sad to read about his death at the age of 56 years. He was very much a regular on TV and in popular entertainment  in my formative years appearing as larger than life characters in The Young Ones, a Kick up The Eighties and The Comic Strip Presents.

In KUTE he was Kevin Turvey, an awkward and socially inept character who spoke with a broad west Midlands accent, a self-styled "investigative journalist" who still lived with his mother, wore a shapeless blue anorak, fancied a local girl called Theresa Kelly (who was never depicted), and rarely ventured outside his home town, Redditch in the West Midlands. Each week, his "investigations" amounted to little more than an over-excited, rambling, uninformed monologue delivered straight to camera. For the day after a broadcast on the previous evening all of my friends would speak in a classic Birmingham accent in recognition of the popularity of the character.

Rik Mayall best known, in my opinion, (putting your Bottom aside) for his Young Ones persona ,Rick who was a self-proclaimed anarchist studying sociology and/or domestic sciences (depending upon the episode). Rick championed bad poetry, and styled himself as the "The People's Poet", believing himself to be the "spokesperson for a generation".

He was in fact a closet  Cliff Richard  fan, or, as his punk housemate Vyvyan described him, "The classic example of an only child!"

Rick tried to impress the others using wit, and humour, despite not having any discernible grasp of either.Trying to appear one of the lads he participated in baiting and ridiculing the hippy Neil at every opportunity, using Neil as a target and an outlet. There were the continuous and violently slapstick assaults , fights and bickers with Vyvyan. His fawning and sycophancy was cringingly painful in his attempts to impress Mike, the smooth 'Flash Harry'.

In most memories of student or house sharing days everyone will have come across a self-absorbed character believing themselves to be the "most popular member", despite being disliked by virtually everyone under that roof.; Even though the prime motivation is hate you can rely on these thick skinned individuals to quote that they "really are terrific friends"with all involved. I suppose someone has to eventually progress to work in Human Resources don't they.

The humour in The Young Ones was crude and rudimentary drawing on childhood and schoolboy scenarios. This was illustrated in the November 1982 episode "Bambi" when Neil read graffiti aloud from Rick's History 'O' Level text book – "Prick is a wonker – signed, the rest of the class" which Rick dismisses as banter until Neil further reads "I agree with the rest of the class – signed teacher".

Mayall's depiction of Rik included a difficulty in saying the letter 'R' correctly and instead he enunciated a mixture of a "W" and a "V" sound. In the episode 'Bomb' he dictated his name to a woman who looked up in confusion and repeats it back as "Wick?". Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P", as it is written on Rick's name card during the episode on University Challenge against Footlights College in the episode  'Bambi' (May 1984).

Rick's political beliefs varied, depending on how they fitted in with his particular situation, but can usually be categorised as, in his own pronunciation, wadical. Rick was confused in his political affiliations seeing himself as both a romantic revolutionary and follower of Lenin and Trotsky. In reality he had little understanding of the political ideals he purported to follow. During "Cash" he is shown with a copy of Marx's Das Capital, seemingly having fallen asleep while trying to read it.

In the tone of popularised Youth Culture of the period he claimed to dislike Margaret Thatcher in his threatening to blow up England with an atomic bomb in the episode "Bomb" if she "doesn't do something to help the kids, by this afternoon", and from negative references to Thatcher and the Tories mentioned in The Young Ones book Bachelor Boys. However, Rick sometimes displayed a markedly conservative mindset—contrary to the image he has adopted—as, again in "Bomb", while talking to an old man at the DHSS office (which he has mistaken for a post office).

Rick was vegetarian, agnostic, and wishes all men to love each other like brothers, except for Neil, whom he hates, (repeatedly calling him a "bloody hippy"): Nonetheless, nearly everything he did was hypocritical and self-serving.

Rick exaggerated or lied about his background, which is exposed in the final episode, Summer Holiday in June 1984 when it is suggested he comes from an upper class, Conservative background. He emerged as a closet transvestitie when, during the episode 'Nasty',  Neil finds a dress in Rick's wardrobe with his name stitched in it. In the episode 'Cash' Rick admits to Mike that he is unable to tell the time, a trait that both he and the educationally challenged Vyvyan have in common.

I was fortunate to see the stage show of The Young Ones in my student days in 1983 and the sheer anarchy, irreverence and extreme humour made quite an impression on me at the time and this has persisted for more than 30 years. Some may say that Rik Mayall was stereotyped in his performances but I remain of the opinion that he was a rare and original talent for his generation and we may not ever see his likes again.