About "The Young Ones"

The Young Ones was surely the most anarchic comedy to come out of the UK; starting in the early Eighties it both reflected and mocked the youth cultures swimming around England at the time. The Punk Rock explosion of the late Seventies had splintered into many different shards from Mod, Ska through to Electro pop. The Satire of early Eighties, a reaction against right wing bogey woman Margaret Thatcher, proved a fertile ground for writers Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer.

The Young Ones consisted of four main student characters; Rick (Rik Mayall) a sex starved anarchist with idealistic dreams of a revolution and a shag, Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson) a violent head-banger, Neil (Nigel Planer) a peace loving put-upon hippie constantly on the brink of a breakdown and Mike (Christopher Ryan) a university of life sort of geezer and self styled head of the group.

The mixture of violent slapstick, political satire and toilet humour proved a massive hit - influential youth bands like Moterhead and Dexys Midnight Runners featured in the programme. The gang were constantly hassled by their Russian landlord Mr Balowski (Alexei Sayle) and relentlessly abused and beat each other up. It also had a nice line in establishment baiting, constantly referring to the Police as pigs and Fascists. It ran for 2 series- 12 episodes, never having a chance to bore its audience and remains fresh and energetic even today.