Bottom is definitely not to everyone’s taste.
That could be an understatement really as this show is basically about two complete losers living in a squalid flat in Hammersmith who have a penchant for violence (all completely slapstick mind you), drinking and their endlessly futile attempts at scoring with women.
It is written and stars Ade Edmonson and Rik Mayall, both veterans of British sitcom and who have worked together for many years, most notably on The Young Ones and Filthy, Rich and Catflap.
It is very cleverly written as almost all of the 3 series were based in their flat, occasionally you would see them in the pub (The Lamb and Flag) or in a one off settings depending on the story, a sex shop (“Is this a sex shop?” “Yes sir, it is” “in that case I’ll have five quids worth!”) a pawn shop and even Wimbledon Common (the episode set there was due for release about the time Rachel Nickell was raped and murdered on Wimbledon Common so that episode wasn’t shown for nearly 3 years)
Richie (Rik Mayall) likes to think of himself as much better than he is, with deluded thoughts he is high up on the social scale and is “slumming it” for the short term before his destiny is fulfilled, whereas Eddie (Ade Edmonson) knows his place, he is a drunk who loves drinking and spends every hour and every penny he has getting drunk by any means necessary, including aftershave and bleach!
The show ran for three series, one in 1991, one in 1992 and the third and final series in 1995, there was a fourth series written but not taken up by the BBC, there have always been rumours of a fourth series but Edmonson stated in April this year that the chances of him and Mayall working together again was “very unlikely!”
There have been five live stage shows produced as well, these have always been held with the same, if not higher regard due to the fact that the regulations of TV don’t exist, most notably the swearing, where in the TV show they swear to a point, the live shows are littered with F’s and C’s which quite frankly is funny, they also make numerous mistakes and spend almost every show trying to make each other laugh, again this just adds to the humour.
In conclusion, Bottom for me is one of the funniest sit-coms made and is something I go back to time and time again, some people claim it’s childish, well if that’s the case then maybe so am I.
Marcus Mitchell – October 2010.
