Bottom (TV series)

Mayall and Edmondson first met as drama students at Manchester University in 1976, when Edmondson joined the improvisational comedy troupe 20th Century Coyote, of which Mayall was a member.[10][11] The act grew in popularity following successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Comic Strip in London, which led to the pair starring in the stage and television double act The Dangerous Brothers and sitcoms The Young Ones and Filthy, Rich & Catflap. After the latter ended in 1987, the pair "drifted away" for a period before they reunited after the pair caught the attention of producer and executive Paul Jackson, who had also worked on The Young Ones, and pitched initial ideas they had for a new sitcom. Jackson was interested enough, and Mayall and Edmondson proceeded to write a draft script. Episodes were developed around improvisational writing, and Mayall recalled Edmondson "did the typing and he allowed me to go to the off license to buy all the drinks."[12][13] Upon delivering their scripts, the BBC expressed concern that the show could not sustain itself with two characters alone, to which Mayall and Edmondson used Tony Hancock and Sid James as an example, and got their way. Mayall said that the BBC was too focused on the show's content being "morally sound and politically correct", but gave the green-light on the series.[14]

The show's original working title was Your Bottom, for the humour of people having to say "I saw 'Your Bottom' on television last night", before it was shortened because Mayall said they "liked the shape of the word."[12] It started as a joke until they learned that Alan Yentob, then head of BBC2, disliked the title which convinced the pair to stick with it. Mayall added that the title was deliberate to make viewers think of "bottom jokes", but that it also reflects on the show's premise of "two guys at the bottom of the heap".[15] Mayall and Edmondson were aware of the failures of other sitcoms, and purposely wrote tight scripts. Edmondson said writing Bottom was liberating "because it's obvious what the idea is – to be as funny as possible."[6] The pair based Eddie and Richie on characters that they had improvised with as part of 20th Century Coyote, and on their own friendship.[6] They made a conscious effort to avoid any pop culture or contemporary references when writing, as The Young Ones had been popular with young people and instead wanted to portray characters who had left student life behind and reached their "thirties and forties".[6] Instead, the two were interested in more everyday scenarios "that have always been there", such as a gas meter reading.[12] "Eddie and Richie have been compared to their characters on The Young Ones, but ten years older.[7] After the first series had been filmed, Mayall ranked Bottom as their best work and marked "a new chapter" in his relationship with Edmondson.[11]

In June 1990, a pilot episode was filmed which was later titled "Contest" and broadcast as part of the first series. Further problems over content came to light when filming began. Mayall recalled they were allowed three "bloodies" or "bloody hell"'s per episode, and arguments were often had with as many as twenty BBC executives who went on the set.[16] Some executives criticised the series for being sexist, but Mayall pointed out that they would have had more women on the show if they had not cut around twenty "shagging scenes" that were written, and argued that lesbian scenes were also removed.[17] After the first series was filmed in June and July 1991, Bottom was first announced in August, when the BBC reported that it had commissioned over 400 hours of new television programming for the upcoming autumn series. This included new productions from comics known at the Comic Strip in an attempt to attract viewers, with including Mayall and Edmondson for Bottom and Dawn French for Murder Most Horrid.[18]

Bottom ended after three series in February 1995. Edmondson said that one of the reasons for stopping the show was the struggle to come up with new ideas as "we'd already hit each other with everything in the flat".[19] Mayall supported this view, saying they took the show as far as it could on television while continuing the franchise with stage tours and home video releases, preferring to retain full creative control over the characters.[20] In 2000, he said that Richie and Eddie had become "bigger than we are".[19]

Each episode was filmed in front of a live audience. The original scripts can be found in the published script books, and several completely removed scenes were included in the VHS release Fluff that consisted mostly of bloopers. Several (but not all) of these scenes, as well as some smaller sections of dialogue also removed for timing reasons, are included in DVD releases.

The final episode of the second series, "'s Out", was set on Wimbledon Common involving the antics of a flasher. It was not broadcast as part of the original series after Rachel Nickell was murdered on Wimbledon Common, due to which the BBC delayed its broadcast until a rerun of the second series on 10 April 1995.

Mayall and Edmondson held five nationwide theatre tours of Bottom between 1993 and 2003, adapting the original series into a stage show. The first tour, Bottom Live, lasted 43 dates across 10 weeks in 1993.[21] The 2001 tour consisted of 76 dates, which included a show at the National Arena in Birmingham to over 4,500 people.[22] The Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour included 40 dates.[23] The stage shows were often cruder than the sitcom with stronger language, and developed over time to include settings outside the flat, including a prison cell and a remote island.[22] There were several instances of the pair getting carried away with the planned stunts, resulting in one of them getting cuts on their head. Edmondson said: "Rik would tell them 'Don't be scared, it happens all the time.' We'd just carry on, then go off to hospital afterwards to be sewn up."[24] A show from each tour was filmed and released for home video.

During the Hooligan's Island tour in 1997, Mayall and Edmondson sought ways of spending time before the night's performance and began to develop ideas for a script that involved Richie being a hotel manager. After some time the pair realised that they had produced a substantial work that would suit a feature film. The result was Guest House Paradiso, a spin-off to Bottom featuring Mayall and Edmondson as Richard Twat (pronounced "Twaite") and Eddie Elizabeth Ndingobamba, respectively, with Edmondson as director. The story involves the pair operating a grotty remote guesthouse next to a nuclear power plant and feeding their guests radioactive fish, causing massive amounts of vomiting. Despite the characters and humour being in the same vein as Bottom,[25] Mayall said Guest House Paradiso was never meant to be a film version of Bottom because other sitcoms that had film adaptations "didn't work".[26] Produced on a £3 million budget, the film premiered in December 1999.

In late 2004, surrounding the release of their Mindless Violence DVD, Mayall hinted that he and Edmondson may possibly be returning with another tour in the future. However, Edmondson said that it was "definitely time to stop. We're both getting too old. We both realised that the show wasn't as engaging as it used to be. We were starting to look a bit ridiculous. ... We're both nearly fifty and we're starting to feel slightly undignified talking about wanking and knobs constantly."[24] In 2010, Edmondson confirmed that he had quit comedy, stating that his interest in it has declined for many years, and wanted to focus more on his band. He dismissed the idea of reuniting with Mayall, saying it is "very unlikely".[27]

In March 2011, the duo made a surprise reunion when Edmondson took part in Let's Dance for Comic Relief. A pre-recorded segment ended with Mayall hurling a custard pie in Edmondson's face. Mayall appeared again, this time live on stage, to abruptly end Edmondson's performance by hitting him several times with a frying pan. In the final, Mayall returned once again to drop a ton weight upon Edmondson. In the following month, Edmondson revealed that he and Mayall had conceived an idea for a sitcom. "Rik and I have an idea for a sitcom for when we are very, very old. We want to set it in an old people's home 30 years hence. It will be like 'Bottom', but we will be hitting each other with colostomy bags!"[28] In August 2012, the BBC announced that it had commissioned a series based on the Hooligan's Island stage show, where Eddie and Richie cause havoc on a deserted tropical island, set to air in 2013.[29][30] However, the show was scrapped just two months later. Edmondson said "it wasn't working" and wanted to pursue other projects.[31] Mayall tried to have Edmondson reconsider, but he "put his foot down and said, 'It's not going to work mate.'", and wanted to wait ten years until they were older.[32] Mayall died on 9 June 2014, putting an end to any future Bottom projects.[33]

During an appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2023, Edmondson revealed that he wrote the initial scripts with Mayall in the hope that they'd be declined by the BBC. He explained that Mayall was eager to revive their old characters, but struggled to accept that Edmondson was not interested. While he hoped a rejection by the BBC would put Mayall's aspirations to rest, the idea was ultimately greenlit. Edmondson would go on to say that one of the reasons he pulled out of the project was because Mayall was "not there" during writing sessions, and struggled to work with him.

'*' = Episodes featuring only the two main characters
'+' = Episodes not set in the flat

On 21 September 1992, BBC Enterprises Ltd released the first series on two single VHS tapes.

On 5 July and 20 September 1993, BBC Enterprises Ltd released the second series on two single VHS tapes.

On 2 October 1995, BBC Enterprises Ltd released the third and final series on two single VHS tapes.

On 4 April 1994, all six single Bottom video releases were re-released as three "complete" double VHS releases.

In 2004, a DVD featuring a compilation of violent scenes from Mayall and Edmondson throughout their career, including scenes from Bottom, was released as Mindless Violence: The Very Best of the Violent Bits.[24]