Bottom
Created by and starring comedy double-act Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, Bottom brings us into the bizarre world of Richie Richard and Eddie Hitler - a pair of repulsive, slobbish flatmates living in Hammersmith.
Just The Facts
- Aired between 1991 and 1995, in three series (seasons), for a total of 18 episodes.
- The last episode of series 2 was not shown until two-and-a-half years after its planned transmission date. It was originally cancelled because of a real-life attack/murder on Wimbledon Common, London.
- Bottom was voted number 45 in the 'Britain's Best Sitcom' Top 100 poll
- Was originally going to be called "Your Bottom"...as in, "I saw your bottom on TV last night."
- In the "Bottom movie", Guest House Paradiso, Richie and Eddie are renamed Richard Twat ("pronounced 'thwait!") and Eddie Elizabeth Ndingobamba
Who, exactly, are the Hammersmith Hard-Men?
Richie Richard: Rik Mayall
Eddie Elizabeth Hitler: Adrian Edmondson
Perpetually on the prowl for easy money, easier women, and free alcohol, Richie and Eddie are the epitome of the "lazy, scheming, ne'er-do-well roommates" situation comedy archetype. Some of their doomed-to-fail plans include:
- trying to blackmail the Prime Minister with a tawdry sex-tape they acquired while looting
- posing as a married couple, so as to use the honeymoon tickets they stole from "that Welsh bastard Taffy O’Jones"
- using a home-made electric cattle-prod to get "just cash, no sweets" on Halloween
- stealing the wooden leg from a one-legged Falklands veteran, to fund a "sure bet" on a horse named "Sad Ken"
- Richie pretends to be an aristocrat, with designs on marrying royalty
- betting their last bit of money on a 100:1 prospect in the "Miss World" competition
- using a "sex-spray" to increase their luck with the ladies
Eddie and Richie are the result of years of experimenting and character revision by Edmondson and Mayall, who have worked together since the late 1970's (when they were known as "20th Century Coyote"). A hint of Eddie and Richie can be seen in several earlier acts by the two, including their characters, Vyvyan and Rick, from the highly-acclaimed "The Young Ones" (see The Young Ones Cracked page).
Sticking much closer to standard sitcom conventions than "The Young Ones", "Bottom" still remains unique for its use of over-the-top, highly violent slapstick. Following the lives of two perverted, unemployed, socially-unacceptable flatmates in Hammersmith, "Bottom" continued after the series' cancellation in the form of live theatre shows and a loosely-related movie, Guest House Paradiso.
Also occasionally starring:
Christopher Ryan, as Dave Hedgehog
Steve O'Donnel, as Spudgun
Lee Cornes, as local pub-owner Dick Head
