Talking Bottom

The Young Ones S1 E5: Interesting

It's party time in the student house, an opportunity to impress the other students and trendy lecturer, play with a toy mouse and telescope and to kill the Hippy. It's The Young Ones episode "Interesting." 

Mat, Paul and Ange talk parties, bringing a bottle, sexy press-ups, cool lecturers, studio injuries, tampons and "women's periods". Plus, contemporary reviews AND the Talking Bottom on The Young Ones quiz!

We're back at this year's Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in May doing THREE events! Check out our socials and our linktree for details. https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom

The Young Ones S1 E4: Bomb

"Well I'm going to tell Thatcher that we've got a bomb!" Cold War fears manifest when a large (undetonated, obviously) nuclear bomb lands right in the middle of the house. To make matters worse, the TV detector man is at the door and the boys don't have a TV license!

Paul, Ange and Mat chat about nuclear paranoia, house shares, rancid bathrooms and more, plus a great quiz! Apologies for some issues with sound in this episode due to an intermittently dodgy mic.

We're back at this year's Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in May doing THREE events! Check out our socials and our linktree for details. https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom

The Young Ones S1 E3: Boring

Guys! Guys! Look at us! Squabbling, bickering, like children! What's happening to us? We never used to be like this! This week's episode is all about one of The Young Ones most exciting episodes; "Boring."

Ange, Paul and Mat chat about exciting things, making scripts come to life, censoring difficult language when it's being used for satire, Madness, fakes hands and playing monopoly. Plus, a quiz!

We're back at this year's Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in May doing THREE events! Check out our socials and our linktree for details. https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom

The Young Ones S1 E2: Oil

"Neil! Your bedroom's on fire!" Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mile move into their new house and the apparent discovery of oil in the basement soon brings out everyone's true colours.

Mat, Ange and Paul discuss the show getting to full series, fighting over bedrooms, little white dots, oppressed workers and more as Talking Bottom takes on The Young Ones. Plus, a very numerical quiz!

We're back at this year's Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in May doing THREE events! Check out our socials and our linktree for details. https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom

Rik Mayall Comedy Festival 2026 - WE'RE BACK!

What a line up! (And we don't mean an identity parade alongside Maureen Hedgehog). We are returning to The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival with three Talking Bottom events... ruddy hell! 

Saturday May 30th 3pm sees Talking Bottom Live back on stage at the Norbury Theatre, Droitwich, interviewing the Godfather of alternative comedy, the man Rik Mayall publicly thanked for his career, the producer/director who brought The Young Ones, Red Dwarf and Bottom to the screen - Paul Jackson!

Later, on Saturday 30th, we head over to the St Andrews Hotel, Droitwich for a 6pm screening of Rik Mayall's episode of Happy Families, introduced by Paul Jackson and followed by a Q&A.

On Sunday 31st May, the Talking Bottom Pub Quiz hits Droitwich's Old Cock Inn, (ooh err!) at 8pm, where question answers will be argued over, drinks will be had and prizes will be won!

The 2026 festival has a fantastic line-up featuring a host of comedy greats, including Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and Peter Richardson. Tickets for Talking Bottom events (and all the others!) can be booked via https://www.rikmayallcomedyfestival.com/

The Young Ones S1 E1: Demolition

Once in every lifetime comes... a sitcom that redefines the genre, smashes away the old guard and puts a rocket up the establishment. Their house is dirty, their hair greasy, their clothes smelly... and they have no plan on going to lectures! It's Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike... The Young Ones!

Talking Bottom returns to discuss the seminal, groundbreaking sitcom that starred Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan, springing from the minds of writers Ben Elton, Lise Mayer and Rik Mayall and was brought to TV by the Godfather of alternative comedy; Paul Jackson. 

Paul, Ange and Mat discuss the origins of the show and how it made it past the pilot, the characters and those who played them, reactions from critics and growing up watching the show.

We're back at this year's Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in May doing THREE events! Check out our socials and our linktree for details. https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom

2025 Christmas round up

Bloody hell, that was a bit of a year, wasn't it?! Join us while we pour a festive glass of gravy, scrub our sprouts and wrap presents*.

We reminisce on the year that saw the book nearly have a rubbish cover, get cancelled, resurrected, moved to a new publisher, sell out as that publisher went into liquidation, have a third of its backers wait for their book, get republished and finally reprinted just in time for Christmas! Not to mention our first ever live shows at the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe! We also tease what's coming in 2026, including a "Once in every lifetime" new series...

To buy the book "Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom," our Lamb and Flag & Hammersmith Bugle tea towels or listen to more episodes, click here: https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom 

Oh and one more thing: MERRY BLOODY CHRISTMAS

* The book and the tea towels, of course!

Max Kinnings (writer of the forthcoming official Rik Mayall biography) interview

This week's guest is a man whose professional career has often tighly interwoven with Rik Mayall's. He's a prolific writer of screenplays, novels, video games, plays - and was the ghost writer of Rik's spoof autobiography Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ. He's currently researching and writing the only official biography of Rik Mayall, due for publication in 2028. It's Max Kinnings!

Max chats with us about working with Rik, first on a screenplay and then on the legendary autobiography that took the nation by storm. We also discuss his BBC Radio 4 documentary about Rik, Panglobal Phenomenon, which was based on over 100 hours of archive recordings of himself and Rik chatting about ideas. He shares his memories of working on Rik and Ade's Waiting For Godot in 1991 and on the first two Bottom Live shows, plus of course how the work on the official Rik biography is going!

To buy the book "Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom," our Lamb and Flag & Hammersmith Bugle tea towels or listen to more episodes, click here: https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom 

Dave Cohen interview

This weeks guest is a prolific comedy writer, stand-up comedian, novelist, Perrier award nominee, founder member of the Comedy Store Players and the man who coined the phrase “Comedy is the new rock n’roll.”

For over 35 years he’s written for some of the most successful shows on TV, including Spitting Image, The Rory Bremner Show, The Eleven O’Clock Show, My Family and Not Going Out, and on radio for Dead Ringers, The News Quiz and Sunday Format. He co-created the award-winning 15 Minute Musical and has written over 100 songs for the multi-BAFTA winning BBC hit Horrible Histories.

But ALSO he's one of the very few lucky individuals to witness first-hand Rik and Ade's "Death on the Toilet" at the 1979 Edinburgh Fringe. It's Dave Cohen!

To buy the book "Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom," our Lamb and Flag & Hammersmith Bugle tea towels or listen to more episodes, click here: https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom 

Colin Gilbert interview

Talking Bottom chats with Colin Gilbert, the director and co-writer with Rik Mayall of The Man Behind the Green Door and Kevin Turvey Investigates. Colin also directed Rab C Nesbitt and worked on Not the Nine O'Clock News, A Kick up the Eighties, I Lovett and Naked Video. He is the co-founder of prolific independent production company The Comedy Unit.

Colin shares memories of his career, the genesis of Kevin Turvey, working with Rik and much more in this fascinating interview.

To buy the book, our Lamb and Flag tea towels or listen to more episodes, click here: https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom