PODCAST · tv
Talking Bottom
by Talking Bottom
The Bottom podcast - three foxy stoats discuss and appreciate the world’s greatest sitcom, courtesy of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, over an Esther Rantzen cocktail and pickled onion sandwich. From Paul Tanter, Mat Brooks and Angela Pearson. The book TALKING BOTTOM: A GUIDE TO THE CULT SITCOM is now in its 2nd edition and can be ordered here: https://wiltonsquarebooks.com/products/talking-bottom Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Youtube all @talkingbottom or drop us an email at [email protected] https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom
Episodes
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Paul Jackson Happy Families Q&A
We jump back to the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival for a special bonus episode - the Q&A session with Paul Jackson after our screening of Rik's episode of Happy Families. Mat, Paul and Ange joined Paul Jackson at the St Andrews Hotel, Droitwich, for this special screening of the Ben Elton-written...
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Paul Jackson - Live at The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival
Talking Bottom gets back on stage at the Norbury Theatre, Droitwich - joined by legendary producer and director Paul Jackson at The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival 2026 for a brilliant interview and selection of his favourite clips. FULL VIDEO VERSION HERE: https://youtu.be/anxCoVg07WE Paul, Ange and...
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Rik Mayall Comedy Festival round up
What a festival! In advance of our EPIC on-stage interview with legendary Young Ones, Red Dwarf and Bottom producer/director Paul Jackson at the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival dropping next week, including the video (yes, we've got a video!) version too, we run through what we got up to at the fest,...
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Cliff Richard and The Young Ones - Comic Relief 1986
Hey, kids. It's doesn't matter what you are - Punks, Skins, Rastas, Mods, Rockers, Keith Chegwin even. Everybody everywhere; stop snogging and listen to me... this week it's all about the best charity single ever - the teaming up of The Young Ones and Rick's idol Cliff Richard to release their...
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The Bachelor Boys: The Young Ones book
What do you do when you've ended your show after two series, leaving people in no doubt it's finished by killing off the characters, but the public is hungry for more and you've got a ton of brilliant unused gags? Release a book, of course! But fear not, this isn't a crap spin-off cash-in, it's...
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Oh No, Not Them (The U.S. pilot version of The Young Ones)
There's no business like show business and there's no shortage of TV execs trying to capture lightning in a bottle. In 1989, U.S. TV network Fox decided to take one of the most uniquely British sitcoms of the decade, put it in a blender and shotgun the remains into an American sitcom format. The...
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Audiobook announcement!
You asked and we delivered! Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom is now available as an audiobook, read by none other than Bottom's friendly pub landlord Dick Head himself - actor Lee Cornes! You can literally have Dick coming in your ears! It's out NOW via your usual audiobook platforms.…
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Rik Mayall: Magnificent B'Stard
What a ruddy treat! The long-awaited Rik Mayall documentary "Rik Mayall: Magnificent B'Stard is out now on Sky Documentaries, PLUS Sky Arts is screening the brand-new "Rik Mayall's Sketches: Rare and Unseen." It's a day of new Rik stuff! Ange, Paul and Mat dive into the doc, looking at what new...
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Lise Mayer interview
Once in every lifetime comes a guest like this - someone who created and wrote one of the most influential, revolutionary and most-loved sitcoms ever, alongside her co-creators and co-writers Rik Mayall and Ben Elton. It's Lise Mayer! Lise chats with Paul, Ange and Mat about the genesis of The...
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The Young Ones S2 E6: Summer Holiday
All good things must come to an end and school' out not just for summer but for ever as it's the start of the summer holidays for the lads at Scumbag College AND the final episode of the show, ever, with the creators determined to end it all with a literal bang. Ange, Mat and Paul wang on about...
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The Young Ones S2 E5: Sick
The boys are surrounded by soggy tissues, and for once it's not for the reason you'd think - they've got the dreaded lurgy. Their efforts at recuperation escalate to violence in the streets while Neil's parents visit the fetid house. If only they were in a nice sitcom like The Good Life! Mat…
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The Young Ones S2 E4: Time
After a Dallas-style opening, the boys wake hungover to discover they have travelled back in time. And even more unbelievable; Rik seems to have "done it" with a girl! Paul, Mat and Ange chat about Dallas, time travel, Rick graduating towards Richard Richard, French and Saunders, Hale and Pace…
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The Young Ones S2 E3: Nasty
Filmed in Horror-vision! It's a terrifying tale this week as the boys have a body to bury, with a flashback to bath night revealing Rick's penchant for Cosmopolitan magazine, Neil's fetid bath, the arrival of a South African Vampire and the fact they've got a video. YES, WE'VE GOT A VIDEO. Ange,...
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The Young Ones S2 E2: Cash
It's freezing in the student house and all the furniture has already been burned. Someone needs to get a job and that some is Neil, who joins the filth while Rick, Mike and Vyvyan enjoy some remarkable good fortune until an explosive conclusion. Mat, Ange and Paul chat about filming angles…
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The Young Ones S2 E1: Bambi
The boys are back and they smell - it's so long since they did any laundry that one of Vyvyan's socks has come to life. But a fruitless trip to the laundrette is soon overshadowed by their starter for ten; can they get to Manchester by tonight to represent scumbag College on University Challenge?...
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Mark Arden & Steve Frost (The Oblivion Boys) interview
This week's guests are a pair of legendary comedians and actors who broke through on the alternative comedy circuit as a double act, going on to star in their own series and many other shows, including seven guest appearances on The Young Ones. One gave the order for Captain Blackadder to be shot...
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The Young Ones S1 E6: Flood
Biblical references abound as a huge flood engulfs London, trapping the students in the house. Everyone will be fine as long as no one drinks Vyvyan's potion - a cure for not being an axe-wielding homicidal maniac. Ange, Mat and Paul chat about Monty Python, hated chocolates, the hell of living...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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!...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Live at the Edinburgh Fringe with special guest Lee Cornes!
This week it's the Talking Bottom podcast you've all been waiting for as we come to you LIVE from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe! We were honoured to be joined by a very special guest - a comedian and writer who was at the cutting edge of alternative comedy in the 1980s. He performed on the very...
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Book relaunch and Edinburgh Fringe teaser
"Phew, that was close!" Following a catastrophic near-end more fraught than Richie and Eddie getting gunned down by the SAS, with the book Talking Bottom: A Guide to The Cult Sitcom SELLING OUT on its week of release and then the publisher liquidising its assets (literally), we're excited to...
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Rik the Narrator
Talking Bottom reaches the final episode of this special series on The Many Faces of Rik Mayall. Everyone knows Rik had the most expressive face but he had a voice to match, too. From The Wind in The Willows Toad to Jackanory. From Grim Tales to The Last Hurrah. Rik threw everything into his…
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Richard Davies in Man Down
Described by Man Down creator and star Greg Davies as "a force of nature" and "dream casting," Rik Mayall blessed us all with a final return to the world of sitcom, dropping in each week to steal the episode - and the show - every time. Richard Davies is the sadistic, prank-loving father of "Dan"...
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Drop Dead Fred
"Dog poo, dog poo, lovely lovely dog poo.” Move over, Harvey the rabbit. Get to buggery, Tyler Durden. This week Talking Bottom delves into Rik's foray into Hollywood, playing the world's best imaginary friend. He's violent, sweary, flicks snot into drinks and sinks houseboats. It's Drop Dead…
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Richard Dangerous and Dreamytime Escort
“The Comic Strip Presents…Mr Jolly Lives Next Door was the prototype… that was really the pilot for Bottom.” Peter Richardson summed it up perfectly in our chat with him. Our new podcast puts Rik Mayall’s role starring alongside the legendary Peter Cook as Mr Jolly’s neighbouring business owner...
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman
"You see, in the good old days, you were poor, you got ill, and you died!" After playing a series squalid losers, Rik finally poured all that charisma, sex appeal and Machiavellian cunning into Tory MP Alan B'Stard; money and power-obsessed serial adulterer and possessor of the largest majority…
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Lord Flashheart in Blackadder
"WOOF!!!” Following a brief appearance as "Mad Gerald" in the first Blackadder series, Rik returned in series two and four/forth as heroic, sexy, brave, top-level shagger Lord Flashheart. The character appeared in other similar guises in Blackadder Back and Forth as Robin Hood and then later in…
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Richie Rich in Filthy, Rich and Catflap
Following the success of The Young Ones Rik, Nigel and Ade were reunited as a disgusting trio in Filthy, Rich & Catflap. Penned by Ben Elton, the sitcom mirrored the group's own entry into the world of light entertainment - and lampooned their own success with sharp-tongued satire that sadly only...
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Colin Grigson in Bad New and More Bad News
The hair... the tight trousers...the stepping in dogshit wearing just a sock on his foot... Bad News and More Bad News are two of "The Comic Strip Presents..." jewels in the crown, with Rik's Colin Grigson definitely a legend in his own mind. Talking Bottom dive into the character, his memorable...
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The Book Launch! (Also The Edinburgh Festival Fringe live show)
A quick one (ooh err) about our recent book launch in Hammer-smith, where we were joined at Rik's memorial bench by Godfather of alternative comedy, Producer Paul Jackson and Bottom actor legends Lee Cornes (Dick Head) and Roger Sloman (Mr Harrison), plus Bottom fans (including two who came all…
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Rick / Rick the Poet
Once in every lifetime comes... one of Rik Mayall's most enduring and iconic characters. Starting life on stage reading crap poems and getting angry with the audience on shows like "Boom Boom, Out go the Lights" before graduating to student life in a sitcom that redefined the genre in "The Young...
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The Many Faces of Rik Mayall: Talking Bottom on Kevin Turvey
It's a new series! Most actors are fortunate if they have just one role people love them for. Rik embodied so many iconic and memorable characters that people adore. Kicking things off is a look at one of his early incarnations - self-styled "Investigative Journalist" and son of Redditch, Kevin...
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Talking Bottom meets Podcasto Catflappo!
“That was quite a LOCK IN, wasn’t it??” A short while ago our great mate Jeffers @PodcastoCatflappo asked to interview us about the writing process behind ‘Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom’ and what Bottom fans can expect to uncover when flicking through its weighty folds. Listen to our...
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Talking Bottom LIVE - at The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival with special guest Ed Bye
Talking Bottom is BACK and LIVE - and what better place to do our FIRST EVER live show than at the innagural Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in Rik's old home town of Droitwich? We were joined by legendary Bottom director and Producer Ed Bye at the Norbury Theatre on the very stage upon which Rik…
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THE BOOK & The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival
This ep sees an update on our book, Talking Bottom: A Guide to The Cult Sitcom, snatched (ooh errr) from the jaws of defeat to be published on July 3rd. We wang on about why it took f*cking aaaages and how book backers can get their grubby hands on the book on July 3rd while others wait for their...
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Slapstick Festival
Talking Bottom returns with a visit to the 2025 Slapstick Festival in Bristol, where Ange and Mat attended "That's Really Heavy, Man: The Comic Incarnations of Nigel Planer" (Nigel Planer in Conversation with Robin Ince) and "Rik! The Anarchic Genius of Rik Mayall" (Ben Elton and Nigel Planer,...
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Bottom: Exposed
Finally, a documentary about Bottom! A look at Bottom: Exposed - a fantastic retrospective of Bottom on UKTV channel Gold. The doc features contributions from load of people who worked on the sitcom, including Ade himself! We discuss the stories and facts unearthed by the programme, and how we…
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April Fools Episode - Catastrophe
Bonk! April Fools! Sorry... this was a wind up. There are, sadly, no series 4 episodes knocking about the place. Richie and Eddie return via unusual and messy means, finding the flat in disgusting condition and the toilet still blocked with Eddie's medical experiment. A visit to the Lamb and Flag...
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S3E6 - Carnival
It's the annual carnival/riot and all of Hammersmith is ablaze. Richie and Eddie use the distraction to nip out and steal a king's ransom of Malibu and a BBC TV camera. Richie has a plan: use the camera to achieve fame and fortune, first as a daytime chat show host but soon deciding that some...
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S3E5 - Finger
Richie and Eddie acquire psychopathic Welshman Cannonball Taffy O’Jones’ car keys following a cricket match playing for the Shepherd’s Bush Spudulike Irregulars (second eleven). This is their chance to steal his honeymoon weekend and see how much booze they can put away at the Marveloso Splendido...
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S3E4 - Dough
Eddie has been holed up in his room for days and Richie has nearly wanked himself blind through boredom. But the fruits of Eddie's labours are worth it: he's been forging money. With Spudgun and Hedgehog in tow they head to the Lamb and Flag to test out the pornagraphic doodles, soon finding...
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S3E3 - Break
Richie and Eddie are planning their holiday to sunny Doncaster - all Richie has to do is lose a shitload of weight. Luckily they got a Luftwaffe book of exercises and a vacuum cleaner for some DIY liposuction so Richie can fit snugly into his thong. Soon, Eddie is legless - first thanks to a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Bottom podcast - three foxy stoats discuss and appreciate the world’s greatest sitcom, courtesy of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, over an Esther Rantzen cocktail and pickled onion sandwich. From Paul Tanter, Mat Brooks and Angela Pearson. The book TALKING BOTTOM: A GUIDE TO THE CULT SITCOM is now in its 2nd edition and can be ordered here: https://wiltonsquarebooks.com/products/talking-bottom
Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Youtube all @talkingbottom or drop us an email at [email protected]
https://linktr.ee/talkingbottom
HOSTED BY
Talking Bottom
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How many episodes does Talking Bottom have?
Talking Bottom currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Talking Bottom about?
The Bottom podcast - three foxy stoats discuss and appreciate the world’s greatest sitcom, courtesy of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, over an Esther Rantzen cocktail and pickled onion sandwich. From Paul Tanter, Mat Brooks and Angela Pearson. The book TALKING BOTTOM: A GUIDE TO THE CULT SITCOM is...
How often does Talking Bottom release new episodes?
Talking Bottom has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Talking Bottom is created and hosted by Talking Bottom.
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