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''Bottom'' was a British Sitcom of the early 1990s (and later a series of stage shows and a film) written by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson . They were also the main stars, respectively playing Richard Richard (Richie) and Edward Elizabeth Hitler (Eddie), who share a flat in Hammersmith , West London . MEET RICHIE & EDDIE Richie is a perpetually optimistic dimwit, while Eddie is a cheerfully violent a classification of 15, with a violence rating of "None". Richie is known to be a Virgin , with a microscopic Penis to boot (which he sometimes mistakes for his only Pube ). He usually wears a white shirt and slim red tie (with tie clip), blue jeans (with Y-fronts clearly visible) and has a light brown raincoat. His character is aspirational, pretentious, and occasionally a snob. Eddie is an alcoholic (he claims that this is because he "drinks a lot"). He wears glasses akin to those of Eric Morecambe , a brown suit and a white shirt with a black tie. Despite having a shaven head, he sports Sideburns . He also has a brown trilby hat and a tweed overcoat. He has two real friends, called Spudgun ( Steve O'Donnell ) and Dave Hedgehog ( Christopher Ryan ). Richie does not have any friends and sometimes appropriates Spud and Dave if in need of company. Richie and Eddie bear perhaps closer inspection than any of Mayall and Edmondson's other characters. Despite sharing a deep mutual hatred, the two are eternally entwined due to their basic flaws. Eddie's alcoholism and violent nature means that he has not been able to hold down a steady — Eddie drinking Bleach (albeit drunkenly) and Richie trying to Gas himself in the oven (merely an attempt at getting Eddie to buy him a drink). This partnership has similarities to those of '' Steptoe And Son '', and Hancock and Sid in '' Hancock's Half Hour ''. Richie is in heavy Denial and has Delusion s of grandeur (he once announced, "I really am more of an Elizabethan type, you know, 13th Century , Shakespeare , the French Revolution ". He later tried to convince a Falklands ex-serviceman, played by '' Red Dwarf '''s Robert Llewellyn , that he had fought ten years there and had seized the fictitious "Straud Hill" and liberated the Stanley branch of Tesco ). Eddie, in comparison is grounded and seems to have quite good general knowledge, which he keeps to himself. He can play chess (and spends six hours trying, unsuccessfully, to teach Richie), he knows a fair amount about Napoleon and Wellington (who Richie claims invented the Chelsea Boot) and appears well versed in the works of Vivaldi , whom Richie believes to be a Scottish Football player). Eddie is also a great one for plans (though most involve trying to get a free pint from Dick Head, the Landlord at the Lamb and Flag. One such scheme, in the episode "Dough", involved Eddie printing fake money. Instead of making Counterfeit s that appear real, he plasters them with Pornographic doodles of the Royal Family and other such celebrities (on the £ 5 the Queen "gets her jugs out", on the £50 note there is an Orgy involving the Queen, the Duke Of Edinburgh and Bobby Charlton , and on the £27 note there is a picture of Sylvester Stallone "fisting" Mr MacHenry (from '' The Magic Roundabout ''). Most of the time it seems that Richie tries to live like he thinks everyone else does (especially in "Holy") keeping to British traditions while Eddie just prefers watching TV. The programmes he watches are particularly amusing, from ''Miss World'', to mistakenly renting what he believed to be a Pornographic video that turned out to be a children's story (''The Furry Honeypot Adventure''), to a video about 19th Century Pottery (''Big Jugs'', which oddly has an 18 certificate). It is unclear how they afford to live and pay rent, however it is believed that Richie's aunt gives him money regularly although Eddie probably spends it on booze. They reduce their gas bill by connecting their stove to their neighbour's pipe. Richie and Eddie's relatives are often mentioned: Richie's grandad was at the Battle Of The Somme , while Eddie's uncle used to work in a prison, sewing mailbags and anything they told him to do. Richie's auntie is very rich and dies in one episode with her nephew inheriting a large sum of money. Richie's dad, Oswald Richard, was an acquaintance of Adolf Hitler (the real one, not Eddie's mother) and betrayed Britain in World War II . According to Richie, his dad moved in mysterious circles, because he had one leg shorter than the other. Richie's sister lives near Hammersmith and apparently looks just like her brother, albeit "with smaller jugs". ABOUT THE SERIES Mayall and Edmonson have said ''Bottom'' was often aimed to be more than just a series of toilet gags but a cruder cousin to plays like '' Waiting For Godot '', about the pointlessness of life. This is most evident in the episode "Contest", the closest the series came to drama, where Eddie devises a scheme to win a bet on ''Miss World'' and jet off to the "sun-drenched Caribbean". Here Eddie offers Richie the sage advice: "You get born, you keep your head down, and then you die. If you're lucky." There are certain situations which crop up in most episodes:
Richie and Eddie are basically variations on characters the duo had been playing for years: the earlier '' Filthy, Rich And Catflap '' had featured a slightly watered-down version. " The Dangerous Brothers ", their sketch in ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1985 , also featured violent slapstick. Edmonson's character Eddie Monsoon of '' The Comic Strip Presents... '' also had similarities with Eddie. Mayall and Edmonson also both starred in '' The Young Ones '' and ''Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door'', playing characters with similarities to their ''Bottom'' counterparts. The recurring character of misthanthropic landlord Mr Harrison is very similar to one featured briefly in the second ''Young Ones'' series. Often considered to be the most violent and profane example of the Britcom genre, the programme ran for three series of six episodes each. The first two are generally considered to be superior; the third series was made two years after the second and includes a marked increase in toilet humour. DEATHS Both Richie and Eddie have died on several occasions throughout the series:
THE STAGE SHOWS Five live theatre shows have been spun off over the years, and have been extremely popular as the two performers often (apparently) forget their lines and have to ad-lib. They also often make fun of the town/city in which they are playing by making the locals out to be stupid. These productions are far cruder than the television incarnation, and feature new elements such as Richie's latent Homosexuality and desire to shag Eddie. Inevitably, a member of the audience will Heckle with the phrase "Have a Wank !". Of the five shows, the first, ''The Stage Show'', set entirely in Richie and Eddie's Hammersmith flat, is widely considered to be the best. Particularly striking is Mayall's lunatic comic energy — which is at its most intense — in the video of the show at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. MORE ''BOTTOM''? Though the pair are working currently apart, Mayall claims that there was a fourth series written, but "some lesbian bitch" at the BBC declined the script. Edmondson has however stated in interviews that he would like to make another series of ''Bottom'' with Mayall, but "in about 15 years' time, when they are old men." EPISODE LIST (Episode titles are intended to be preceded by the word "Bottom") Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Live shows
''Guest House Paradiso'' Following the "Hooligan's Island" tour, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson wrote a spin-off movie together, which Edmondson directed, entitled '' Guest House Paradiso '', released in 1999. It uses characters based on the Richie and Eddie characters used by the pair for much of their careers, the differing situation (in which Richie and Eddie run a filthy hotel next to a nuclear power plant) suggests that these characters have fled to the south coast complete with different surnames after returning from Hooligan's Island and descovering that they are still hunted for regicide, after killing the queen in The Big Number 2 Tour. EXTERNAL LINKS
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