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The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, best known collectively for their Television series '''''The Comic Strip Presents...'''''. The core members of the group are Adrian Edmondson , Dawn French , Rik Mayall , Nigel Planer , Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders , with frequent appearances by Keith Allen , Robbie Coltrane and Alexei Sayle . EARLY HISTORY & PUNK Most of the group started performing at the "), Planer and Richardson ("The Outer Limits") and French And Saunders . The other regulars were Arnold Brown , an older standup comic who did not fit so obviously into the Alternative Comedy scene, and Alexei Sayle , who acted as host. Peter Richens, a script and screenwriter quickly became one of the gang and the comic strip where tipped for success. The Comic Strip founder Peter Richardson informally prompted the members to sign a contract — a sheet of paper with their names on it — to signify their attachment to the group. Whilst the performers gained more exposure, actors such as Jack Nicholson and Robin Williams would turn up to watch them, and also go on stage as well. The Comic Strip had an attachment to Punk with its raw energy and anti-establishment attitude which soon caught the attention of Julien Temple who had fairly recently directed the infamous movie with The Sex Pistols , The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle . The show gained a reputation as one of the hottest things in town, and soon came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs , head of the newly-formed Channel 4 . Peter Richardson negotiated a deal with the channel for six self-contained half-hour Film s, using the group as comedy actors rather than standup performers. Almost simultaneously, the BBC signed up Edmondson, Mayall, Planer and Sayle to star in '' The Young Ones '', a sitcom in the same anarchic style as the Comic Strip. Richardson was initially to have been involved too (in the role of Mike, ultimately played by Christopher Ryan ), but dropped out of the project due to clashes between himself and the show's producer, Paul Jackson . Instead, with ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', Richardson had creative control, and indeed had led the project from the beginning. TELEVISION ''The Comic Strip Presents...'' debuted on November 2 1982 (the opening night of Channel 4). The first episode to be broadcast was " Five Go Mad In Dorset ", a parody of The Famous Five , which drew anger from some viewers for the way it mercilessly Satirised a children's classic (although the Enid Blyton estate had in fact given their permission for the broadcast). In fact a meeting was called to discuss the group's future with Channel 4, and particularly its controversial, black and surreal style which sickened a lot of viewers. The series picked up a reputation for anti-establishment, black humour, and for Parodies such as " Bad News Tour ", a spoof Rockumentary which had the misfortune to be upstaged by the movie '' This Is Spinal Tap '' several months later. A second series of seven episodes followed in 1983-84, including " Five Go Mad On Mescalin ", a sequel to the first episode, and the newly-written "Eddie Monsoon – A Life?", a spoof documentary on the life and times of the title character, an obscene, drunken television host (played by Adrian Edmondson). Michael White , the Theatre impressario and Rocky Horror Show producer who had been brought in by Richardson as Executive Producer on the series, appeared in this episode as Monsoon's producer, who had been responsible for axing Eddie's television comeback show – called, inevitably, "Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon". The reasons given for the cancellation (e.g. "the things you said about Burt Reynolds ") are presumably the same problems that led to the real "Back to Normal..." being dropped by Channel 4. (The name Eddie Monsoon – a corruption of "Edmondson" – was later used by Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson's wife, for her character in '' Absolutely Fabulous ''.) There then followed a four-year wait until the next series, during which the group made two feature films - '' The Supergrass '' ( 1985 ) and '' Eat The Rich '' ( 1987 ) - as well as three one-off ''Comic Strip Presents...'' episodes. The first of these, " The Bullshitters ", was a parody of the television spy and detective shows of the day (such as '' The Professionals ''). It was not broadcast under the Comic Strip name, partly because of the original group only Richardson appears (he is the only performer to have been in every single episode), and partly because co-star and co-writer Keith Allen did not want to be so closely associated with the group. The third series was broadcast in 1988, and some episodes were allowed longer running times, mostly around 50 minutes. Five of the six episodes (all except "Funseekers") were given a limited theatrical release. They included " The Strike ", which won the Golden Rose Of Montreux ; " More Bad News ", a sequel to "Bad News Tour" showing the band reforming after five years to play at Castle Donington ; and " Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door ", written by Mayall and Edmondson in the violent and stupid style of their sitcoms '' Filthy Rich And Catflap '' and '' Bottom '', which featured Peter Cook in a memorable role as a psychotic contract killer (the eponymous Mr. Jolly). Peter Richardson and his writing partner Pete Richens , who had written most of the earlier scripts, only contributed one episode this time round, allowing cast members such as Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle to get their ideas on screen. By now the show had proved itself as a cult hit, and several notable guest stars appeared in the later productions, including Leslie Phillips , Miranda Richardson , Lionel Jeffries , Nicholas Parsons , Kate Bush , Richard Vernon , Ruby Wax , Graham Crowden , Paul McCartney , Ozzy Osbourne , Lemmy , Elvis Costello , and Benjamin Zephaniah (as a Rastafarian Police van driver) and several musical acts, particularly from the Bad News series which was also aided by Queen guitarist Brian May , such as Def Leppard and Marillion . The fan base of the show is diverse, despite the ever changing style and look of the series and it has a cult following. Famous fans include Kate Bush , Chrissy Hynde , Jimmy Page and Canadian electronic/punk singer Peaches . CONTROVERSY The final episode of the first series was to have been a spoof chat show called "Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon" (referred to as "An Evening with Eddie Monsoon" by some sources). However, it was never produced, as it was considered too vulgar even for the avowedly "alternative" Channel 4 (not to mention possibly libellous). The script – which, uniquely for the Comic Strip, was written as a collaboration by the entire cast – was later published, along with the rest of the series, in book form. The documentary Julien Temple directed about and starring members of The Comic Strip was drab, black, surreal and sexual in nature. This prevented it from being aired at the time and it may have prevented The Comic Strip from being allowed on television. However the documentary was released later and can be seen on the DVD boxset.
Also parliament and politicians saw a problem within The Comic Strip, perhaps because of hatred expressed of Margaret Thatcher and because of the perceived status of their young, working class members. In fact, most of the Comic Strips members were privately educated and came from middle class backgrounds. Labour MP, Dennis Skinner said "The Comic Strip ridiculed history, but put forward another side to that of The Miners Strike and Arthur Scargill ." The Comic Strip members wanted to break away from the comedy style of Bernard Manning , parallel to punk musicians wanting to stray from the over indulgent style of glam rock and Heavy Metal . In fact in a documentary on the series in 1997, various members stated that they felt The Comic Strip was less offensive than other famously offensive material, despite excessive swearing, violence, sex, bestiality and explicit drug use appearing as themes through out its duration. THE BBC AND AFTER In 1990, the series transferred to ", and the Comic Relief special "Red Nose of Courage"). Richardson and Richens took over the bulk of the writing again, and Richardson also took over as Director , having previously helmed the two feature films, as well as "The Strike". The six-part 1990 series was followed by three individual specials in 1992, and a final six episodes in 1993. In 1998 the original team reunited and returned to Channel 4 for a one-off special, "Four Men In A Car". This was followed in 2000 by a less well-received sequel, "Four Men In A Plane". After another long hiatus, another 60-minute one-off, "Sex Actually", was made in 2005. It starred Sheridan Smith ('' Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps '') and Tamer Hassan ('' Layer Cake '') alongside several of the regular cast members. New episodes are likely to continue to be rare now that all the group are well-established in their own right. Ironically, the only member who is not generally well known is the show's driving force, Peter Richardson, who has built his career as a writer-director, with the TV series ''''. Richardson has not ruled out the possibility of a whole new series of ''The Comic Strip Presents...'' featuring younger cast members. {Link without Title} VIDEO AND DVD RELEASES In 1986 Virgin Video released various episodes of the programme dating between 1982-4, the releases have become very rare over time. The 1988 series was released on video the same year by Palace Video, each episode having it's own video. The only existing episode of the BBC series on video is "GLC", Polygram Video released it together with "The Strike" in 1994. When the Virgin & Palace Video video's went out of print in 1990, the rights of the episodes went over to Polygram Video. And after 3 years all the Channel 4 episodes of The Comic Strip were released on video, but not in order. "The Supergrass" 1985 has never been released on Video or DVD completely uncut! Possibly the best release to buy is the 1986 CBS video, which is almost uncut but still has at least 2 minutes cut. The 2003 Cinema Club DVD is just the same as the mid 90's video release and has at least 15 minutes cut!!! This verson is also the verson of the film used in The Comic Strip boxset. "Eat The Rich" 1987 & "The Pope Must Die(t)" 1991 have never been released on DVD in UK, due to unknown copyright. Though "Eat The Rich" is avaiable to buy on Region 1 (American) DVD. A nine-disc Region 2 DVD set, ''The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection'' was released in July 2005. This included all of the Channel 4 and BBC episodes plus ''The Supergrass'' across eight discs, but did not include ''Eat the Rich'' and was released too early to include ''...Sex Actually''. Most of the episodes in this set seem to have been transferred to video without any effort to remaster the picture or sound quality, and several appear to have been re-edited from the versions originally transmitted. The ninth disc includes a retrospective documentary, live Comic Strip performances from 1981 and cast and crew interviews. LIST OF COMIC STRIP FILMS TRIVIA
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