Category: The New Statesman

  • Big-Mouth Billy
    Big-Mouth Billy

    There’s a line on page 73 of Proctology: A Bottom Examination which reads: Rik also made a corporate video in 1988, but his was for John Cleese’s Video Arts production company. Managing Problem People: Behavioral Skills For Leaders was directed by Charles Crichton (who directed A Fish Called Wanda), and was written by Stephen Fry.…

  • The Not So Young Ones
    The Not So Young Ones

    Here’s an article from the Dublin Evening Herald, published on Friday 4th April 2008. It’s got some factual errors in it, but worth a read nonetheless, and I really like the photo of Ade and Ben, who you don’t often see pictured together. I also like this photo spread from The Stage on Thursday 22nd…

  • Rik Pics
    Rik Pics

    Here’s a great cover story spread to coincide with the release of the Dangerous Brothers VHS, Drop Dead Fred, and Bottom. Click to enlarge (oo er). Here, Rik shares a page with Rowan. You can read more about his American tour of Shakespeare in Proctology: A Bottom Examination. This is a nice little preview of…

  • Rik’s Xmas Helpline
    Rik’s Xmas Helpline

    Here’s a rare little treat. Rik promoting YTV’s Christmas Line, as broadcast on 26th December 1987. I think that’s the only time I’ve seen the ear not pop back. It’s clearly been filmed during the making of the first series of The New Statesman, and that’s obviously the office set he’s in.

  • Tricky Rik – Yuppy MP
    Tricky Rik – Yuppy MP

    In this article, by Jonathan Margolis, published in the Dublin Evening Herald on 14th July 1987, there’s some wonderful behind-the-scenes trivia about the research period of The New Statesman. Michael Portillo served as a political advisor on the show, and Rik was allowed to sit on the government and opposition benches. There’s even mention of…

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  • Proctology: A Bottom Examination
    Proctology: A Bottom Examination

    For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

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  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

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