Bottom Live 2003: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour is the fifth and final live stage show based on the UK TV series Bottom . [1] It ran in 2003 (ten years after the first stage show) and was recorded for VHS and DVD release at the Cliffs Pavilion Theatre in Southend-on-Sea. It was written by and starred Rik Mayall as Richie and Adrian Edmondson as Eddie. This was the final show where Mayall and Edmondson play their characters. [2]
No longer on Hooligan's Island, Richie and Eddie find themselves back in their flat in Hammersmith. Having locked himself in the lavatory for fifteen days, Eddie is disrupted when Richie barges in, discovering that his friend has transformed the room into a laboratory. Inside are various inventions, including "The Evacuator", a super-powerful vacuum cleaner that Eddie uses as a toilet, "The Patent Painless Tattoo Remover", alias a blunt hammer, and "Weapons Grade Lager", a self-perpetuating alcoholic drink that leads to a prolonged period of unconsciousness. Richie then discovers a trunk sent to him from his deceased uncle Peregrine Richard. Inside are the plans for the various inventions Eddie has supposedly either stolen or plagiarized. However, one invention remains untouched: Peregrine Richard's "elixir of life". Richie hurriedly drinks the potion hoping to gain immortality but is shocked when Eddie discovers that the substance is poisonous. In order to save his friend, Eddie reluctantly uses his very own time-traveling toilet (i.e. the "TURDIS"), to reverse time and stop Richie from drinking the Elixir. Fully restored, they realize that they can use the TURDIS to reach the theatre's bar before the audience, and depart immediately.
Richie and Eddie continue their search for the bar, having been unsuccessful for 3+1⁄2 years. During their escapades, Eddie manages to lodge Richie's head in the TURDIS door and dislodge it with a dynamite stick, Richie is forced to re-power the ship via friction he causes by pleasuring himself (leading to a mass-heckle from the theatre audience as orchestrated by Eddie). As an unforeseen result, the pair find themselves traveling further and further back through time, right back to the beginning of time itself. After a narrow escape from his shrinking underpants (triggered by the reversal of time), Eddie joins Richie as they discover the meaning of everything: pants (thanks to the appearance of the Mother Pants), and they depart by singing an ode to the ever-useful undergarment.
Date | City | Country | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
Bottom: Live 2003 – Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour | |||
3 October 2003 | Glasgow | Scotland | Clyde Auditorium |
6 October 2003 | Plymouth | England | Plymouth Pavilions |
7 October 2003 | |||
8 October 2003 | Portsmouth | Portsmouth Guildhall | |
10 October 2003 | Bournemouth | Bournemouth International Centre | |
12 October 2003 | Croydon | Fairfield Halls | |
13 October 2003 | |||
15 October 2003 | Nottingham | Nottingham Royal Concert Hall | |
16 October 2003 | |||
17 October 2003 | |||
18 October 2003 | |||
20 October 2003 | Leeds | Grand Opera House | |
21 October 2003 | |||
22 October 2003 | |||
23 October 2003 | |||
24 October 2003 | |||
25 October 2003 | Cardiff | Wales | Cardiff International Arena |
26 October 2003 | Watford | England | Watford Colosseum |
28 October 2003 | Southend | Cliffs Pavilion | |
29 October 2003 | |||
30 October 2003 | |||
31 October 2003 | Brighton | Brighton Centre | |
3 November 2003 | Manchester | Carling Apollo | |
4 November 2003 | Sheffield | Sheffield City Hall | |
5 November 2003 | |||
6 November 2003 | Wolverhampton | Wolverhampton Civic Hall | |
7 November 2003 | Sunderland | Sunderland Empire Theatre | |
8 November 2003 | Manchester | Carling Apollo | |
9 November 2003 | Ipswich | Regent Theatre | |
11 November 2003 | Newcastle | Newcastle City Hall | |
12 November 2003 | Blackburn | King Georges Hall | |
14 November 2003 | Llandudno | Wales | Venue Cymru |
15 November 2003 | Blackpool | England | Blackpool Opera House |
16 November 2003 | Oxford | New Theatre Oxford | |
17 November 2003 | |||
19 November 2003 | Bristol | Bristol Hippodrome | |
20 November 2003 | |||
22 November 2003 | Birmingham | National Indoor Arena Academy | |
23 November 2003 | |||
25 November 2003 | Liverpool | Liverpool Empire Theatre | |
26 November 2003 | |||
27 November 2003 | London | Hammersmith Apollo | |
28 November 2003 | |||
29 November 2003 | |||
1 December 2003 | Leicester | De Montfort Hall | |
2 December 2003 | |||
5 December 2003 | Dublin | Ireland | The Point Depot |
6 December 2003 | Belfast | Northern Ireland | Odyssey Arena |
8 December 2003 | Ipswich | England | Regent Theatre |
9 December 2003 | |||
10 December 2003 | Newcastle | Newcastle City Hall | |
11 December 2003 | Wolverhampton | Wolverhampton Civic Hall |
Bottom is a British sitcom created by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson that ran for three series on BBC2 from 1991 to 1995. It focuses on Richard "Richie" Richard (Mayall) and Edward Elizabeth "Eddie" Hitler (Edmondson), two unemployed, crude, and perverted flatmates living in Hammersmith, London, who aspire to better themselves. Bottom became known for its chaotic, nihilistic humour and violent slapstick comedy. In 2004, Bottom was ranked 45th in a BBC poll for Britain's Best Sitcom.
The Young Ones is a British sitcom written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer, starring Adrian Edmondson, Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle, and broadcast on BBC Two for two series, first shown in 1982 and 1984. The show focused on the lives of four dissimilar students and their landlord's family on different plots that often included anarchic, offbeat, surreal humour. The show often included slapstick gags, visual humour and surreal jokes sometimes acted out by puppets, with each episode also featuring a notable selection of guest stars and musical numbers from various performers.
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.
Christopher Ryan is a British actor best known for his roles as Mike TheCoolPerson in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones, Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy series Bottom, Tony Driscoll in the BBC comedy series Only Fools and Horses, and as Edina Monsoon's ex-husband Marshall Turtle in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. He has also appeared as the McKendrick twins in One Foot in the Grave, and played Sontaran General Staal in Doctor Who in 2008.
Richard Michael Mayall was an English comedian, actor and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s.
Filthy Rich & Catflap is a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast in 1987. The series featured former The Young Ones co-stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters. It was written by Ben Elton, and produced and directed by Paul Jackson, with film sequences directed by Ed Bye. The show's music was written by Peter Brewis. One series consisting of six half-hour episodes was produced. Despite the continuity announcer saying that the show would return the following year, only one series was ever made due to a fall-out between Mayall and Elton over creative control.
Guest House Paradiso is a 1999 British slapstick black comedy film written by and starring comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, who also directed in his film directorial debut.
The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir Adrian Dangerous". Originally appearing on stage in London at the comedy club 'The Comic Strip', the characters were well developed before appearing on TV. First appearing on television on a one-off 1980 BBC TV show 'Boom Boom Out Go The Lights', they were also featured in a TV short documentary film 'The Comic Strip', directed by Julien Temple, before they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the TV programme Saturday Live from 1985 and into its first series in 1986.
20th Century Coyote was an English comedy group famous for first uniting Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall. Formed by Lloyd Peters (lloydpeters.uk) in March 1976 whilst studying B.A. Drama at Manchester University, this improvisatory character-led comedy troupe was to become the resident company at The Band on the Wall in Manchester. Peters recruited fellow thespian student Rik Mayall principally because they shared the same off-beat humour – anarchic slapstick mixed with a large dose of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Two further drama students were press-ganged from the year below and rather late in the day Adrian Edmondson to appear in Coyote's first improv-based comedy entitled Dead Funny (1976). Six other shows followed before an Edinburgh Fringe Festival spin-off. The 40-minute live shows were self-contained narratives based on recognized comedy templates but worked, or more correctly warped, by improvisation and then re-improvised in performance. The shows were often loud, crude and grotesque. The group were important in that, its techniques and the lasting influence of character-led sketch and 'improv' comedy helped shape a distinctive brand of 'alternative comedy' in the 1970s and 1980s and that would soon dominate the comedy mainstream.
"Smells" is the first episode of British sitcom Bottom. The episode was first transmitted on 17 September 1991.
"Contest" is the third episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on Tuesday 1 October 1991.
"Accident" is the sixth and final episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on 22 October 1991. This episode sees the first appearance of Eddie's "real friends" Spudgun and Dave Hedgehog.
Bottom Live 3: Hooligan's Island is a live stage show that was recorded at the Bristol Hippodrome, Bristol, in 1997, written by and starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. This is the third instalment of five live shows based on the television show Bottom.
Bottom Live 2: The Big Number Two is a 1995 live stage show based on the UK TV series Bottom that was filmed at the Apollo Theatre Oxford.
Bottom Live 2001: An Arse Oddity was the fourth live show based on the British sitcom Bottom. It was recorded at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.
"Holy" is the fifth episode of the second series of British television sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on 29 October 1992.
Bottom Live – The Stage Show is a live stage show based on the UK TV series Bottom. It ran in 1993 and was recorded for VHS release at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. It was written by its stars, Rik Mayall as Richie Richard and Adrian Edmondson as Eddie Hitler.
Adrian Charles Edmondson is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series The Young Ones (1982–1984) and Bottom (1991–1995), which he wrote together with his collaborator Rik Mayall. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For two episodes of this he created the spoof heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon, an offensive South African television star.
The Greatest Show On Legs is a surreal comedy group, founded in the United Kingdom by comedian Martin Soan, and joined after by the late Malcolm Hardee. The group, continually performing with a changing line-up with Soan at the helm, played an important role in the development of alternative comedy at the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s.