New Ed Bye Interview on Talking Bottom

[MANI506]

https://talkingbottom.podbean.com/

Topic

[Veni]

I listen to the podcast regularly, if I’m honest they are being ridiculously harsh on Series 3. Like a lot of the criticisms of Terror, which I admit is a personal favorite of mine, border on nitpicky.

Idk

[Mr-Stabby]

Series 3 is certainly more silly. I mean compare an episode like ‘Terror’ or ‘Finger’ to ‘Contest’ in Series 1. They’re like two different shows. But I happen to like both types of episodes.

[(deleted)]

Other than the first and last episodes, series 3 is absolutely cringeworthy and completely phoned in. Like a different show.

[Warbodog]

The gulf in quality from Hole and Carnival to the rest of series three is maybe comparable to Cassandra vs. the rest of VIII, except that the Bottom episodes are considerably better. I think Finger’s the nadir, not counting some of the live shows, which I just don’t really think about generally.

[Veni]

I think that’s ludicrous, episodes like Terror and Finger are some absolute gems.

[Veni]

Replying to Darrell

[Veni]

Talking a low point, that’d definitely be Break. A half hour of them throwing out gags that feel they’re building-up to something that never arrives.

[Warbodog]

I see the divide more as series 1 being mostly fantastic and 2-3 very variable, rather than just shitting on 3 specifically. Culture’s the only one I really love from series 2.

[Veni]

Culture is definitely a favorite, that and Hole

[Hamish]

One Glorious Hole?

[Warbodog]

It’s great to see Bottom getting more appreciation these days and being embraced by younger generations more than I would have expected. In the 90s to early 00s it was only The Young Ones that I saw getting any respect, since it was the show the comedians on talking head documentaries had grown up with. Bottom was either ignored or seemingly looked down on as crass, lowest-common-denominator trash (it does have that aspect, to be fair).

The Young Ones is so time-bound that it always looked and felt really dated to me, even in the 90s. Bottom’s got this otherworldly timelessness about it, with the old-fashioned clothes and decor not pinning it to a specific decade, and as with Red Dwarf, you don’t have to know the references to get the jokes. It also doesn’t take time out from the characters for musical interludes and weird asides, that helps too.

[International Debris]

A lot of people only seemed to remember the frying pans and knob gags in Bottom, happily ignoring all the wonderful dialogue, the surrealism, the genuine nuances in the tragic character of Richie.

On the other hand, Terror and Finger do feel like the older public perception of the show. I find them almost unwatchable. Really nasty stuff.

Series 1 and 2 are almost flawless, though.

[MANI506]

I think the least good episode is Apocalypse. Culture, Digger, Parade (didn’t think it was that good in 1992, love it now) and Hole are top tier in my view.

[si]

You know, I still don’t think I’ve seen all of Bottom, despite having it on DVD for years.

[Pete Part Three]

Don’t feel too bad. I don’t think I’ve seen all of my bottom yet, despite having it for years.

[Warbodog]

I generally prefer the two-handers (you’re lucky if you can fit two fingers, etc.) to the crowded ones like Parade, except there are so many counter-examples that that isn’t much of a rule.

I saw all of Bottom from the age of about 8-13, apart from ‘Gas’ which for some reason I didn’t see until I was about 18. Worth the wait, almost pissed myself laughing and felt more on edge than during most suspense films.

[MANI506]

I would devour sitcoms when I was in my early teens. Now it takes me ages. I’ve been watching Toast of London over the last five years and still haven’t finished.

[International Debris]

I’d watch just about every new sitcom on in the UK for quite a few years, but moving to somewhere without a telly (and with slow internet) at the same time as introducing my girlfriend to all my favourite shows on DVD put a stop to that, and it’s extremely rare that I get into a new comedy these days. I’m really beginning to wonder if my comedy fandom has passed.

[Offline]

Wasn’t the 4th series written?

Can’t we have the scripts?

[Plastic Percy]

Supposedly, they had scripts for a fourth series in the mid-nineties. And even then I believe it was the Hooligan’s Island concept. No doubt they recycled the basic idea for the live show.

Does anyone else not like the last two live shows much? Watching them you really get the feeling that Ade Edmondson’s heart isn’t in it anymore. And its a bit odd that the second act’s for both are them doing plotless routines against a blank backdrop.

[Warbodog]

I don’t remember much from 3 onwards outside of some corpsing and fourth-wall breaking crowd-pleasers (“the tosser who fell off the quad bike.”) Even the good early ones I find too long to bother with.

[GlenTokyo]

>Don’t feel too bad. I don’t think I’ve seen all of my bottom yet, despite having it for years.

Mirrors.

It’s quite enlightening.

[Offline]

The live shows are nostalgic, you forget that there’s a good half-hour of material in-between another ninety minutes of humourless shite.

When Ade appeared on Carpool, he didn’t hold back, calling them mostly a load of wank.

[Veni]

The first two are absolute classics, the third has some really good bits in there, and the last two are utter garbage.

[Taiwan Tony]

Hooligan’s Island is the best imo.
This view was formed circa 2004 when I last saw them all, so it may not withstand close scrutiny or indeed further research on my own part.
But fuck me, Weapons Grade Y Fronts is fucking terrible.
While we’re on the subject, I’ve got a feeling that Rik didn’t do anything of much worth following his quad bike accident. I have a soft spot for the Bottom film, but I wouldn’t fight for it.
His first appearance in Jonathan Creek was very good, though.

[Plastic Percy]

I think the greatest shame was that he never recorded an audiobook of ‘Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ’.

[Plastic Percy]

Just stumbled across this video of a bloke playing both Richie and Eddie, recreating the birthday card scene. He doesn’t do a bad job, most of the impressions I’ve seen of Rik Mayall tend to focus a bit too much on an overexagerated lisp.

[Taiwan Tony]

I didn’t like his autobiography, apart from the odd excerpt. I liked the foreword and the chapter about his accident very much but that’s about it. But then, it was ghostwritten, so I’m not sure it even counts.
I’m sad Ade hasn’t done another novel (for adults). My 6yo daughter loves his kids books. The Horse that Talked is her favourite read. I can’t wait to show her Bottom and TYO.

[Plastic Percy]

“I can’t wait to show her Bottom”

Social services have been notified.

[Taiwan Tony]

Just wait til I show her how I pick up a vending machine.

[Veni]

Ade flirted with the idea of a new novel back in 2017 in an article with The Guardian, so still in the cards, especially with his career getting somewhat of a revival with appearences in Star Wars and Eastenders compared to headlining a shitty sitcom 10 years earlier.

That dude that does those impressions legit scares the shit out of me. Goes to show Rik and Ade had a charm to them that even made the nasty, gross Hammersmith Hard Men enjoyable. Something not many could’ve brought to those roles.

[Veni]

Post-quad Rik I think, as an outsider looking in, shifted from work to family and just did acting as a job rather than a passion for awhile (during the 2000s). Course had things gone differently, such as his role as Peeves not getting cut from Harry Potter, he’d have continued to have a good career and not one mainly relegated to the knowledge of the UK.

[Dave]

His video interview on getting Peeves and then not being in the movie is hilarious.

[Author]

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