The anarchic Rik Mayall was a perennial joker and the funniest man in whichever room he was in. But a new film shines a heartbreaking new light on his life and his friendship with Adrian “Ade” Edmondson.
On stage, or at public events, he was the effervescent funnyman, taking it upon himself to ensure he put a smile on everybody’s faces throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, through raucous TV shows The Young Ones and Bottom and rip-roaring live tours with his co-star and close friend Edmondson.
In the Sky documentary Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’stard, we discover new insights into Mayall and Edmondson’s early starts, including a double act called Flash Rick and Deaf Ade, which might have changed the very fabric of British comedy if they’d managed to sell it. We see unseen sketches and hear audio testimonies from the man himself; close your eyes, and it’s like he’s in the room with you.
However, the documentary also reveals that, out of the spotlight, the self-conscious comic would be crippled by worries and concerns that being just himself wasn’t enough.
His public-facing image, as an endless well of laughter, was perpetuated by the man himself, who would “immediately stand taller, puff out his chest and really make a show of it” the moment he was around members of the public.
This behaviour was a “dichotomy”, according to his daughter Rosie Richardson, as people would view him as a carefree comedian who had no problems of his own. The opposite was true. “He loved that sort of attention; on the other side, it’s exactly who he wasn’t,” TV director Bob Baldwin said.
In fact, his other daughter, Bonnie, said “people would probably be quite surprised to know about his anxieties”, caused by the belief that, if he didn’t crack a joke, he wasn’t “interesting or debonair enough”.
“He wanted to be always the funniest, best version of himself, which tended to be a character ‘cause that’s what he felt most comfortable with,” his daughter explained.
Things took a dark turn in 1997, when Edmondson noticed Mayall was “secretly drinking” while preparing their third Bottom tour, Hooligan’s Island.
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“My little office was overlooking a pub, and then I’d start to see him going in for a quick couple of shorts before he came in to write,” he recalled. “Strange, as we used to enjoy alcohol so much together.” Rosie realised something wasn’t quite right a year later when, during a trip to Devon, she discovered he’d packed his briefcase with miniature bottles of alcohol.
“He just kept getting these little bottles out the bag,” she said. “I said: ‘What are you doing, darling?’ He said: ‘Just don’t tell your mother,’ knocking them back.” When they arrived at the farmhouse, Mayall decided to ride his new quad bike. The last thing he remembered was sending his daughter back inside after noticing drops of rain on his arm, thinking: “This isn’t very safe.”
Moments later, Mayall nearly died after flipping the bike. His son Sid recalled: “There was a huge pool of blood around his head – it fractured his skull – and he was completely unconscious. There was bleeding inside the skull and in the brain, so they had to put him into a coma, so that he could heal.”
When he awoke, he was, according to those closest to him, forever changed. He was left with seizures and was told by doctors he had to stop drinking, which only heightened his anxieties surrounding social engagements.
Edmondson also noticed a change in his co-star’s personality. Deciding against another tour, the pair instead focused on making a film, the slapstick comedy Guest House Paradiso. During this time, Edmondson realised that his friend “was never exactly the same person” and found him “bizarrely more emotional”.
They eventually went back on tour together, for a fifth time, but Edmondson called time on their partnership on the final night in 2003. However, a tearful Mayall found it difficult to accept the news.
“Endless touring did us in. I kind of realised we couldn’t really do it anymore, and we never really got to an understanding about that, which makes me very sad,” Edmondson recalled.
They eventually hit the stage once again in 2001, and again in 2003 – but the writing was on the wall for Edmondson who believed “endless touring” had ruined their friendship. On the final night, he ended their 27-year partnership.
“I kind of realised we couldn’t really do it anymore, and we never really got to an understanding about that, which makes me very sad,” Edmondson said.
Rosie remembered her dad saying to her: “I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, I don’t know why this has happened.”
She continued: “I think he just felt like the carpet had been pulled from underneath him, and he was just sort of left going, ‘Well, now what?’ I just think that my dad deserved more, so much more. But then again, Adrian was completely entitled to do what he needed to do as well, for his own mental health.”
Edmondson said he particularly struggled with his grief after Mayall’s sudden death as “we never kind of repaired what our relationship was”. Mayall died aged 56 on 9 June 2014 after suffering a sudden heart attack.
“So I’ve had to explain the later part of our relationship in some ways, because people want to know,” he said. “It is obvious that something went a bit awry, but I think we should mostly remember that he was a f***ing genius.”
Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’stard airs on Sky Documentaries on 25 June.
