Ade Edmondson tears up as he emotionally remembers Rik Mayall in Bottom documentary

22 April 2024, 14:28

Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall were one of British comedy's greatest double acts.

From their time together in The Young Ones and their Comedy Strip days to their crude brilliance in Bottom, Rik and Ade made us laugh for decades.

Rik Mayall tragically died aged just 56 in 2014, bringing their partnership to an end. However, they hadn't performed together properly for a number of years.

In a new documentary on Gold charting the history of Bottom - Ade explained how his relationship with Rik had "strained" over the years, particularly since Rik's near-fatal quadbike accident in 1998.

Ade said “It’s very weird being in a world without” Rik. He added: “It’s weird thinking that he didn’t know anything about Brexit, didn’t know about Covid.”

“I mean, our relationship was strained towards the end,” Edmondson said: “And when I do things like this, and I remember the absolute joy of sitting in that little office in Richmond opposite the Hole in the wall pub, it was absolute, you know, the distilled joy – the most joy I’ve ever had in my life, I think.”

He continued: “Making each other laugh, Properly laugh. Big belly laugh, laughs, you know. Proper can’t stop laughing, laughing. Very rarely you get a relationship like that with someone.”

Ade became emotional when he looked back on the love and passion the pair had for each other’s characters: "I mentioned… the way we used to write each other’s characters and were in love with each other’s characters – I miss that love. Yeah, I miss that other opinion of me. A very loving opinion.”

Mr Gas Man! | Bottom | BBC Comedy Greats

In his 2023 memoir, Ade revealed that their comedic partnership had difficulties when they reunited for a Bottom series in 2012, with Rik becoming annoyed at the amount of jokes being shared between them.

He wrote: “And I realise that the double act is properly over. There’s no trust left. It was glorious when it was alive, I’m immensely proud of everything we did together, it still makes me laugh, but I’m glad we didn’t do a dodgy final series.”

Bottom Exposed is out now.