{"id":657965,"date":"2026-06-25T18:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/657965\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T18:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:48:13","slug":"rik-mayall-documentary-shines-heartbreaking-new-light-on-funnymans-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/657965\/","title":{"rendered":"Rik Mayall documentary shines heartbreaking new light on funnyman\u2019s career"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The anarchic Rik Mayall<\/a> 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 \u201cAde\u201d Edmondson.<\/a><\/p>\n

On stage, or at public events, he was the effervescent funnyman, taking it upon himself to ensure he put a smile on everybody\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Sky documentary Rik Mayall: Magnificent B\u2019stard, we discover new insights into Mayall and Edmondson\u2019s early starts, including a double act called Flash Rick and Deaf Ade, which might have changed the very fabric of British comedy if they\u2019d managed to sell it. We see unseen sketches and hear audio testimonies from the man himself; close your eyes, and it\u2019s like he\u2019s in the room with you.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Rik Mayall documentary reveals the comedian\u2019s anxieties (Getty)<\/p>\n

His public-facing image, as an endless well of laughter<\/a>, was perpetuated by the man himself, who would \u201cimmediately stand taller, puff out his chest and really make a show of it\u201d the moment he was around members of the public.<\/p>\n

This behaviour was a \u201cdichotomy\u201d, 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. \u201cHe loved that sort of attention; on the other side, it\u2019s exactly who he wasn\u2019t,\u201d TV director Bob Baldwin said.<\/p>\n

In fact, his other daughter, Bonnie, said, \u201cPeople would probably be quite surprised to know about his anxieties\u201d, caused by the belief that, if he didn\u2019t crack a joke, he wasn\u2019t \u201cinteresting or debonair enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to be always the funniest, best version of himself, which tended to be a character \u2019cause that\u2019s what he felt most comfortable with,\u201d his daughter explained.<\/p>\n

Things took a dark turn in 1997, when Edmondson noticed Mayall was \u201csecretly drinking\u201d while preparing their third Bottom tour, Hooligan\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n

\"RikRik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in ‘Bottom’ (BBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy little office was overlooking a pub, and then I\u2019d start to see him going in for a quick couple of shorts before he came in to write,\u201d he recalled. \u201cStrange, as we used to enjoy alcohol so much together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rosie realised something wasn\u2019t quite right a year later when, during a trip to Devon, she discovered he\u2019d packed his briefcase with miniature bottles of alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just kept getting these little bottles out the bag,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018What are you doing, darling?\u2019 He said, \u2018Just don\u2019t tell your mother,\u2019 knocking them back.\u201d 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: \u201cThis isn\u2019t very safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, Mayall nearly died after flipping the bike. His son, Sid, recalled: \u201cThere was a huge pool of blood around his head \u2013 it fractured his skull \u2013\u00a0and 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Edmondson also noticed a change in his co-star\u2019s 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 \u201cwas never exactly the same person\u201d and found him \u201cbizarrely more emotional\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"RikRik Mayall in ‘Guest House Paradiso’ (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

They eventually went back on tour together, for a fifth time, but Edmondson called time on their 27-year partnership on the final night in 2003. A tearful Mayall found it difficult to accept the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cEndless touring did us in. I kind of realised we couldn\u2019t really do it any more, and we never really got to an understanding about that, which makes me very sad,\u201d Edmondson recalled.<\/p>\n

Rosie remembered her dad saying to her: \u201cI don\u2019t know what I’ve done wrong, I don\u2019t know why this has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cI think he just felt like the carpet had been pulled from underneath him, and he was just sort of left going, \u2018Well, now what?\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmondson said he particularly struggled with his grief after Mayall\u2019s sudden death as \u201cwe never kind of repaired what our relationship was\u201d. Mayall died aged 56 on 9 June 2014 after suffering a sudden heart attack.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve had to explain the later part of our relationship in some ways, because people want to know,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is obvious that something went a bit awry, but I think we should mostly remember that he was a f***ing genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rik Mayall: Magnificent B\u2019stard screens on Sky Documentaries on 25 June at 9pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-657965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}