Dr. Matt Lee (mattl)

So, this was the week that Rik Mayall died, and I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of The Young Ones and Bottom.

Another show he was in, is the frequently overlooked Filthy Rich and Catflap, in which Rik Mayall plays Richie Rich, a failed generic TV showbiz type. The opening sequence has a ton of scenes from all over London, many of which are quite hard to see without the ability to skip frame by frame through the video. Which is what I did.

Some interesting items in there, including the Raymond Revuebar, which was home to The Comic Strip. All in all, it does a good job of putting the show in a gritty, dirtier version of London than we see in either The Young Ones (actually filmed in Bristol) or Bottom (presumably filmed at the BBC in West London) — this version of London is rarely seen in the show itself, which is often contained in Richie’s modern 80s apartment with brightly colored furniture and dead milkmen in the closets.

Also, the end credits are a lot of fun, with these various still images of the cast being played out in over the credits. Many of the actors are given single pages of the credits to themselves too, which is nice.

Note that “Additional material: Rik Mayall” feels somewhat buried, also for reasons that are likely lost to time now.