These guys are revered by many to be the godfathers of British anarchic comedy. They brought to the table a brand of humour was just as daft and surreal as Monty Python, but less cerebral and with a harder edge.

They are perhaps the only comedians who managed to make violent, bloody slapstick a regular feature on prime time British telly. Over the past 25 years, they've brought us The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents and Filthy, Rich and Catflap and Bottom, so let us journey down the U Bend of comic delights and into their world!

The early years
Adrian Edmondson was born in Bradford in 1957, while Richard Michael Mayall did not explode into the world until the following year. In the late 70s their paths collided at Manchester University, where they had both gone to study drama. It was there that they not only formed a lasting friendship, but also a comedy group called "Twentieth Century Coyote". Originally set up as a five-man team, it eventually became a partnership between just Rik and Ade. Fortunately for us, that partnership exists to this present day and although they have essentially always played the same two roles, it is one of the most enduring and successful partnerships in modern comedy.

Stripped down
Both Rik and Ade recognised that they had undoubted comic chemistry and they honed their skills by bombing down to London and often appearing on Saturday nights during open mike time at the well-known West End club called The Comedy Store. However, they made their name by performing their unique form of comedy at a club called The Comic Strip, which was also the launching ground of other well known "alternative" comedians such as Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders - the latter of whom wound up marrying Ade! This venue also spawned "Comic Strip Presents:" a collection of TV spoofs and satires that also featured alternative comedy favourites Alexei Sayle, Peter Richardson and Nigel Planer.

Cliff would be proud!
During their formative years, punk was shaking the music scene to its core and there is no coincidence that this rebellious sensibility filtered through to the world of comedy. Well, these two were key in punking up the way we laugh and the prime example of this can be seen in "The Young Ones", made in 1982 and arguably their most famous show. The series depicted four obnoxious, lazy, dysfunctional students living on the breadline, hating and abusing one another. Rik played er, Rick, a pretentious, whining sociology student, while Ade was Vivian, a maniacal medical student with a penchant for heavy metal. Mayall co-wrote the two series with Ben Elton and Lisa Mayer and it was unlike anything ever seen on TV before. Violent, aggressive and in your face, this really is anarchy in the UK!

A filthy failure
Following on from the huge success of The Young Ones, Rik and Ade paired up once again in 1987 on Filthy Rich and Catflap, bringing with them writer Ben Elton and Nigel Planer, who was hippie Neil in that hugely successful series. The show took a satirical swipe at the hypocrisy of show business. Rik once again played someone with the same name, this time Richie Rich, a minor celebrity with a major ego and negligible talent; Nigel was his agent, Filthy Ralph, a feckless nonentity of colossal uselessness and Ade was Richie's minder, Eddie Catflap, a devoted dipsomaniac who, despite his alcohol intake, still seemed more together than the other two, if perhaps less coherent. Sadly the series was too similar to The Young Ones but not nearly as funny. It was the duo's first flop.

Bottom's Up
Despite this failure, the pair knew that their in-your-face characters were strong enough to be recycled yet again and in 1991 they created "Bottom." With no one else writing the script, this is the pair in their purest, most violent form, with Rik played a sex-crazed virgin called - you've guessed it - Richie, while Ade was Eddie Elizabeth Hitler- a psychopathic alcoholic with a nice line in brown suits. The episodes were largely set in the worthless pair's filthy flat, but if the mood took them, they would occasionally venture out to the pub or the sex shop. With its cartoonish slapstick, Bottom was an immediate hit and further series followed in 1992 and 1995. At the end of the third and final series, Richie and Eddie were massacred by a special police task force, but they have been resurrected on stage in a succession of extreme live shows that still sell out to packed theatres to this day.