Thanks bridesmaid, like the beard. (9/6/14)

I was writing when I read the news. Writing comedy. Possibly appropriate, I don't know. It wasn't Rik Mayall's type of comedy, it was tethered, structured, homely, deliberately family friendly, traditional and probably fairly safe if truth be told.

Rik Mayall's comedy was none of these things. It was a comedy of anarchy, of risk taking, of walking the edge, of lampooning anybody and everybody, including the public perception of himself.

Those of my generation came across him (if I recall correctly) prior to the advent of The Young Ones in two ways: as one half of The Dangerous Brothers alongside Ade Edmonson, an act which would mutate first into the relationship that the two held within the programme that would make their names and then further still into Bottom; wanton, random, violent, thoroughly over the top slapstick whose only ambition seemed to be excess or as Kevin Turvey 'The Man Behind The Green Door' the be-anoraked Midlands philosopher.

Both were obviously striking and set us up as a ready made audience for The Young Ones' brand of surreal stream of consciousness, sarcastic interludes, musical guests and (again) slapstick ultra-violence coupled with the freeform rhyming of 'The People's Poets'. I can't recite much poetry from the classical canon but 'Neil, Neil, Orange Peel' will ever resonate.

Filthy, Rich and Catflap may have neither the cachet nor success of either its predecessor or successor, Bottom saw the refinement (if that could ever truly be the word) of Mayall and Edmondson's schtick; a comedy in the very classic manner where a small flat contained two doomed individuals who equally hated and depended upon each other with Rik the character who believed he was meant for better things but was eternally trapped with his inferior (but happier) partner.

The 90s saw 'The New Statesman' - a fairly traditional political comedy from the writers of 'Birds of a Feather'. Without Mayall as Alan B'Stard it would have been safe, cuddly, harmless, Mayall gave it edge and danger. It was a show that was all about the performance.

The years following his Quad bike accident saw cameos and adverts, Rik was a marginalised figure. It doesn't make his death at the stupidly early age of 56 any less shocking or tragic.

The moment that I went back to though was the moment than many, possibly most, appear to have returned today; the three minute cameo as Lord Flashheart in Black Adder, a cameo which stole not only that episode but perhaps the entire series.

I've stopped writing now, the mood's no longer there.

RIP Rik Mayall - a comic landmark for my generation.