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The Comic Strip
Nationality	British
Years active	1982 - 2005
Genres	Comedy
Notable works and roles	The Comic Strip Presents... (1982-2005)
Members	Adrian Edmondson Dawn French Rik Mayall Nigel Planer Peter Richardson Jennifer Saunders

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, best known collectively for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members of the group are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and Alexei Sayle.

Contents 1 Early history 2 Television 3 The BBC and after 4 Controversy 5 Video and DVD releases 6 List of Comic Strip films 7 External links

Most of the group started performing at the Comedy Store in London, before setting up their own premises called the Comic Strip in a nearby Soho strip club the Raymond Revue Bar. The basic lineup consisted of three double-acts: Edmondson and Mayall (performing under the name "20th Century Coyote"), Planer and Richardson ("The Outer Limits") and French and Saunders. The other regulars were Arnold Brown, an older standup comic who did not fit so obviously into the alternative comedy scene, and Alexei Sayle, who acted as compere.

The Comic Strip founder Peter Richardson informally prompted the members to sign a contract to signify their attachment to the group. Whilst the performers gained more exposure, actors such as Jack Nicholson and Robin Williams turned up to watch them.

The show came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs, head of the newly-formed Channel 4. Peter Richardson negotiated a deal with the channel for six self-contained half-hour films, using the group as comedy actors rather than standup performers. Almost simultaneously, the BBC signed up Edmondson, Mayall, Planer and Sayle to star in The Young Ones, a sitcom in the same anarchic style as the Comic Strip. Richardson was initially to have been involved too (in the role of Mike, ultimately played by Christopher Ryan), but dropped out of the project due to clashes between him and the show's producer, Paul Jackson. With The Comic Strip Presents..., Richardson had creative control.

The Comic Strip Presents... debuted on 2 November 1982, the opening night of Channel 4. Each episode was prefixed by an animated lead-in consisting of the words "The Comic Strip Presents" together with a bomb, labeled "Have a nice day", falling towards a map. In the early episodes the map was of a section of north Dorset and southern Wiltshire, centred on the town of Shaftesbury.

The first episode to be broadcast was "Five Go Mad In Dorset", a parody of The Famous Five. It was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, who jointly wrote most of the early episodes. "Five Go Mad..." drew anger from some viewers for the way it mercilessly satirised a children's classic, although the Enid Blyton estate had in fact given their permission for the broadcast. A meeting was called to discuss the group's future with Channel 4, after complaints from viewers.

The final episode of the first series was to have been a spoof chat show called "Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon" (referred to as "An Evening with Eddie Monsoon" by some sources). However, it was never produced, as it was considered too vulgar even for the avowedly "alternative" Channel 4 (not to mention possibly libellous). The script – which, uniquely for the Comic Strip, was written as a collaboration by the entire cast – was later published, along with the rest of the series, in book form.

A second series of seven episodes followed in 1983-84, including "Five Go Mad On Mescalin", a sequel to the first episode, and the newly-written "Eddie Monsoon – A Life?", a spoof documentary on the life and times of the title character, an obscene, drunken television host (played by Adrian Edmondson). Michael White, the theatre impressario and Rocky Horror Show producer who had been brought in by Richardson as executive producer on the series, appeared in this episode as Monsoon's producer, who had been responsible for axing Eddie's television comeback show – called Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon. The reasons given for the cancellation (e.g. "the things you said about Burt Reynolds") are presumably the same problems that led to the real "Back to Normal..." being dropped by Channel 4. (The name Eddie Monsoon – a corruption of "Edmondson" – was later used by Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson's wife, for her character in Absolutely Fabulous.)

There then followed a four-year wait until the next series, during which the group made two feature films - The Supergrass (1985) and Eat The Rich (1987) - as well as three one-off Comic Strip Presents... episodes. The first of these, "The Bullshitters", was a parody of the television spy and detective shows of the day (such as The Professionals). It was not broadcast under the Comic Strip name, partly because of the original group only Richardson appears (he is the only performer to have been in every single episode), and partly because co-star and co-writer Keith Allen did not want to be so closely associated with the group.

The third series was broadcast in 1988, and some episodes had longer running times, mostly around 50 minutes. Five of the six episodes (all except "Funseekers") were given a limited theatrical release. They included "The Strike", which won the Golden Rose of Montreux; "More Bad News", a sequel to "Bad News Tour" showing the band reforming after five years to play at Castle Donington; and "Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door", written by Mayall and Edmondson in the violent and stupid style of their sitcoms Filthy Rich and Catflap and Bottom, which featured Peter Cook as a psychotic contract killer (the eponymous Mr. Jolly). Peter Richardson and Pete Richens only contributed one episode this time round, allowing cast members such as Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle to get their ideas on screen.

By now the show had proved itself as a cult hit, and several notable guest stars appeared in the later productions, including Leslie Phillips, Miranda Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Nicholas Parsons, Kate Bush, Richard Vernon, Ruby Wax, Graham Crowden, Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Elvis Costello, and Benjamin Zephaniah (as a Rastafarian police van driver) and several musical acts, particularly from the Bad News series which was also aided by Queen guitarist Brian May, such as Def Leppard and Marillion.

In 1990, the series transferred to BBC2. By now, all the regulars (with the conspicuous exception of Peter Richardson) had become more famous for their own shows, and more recurring performers such as Gary Beadle, Phil Cornwell, Steve O'Donnell, Mark Caven, Sarah Stockbridge and Doon Mackichan were brought in. Rik Mayall was contracted to ITV's The New Statesman, and was only able to appear in two of the BBC productions ("GLC", and the Comic Relief special "Red Nose of Courage"). Richardson and Richens took over the bulk of the writing again, and Richardson also took over as director, having previously directed the two feature films, as well as "The Strike". The six-part 1990 series was followed by three individual specials in 1992, and a final six episodes in 1993.

In 1998 the original team reunited and returned to Channel 4 for a one-off special, "Four Men In A Car". This was followed in 2000 by a sequel, "Four Men In A Plane". After another long hiatus, another 60-minute one-off, "Sex Actually", was made in 2005. It starred Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) and Tamer Hassan (Layer Cake) alongside several of the regular cast members.

Peter Richardson, who has built his career as a writer-director, with the TV series Stella Street and films such as Churchill: The Hollywood Years, has not ruled out the possibility of a whole new series of The Comic Strip Presents... featuring younger cast members. [1]

Spike Milligan particularly disliked The Comic Strip Presents... and dismissed it as crude. He said, "Rik Mayall is putrid. Absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the arsehole of British comedy."^{[citation needed]} Jim Bowen said "The Comic Strip was disgusting and anything 'alternative' is not funny." Labour MP Dennis Skinner said "The Comic Strip ridiculed history, but put forward another side to that of The Miners Strike and Arthur Scargill."

In 1986 Virgin Video released various episodes of the programme dating between 1982-4, which have now become very rare. The 1988 series was released on video the same year by Palace Video, each episode having its own video. The only existing episode of the BBC series on video is "GLC", which Polygram Video released together with "The Strike" in 1994. When the Virgin & Palace Video videos went out of print in 1990, the rights of the episodes were transferred to Polygram Video. After three years all of the Channel 4 episodes of The Comic Strip were released on video.

"Eat The Rich" 1987 and "The Pope Must Die(t)" 1991 have not yet been released on DVD in the UK. "Eat The Rich" is available as a Region 1 (American) DVD.

A nine-disc Region 2 DVD set, The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection was released in July 2005. This included all of the Channel 4 and BBC episodes plus The Supergrass across eight discs, but did not include Eat the Rich and was released too early to include ...Sex Actually. The ninth disc includes a retrospective documentary, live Comic Strip performances from 1981 and interviews with cast and crew.

#	Episode	Tx Date	Writers	Directors
Series 1 (1982-83)
1.1	Five Go Mad in Dorset	02/11/82	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
1.2	War	03/01/83	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
1.3	The Beat Generation	17/01/83	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
1.4	Bad News Tour	24/01/83	Adrian Edmondson	Sandy Johnson
1.5	Summer School	31/01/83	Dawn French	Sandy Johnson
Series 2 (1983-84)
2.1	Five Go Mad on Mescalin	02/11/83	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
2.2	Dirty Movie	07/01/84	Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall	Sandy Johnson
2.3	Susie	14/01/84	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
2.4	A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques	21/01/84	Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
2.5	Gino: Full Story and Pics	28/01/84	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Bob Spiers
2.6	Eddie Monsoon - A Life?	04/02/84	Adrian Edmondson	Sandy Johnson
2.7	Slags	11/02/84	Jennifer Saunders	Sandy Johnson
Special (1984)
	The Bullshitters: Roll out the Gunbarrel	03/11/84	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen	Stephen Frears
Feature Film (1985)
	The Supergrass		Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Specials (1986)
	Consuela, or The New Mrs Saunders	01/01/86	Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders	Stephen Frears
	Private Enterprise	02/01/86	Adrian Edmondson	Adrian Edmondson
Feature Film (1987)
	Eat the Rich		Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Series 3 (1988)
3.1	The Strike	20/02/88	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
3.2	More Bad News	27/02/88	Adrian Edmondson	Adrian Edmondson
3.3	Mr Jolly Lives Next Door	05/03/88	Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Rowland Rivron	Stephen Frears
3.4	The Yob	12/03/88	Keith Allen, Daniel Peacock	Ian Emes
3.5	Didn't You Kill My Brother?	19/03/88	Alexei Sayle, David Stafford, Pauline Melville	Bob Spiers
3.6	Funseekers	26/03/88	Nigel Planer, Doug Lucie	Baz Taylor
Series 4 (1990)
4.1	South Atlantic Raiders	01/02/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
4.2	South Atlantic Raiders: Argie Bargie!	08/02/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
4.3	GLC: The Carnage Continues...	15/02/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
4.4	Oxford	22/02/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
4.5	Spaghetti Hoops	01/03/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
4.6	Les Dogs	08/03/90	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Specials (1992)
	Red Nose of Courage	09/04/92	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
	The Crying Game	05/05/92	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen
	Wild Turkey	24/12/92	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Series 5 (1993)
5.1	Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown	22/04/93	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen
5.2	Space Virgins from Planet Sex	29/04/93	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson, Keith Allen
5.3	Queen of the Wild Frontier	06/05/93	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
5.4	Gregory: Diary of a Nutcase	13/05/93	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
5.5	Demonella	20/05/93	Paul Bartel, Barry Dennen	Paul Bartel
5.6	Jealousy	27/05/93	Robbie Coltrane, Morag Fullarton	Robbie Coltrane
Special (1998)
	Four Men in a Car	12/04/98	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Special (2000)
	Four Men in a Plane	04/01/00	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson
Special (2005)
	...Sex Actually	28/12/05	Peter Richardson, Pete Richens	Peter Richardson

• BBC Comedy Guide - The Comic Strip Presents...
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• The Comic Strip Presents Website

The Comic Strip
Adrian Edmondson — Dawn French — Rik Mayall — Nigel Planer — Peter Richardson — Jennifer Saunders