See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC Published: 22:50 BST, 25 June 2026 | Updated: 01:17 BST, 26 June 2026
Rik Mayall: Magnificent B'stard (Sky Documentaries) Rating: Four out of five stars The former U.S. chat show host Dick Cavett, now 89, uploaded a clip to his endlessly entertaining YouTube archive channel this month, of the British actor Robert Shaw in conversation.Shaw, star of Jaws and father-of-ten, was a notorious ladies' man, married three times. He revealed to Cavett how he knew 'within two seconds' whether a woman would go to bed with him: 'If they like you, they laugh at your jokes.'That slice of cad's wisdom might well supply the missing key to comedy star Rik Mayall's complex personality, one that his friends and co-stars seemed to overlook in the two-hour tribute Magnificent B'stard.Mayall was no macho man but he blazed with sex appeal and used comedy to magnify it. That fact was obvious in every shot of his live performances: whenever the camera cut away to the audience, it was women who were screaming with laughter. When Rik was on manic form, the stalls looked and sounded like the heyday of Beatlemania.Though their tributes were generous throughout this well-paced account of Mayall's life, the men saluting him didn't seem to grasp how much of his charisma was rooted in his effortless sexiness.They tried intellectual analysis of his addiction to fame, when the reality was obvious in every groin-thrusting gag.That only emphasises what a narrow male world the alternative comedy 'revolution' really was. The Young Ones, a situation comedy about four mismatched housemates attending the fictional Scumbag College in London, made its debut on the channel BBC Two. It starred Mayall as Rick, a self-proclaimed anarchist and 'people's poet'Almost without exception, every interviewee who wasn't a Mayall family member was a chap.I think we heard once from comedian Helen Lederer, but otherwise it was all boys: Young Ones Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer, producers John Lloyd and Paul Jackson, writer Ben Elton, co-star Stephen Fry, and so on. For some reason, many of their contributions were filmed from above with a view of their bald spots, which gives new meaning to the term 'talking head'.Edmondson, who has gone on to enjoy a serious acting career since quitting the violent slapstick of his double act with Mayall, clearly finds it difficult to talk with equanimity about his old friend. Chilled treat of the week: At their dairy farm on the Lizard Peninsula, In Cornwall: A Year By The Sea (Ch5), ice cream artisans Katie and Jackie were pioneering new flavours for the tourist trade. Last year it was Banging Blueberry, this time it's Rhubarb Crumble. Mouth-watering. They won a devoted following by battering each other with saucepans and setting their hair on fire, but as the relationship deteriorated, the backstage rows became just as vicious and much less funny.Much of that breakdown, as well as the quad bike accident that almost killed him in 1998, was due to his alcoholism.'He became a different man,' Edmondson said with studied understatement, 'when he could afford to drink more whisky than was good for him.'After a stuttering end to his career, Mayall died in 2014, aged 56. He left behind far more than just The Young Ones and Bottom: excerpts from his political satire as Alan B'stard MP in The New Statesman were a reminder of how prophetic that show was.Judge for yourself — all four series are on ITVX.
