Flood

The title of the episode gives away the plot — London floods. This episode is filled with other absurdities and satire such as Vyvyan's potion (in a Coke can) that can change an ordinary person into an axe-wielding homicidal maniac; a game of hide and seek in which Vyvyan visits Narnia; and Mike's room filled with lions and a lion tamer.

There was no band this week. Too wet?

Bambi — the first episode of series two hit UK television, screened May 1984

The first half of the show is devoted to the boys actively avoiding the laundrette — a real challenge. 'Challenge', remembered Neil. The lads have been invited to represent Scumbag College on University Challenge.

The boys compete against Footlights College Oxbridge and viewers witness performances by a who's who of film and television — Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Ben Elton, Emma Thompson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith.

Music? The legendary band Motörhead

This episode is the favourite of many fans as well as Young Ones series one director Geoff Posner. 

'I loved the image of … it was nothing to do with me, it was on series two … of 'University Challenge' where they actually built the set above each other where the people on the top were hitting the people on the bottom. I just thought that was absolute genius. One of my favourite moments in this episode is when Adrian [Vyvyan] stuck his head out the train window and it got knocked off.  In those days, before digital editing came along, it was really tricky and time consuming to do that, because it was really, really difficult.' (interview for That's Anarchy, 2003)

Cash

A very strange episode that tackles the issue of student poverty. To earn money to buy food and heating fuel, the lads send Neil out to join the police force. Vyvyan can't work; he thinks he's pregnant, in fact later in the episode, he gives birth to bouncing baby fart.

The band? A one-off band Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve made up of some top UK musicians — Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron (Raw Sex), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Jools Holland and Glen Tilbrook (Squeeze). They performed Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Benito Mussolini made an appearance in this episode — well, it was Alexei Sayle really, singing Stupid Noises.

Nasty

A unique part of The Young Ones was the cutaway sequence, featured throughout each episode, often in the form of puppets, but occasionally sketches with loosely connected characters. Essentially, the first scene of Nasty is a cutaway. It shows the Grim Reaper playing chess with Arnold Brown, often referred to as 'the grandfather of alternative comedy'. There are many cutaways in this and other episodes.

One such cutaway in Nasty features Stephen Frost and Mark Arden (the Oblivion Boys) playing cards in a cabin. Suddenly a man (Daniel Peacock) bursts in with an important message, but he's been shot. The card players then phone out, with the telephone ringing in the boys' flat; a very tenuous but clever connection.

The theme of Nasty is horror, with its opening sequence, the scene in the graveyard (featuring Terry Jones), the dead messenger in the cabin; 'a package from the Transvaal' with a South African vampire inside, Habitat Sofa Coffins and even the musical guests — The Damned, performing Nasty, with the line 'freeze-frame gonna drive you insane'. More about freeze-frames later.

Time

Although all the episodes were strange and surreal, Time is doubly so. It begins with a dream sequence — a spoof of Aaron Spelling's big-production soaps such as Dallas, with 'Bad Spelling' as the 'Executive Executive'. Surrealism and satire continue to rule with the appearance of a medieval hippie knight, a spoof of Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch, an escaped murderess (Jennifer Saunders), pirate radio complete with a resident pirate and a Middle Ages game show, Medieval Torture.

The series becomes very silly with the house disappearing into a medieval time warp, but it doesn't bother the boys until they realise they will be no telly! They panic, but then scoff, 'Who cares?' and play cards.

Sick

This is possibly the most disgusting of all The Young Ones' episodes, but it also happens to be this writer's favourite! The episode is pure slapstick with garbage bags full of green snot and lorry loads of manure, as well as explosions, hits on the head and a 'negative reality inversion'.

One favourite scene is the articulate outburst by Vyvyan. He angry tears up the opening credits of The Good Life as they appear in the boys' flat, followed by the four lads experiencing their own self sufficiency. Their garden causes growth, multiplication and increase, causing three Neils to appear in the steaming pile of manure.

Alexei Sayle features as Brian Damage Balowski, the 'highly dangerous criminal' and the band is Madness, the only band to appear in The Young Ones twice.

Summer Holiday

The final episode ever — only twelve were produced. Rik Mayall thought it would be presumptuous of him to outdo Cleese and his twelve Fawlty Towers episodes.

Sadly the boys come to an explosive end, ensuring there can't be a new series or a sequel. This didn't stop them returning for a world tour (including Australia in 1986/87) or to sing with Living Doll with Cliff Richard for Comic Relief in 1986.

Post script

You might be wondering about those flash-frames in series two, mentioned previously. There's a story to them, so sit back; here it is …

Paul Jackson and the writers came up with the idea of putting flash-frames into each episode of series two just for the video fans. Jackson explains: 'What we did was, we put a couple of flash-frames in the first one, then we cut it down to one, making them shorter and shorter, so that it was about four frames or six frames in the first one, then we cut them to single frames. That would tell people they were there and then you really had to look for them. In fact, in those old-fashioned machines where you couldn't edge forward, it was almost impossible to catch them. But people did.'

The flash-frame inclusion was a carefully planned joke with the punch line being saved until the last episode. But bureaucracy and politics interfered with their plans for a final episode conclusion to their in-joke.

Spitting Image on ITV had been using similar flash-frames in their show, but they were forced to stop because of the commercial channel subliminal advertising rules. A few months later, Spitting Image slipped in another frame, sending a friendly message to Jackson and The Young Ones, and a greeting to Jackson's wife, Judy, and their two daughters. Spitting Image's producer John Lloyd, was hauled over the coals for his misdemeanour, but it had repercussions for The Young Ones' plan to screen their flash-frame punch line in Summer Holiday. Jackson continues the story, 'On the last show, we got a frame in. It was a written frame that said, 'I suppose you are all wondering what all these symbols are about, and see them as some kind of private message. Well, yah boo sucks! Fuck you, basically. Nyah Nyah Nyah. That's the joke.' So we put this frame in and you really had to freeze the frame to see the text.' (That's Anarchy 2003)

Sadly, the final flash-frame never went to air, although it can be found in some videos of the show — so check out your old collection.

Would this classic British comedy stand up against today's style of humour? Sadly no. It's enjoyed by its original fans; it's occasionally picked up by students and fans of obscure British comedy; it looks tired and old fashioned compared to today's slick productions and the comedy is very anti-Thatcher and anti-Tory-based. It's too 80s. But it needs to be looked at as a piece of comedy history. The Young Ones have all grown up and are now ensconced in establishment entertainment. 'And why not?'

That's a brief outline of The Young Ones' story and an opportunity to say happy 25^th anniversary to Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike, and congratulations Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton, Lise Mayer, Paul Jackson and Geoff Posner. To celebrate the anniversary on 9^th of November 2007, BBC has released a box set of the series with new commentaries by the two producers/directors Paul Jackson and Geoff Posner, recorded just a few weeks ago. It's available at ABC Shops or at amazon.co.uk.

Image courtesy Wikipedia.