Berserker by Adrian Edmondson

"I've got a leg! I'm supposed to write an essay about it, but I think I'm gonna mount it on the bonnet of my car."
Vyvyan -The Young Ones

With those immortal words, I was hooked. Back in 1982, I was a fresh-faced twenty-one-year-old when the TV series The Young Ones hit British screens. We'd never seen anything like it, given we were brought up on a diet of Dick Emery, Les Dawson and Morcombe and Wise. This was apparently Alternative Comedy, although I would argue it was more anarchic comedy back then. For example, I'd never seen a Tampon until it was shown in the episode "Interesting" during the house party. How young and innocent was I? A heck of a lot of my humour is not only shaped by that show, but I still to this day use many of the lines and sketches it contained.

"Don't look at me, I'm irrelevant."

I've just finished reading Ade Edmondson's book Berserker. Ade played the character Vyvyan in The Young Ones and also one of his other famous personas, Eddie Hitler, in Bottom I suppose I should be honest and admit I read it for two reasons:

A. To see if there was any inside stuff about The Young Ones or Bottom, for that matter.

B. To see what he said about his former comedy partner Rik Mayall who died in 2014.

As with most biographies, it's fascinating; why else would you read about someone's life if you didn't want to know more about them? I didn't know he was so involved with music or that he could play so many instruments; this man has appeared on stage with The Who for pity's sake! His childhood comes across as fairly sad, lonely and difficult. He says he didn't have a very good relationship with his father, something I can relate to, although for different reasons. Clearly, his father had a big influence on him as he talks about his father far more than his mother.

I was anxious to get to the point where he met Rik Mayall, and we have to go through canings and suspensions before we finally got to how they met at University. I found the 'punishments' hard to reconcile with him; he strikes me (note the pun) as a very easy-going type of person and not your average troublemaker, although [Spoiler Alert] he did forge a letter to the bank supposedly from his mum. 😂

Like most British entertainers, Ade and Rik did the usual rounds of Edinburgh Fringe, clubs and pubs, but a particular venue The Tram Shed where they performed is of interest to me as I grew up in and around Woolwich. I have a dim memory of seeing Hale & Pace there, although I could be wrong? I can remember when it was an actual Tram Shed! 🤣
^{(Slight exaggeration. I remember it as an all-boarded former Tram Shed with the tracks still in place before being converted to a venue.)}

I got the feeling he doesn't hold The Young Ones Or Bottom in any great esteem; oh, he's proud of them, but it's almost a "That was then, and this is now." kind of attitude. Apart from hearing that some of the stunts injured the performers, I didn't learn much other than that one of my favourite sketches from The Young Ones he doesn't like! 😱

[Spoiler Alert] In The basement of the house, two men are lying on a makeshift raft, sweating profusely under a bare forty-watt bulb.

First-Man: "Call this a holiday?"
Second-Man: "Well, it was all I could get."
First-Man: "All you could get, do me a favour."

I've missed a good chunk out, but I assure you, it is funny in a surreal kind of way.

Ade does talk a little bit about his wife Jennifer Saunders, who is, in fact, famous in her own right. Oh God, that sounds bad, doesn't it? It makes it look like I think someone is only famous because of their partner? Le Sigh. They have appeared in several productions together, including The Comic Strip for example. They married in 1985 and have three daughters. Christ, I have twin girls, and it was bad enough living with three women; imagine living with four! Quite rightly, he says he's not going to talk about her but will tell us three things about Jennifer [Spoiler Alert] he rattles off the first two reasonably quickly; apparently, she has a mean right hook, and nobody is going to disrespect her husband. The third fact you have to wait a long time for! TBH, I was almost at the point of posting something on X (Twitter): "Oi Edmondson, you twonk! You forgot the third fact! I want my money back!

Obviously, a lot of the book is taken up with his comedic partner Rik Mayall. Ade doesn't pull any punches; I get the feeling their relationship was strained almost to breaking point towards the end. The tension was not helped by the Quad bike accident Rick sustained in 1998, where his skull was fractured on a concrete slab, and Rik was in an induced coma for five days. Apparently, as you might expect, it affected his memory, and he was convinced they were going to resurrect the double act, aka Bottom and each time, Ade had to explain to him the reasons why it was not going to happen. It must have grated on Ade's nerves, and they were never in great shape, according to the book. I didn't get the sense of any great loss, sadness, yes, but no wailing or gnashing of teeth. It's sad when you have an intense relationship with someone, a kindred spirit, and then suddenly it's all over. Ade talks about other deaths of people close to him; they're nobody we know, but I'll let you find out about them in the book.

Should've been a salesperson!

I thoroughly enjoyed the book; it's one of those reads that you could sit and read the lot in one sitting if you had enough time on your hands. What I did come away with was a sense that Ade Edmondson is a multi-talented performer. Some may have well pigeon-holed him as a comedian, but he is so much more than that; he's a musician, a serious actor, a narrator and yes, I suppose, a comic. The other fact I came away with was that he's a damn good storyteller. In each subject he tells you about, he tells you just enough you get the feeling there's just that little bit more, or at the very least, you want more. That's a classic sales technique: build desire, paint a picture with words and show them they really need what you are selling. I need to see more of Adrian Edmondson on the Tele.

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