N.p. [London]: N.p. [BBC], 1983

Six episodes, with two duplicates, in mimeograph and photocopy, and associated material as listed below. Wear consistent with professional use, but a very well preserved collection.

CO-WRITERS RIK MAYALL AND LISE MAYER'S ANNOTATED WORKING SCRIPTS FOR SERIES TWO OF THE YOUNG ONES. WITH ASSOCIATED MATERIAL, SKETCHES AND SCRIPT PAGES, SOME UNUSED IN THE FINISHED SERIES AND PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN.

The early 1980s saw the beginning of the alternative comedy era, a progressive, liberal antidote to the traditional stand-up comedy of mainstream television and working men's clubs. The gong-show style venue the Comedy Store opened in May 1979 in Soho, London, and in October 1980 Peter Richardson took a group of Comedy Store performers -- among them Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle -- to the nearby Boulevard Theatre in Raymond's Revue Bar, to set up a club called The Comic Strip.

But while alternative stand-up comedy was flourishing live on stage, it was proving difficult to transfer its rowdy and anarchic style to television -- not least because of broadcasters' stringent restrictions on swearing. In the early 1980s the BBC tolerated occasional adult content and language in its drama department output, but its light entertainment was still required to be good clean fun at all times. The new generation of comedy talent had other ideas.

Rik Mayall and writer Lise Mayer began writing a sitcom based on their recent experiences as students -- a TV vehicle for the Comic Strip company. They delivered an outline to BBC producer Paul Jackson, at the time one of the few executive fans of alternative comedy, and the producer of the early alternative stand-up TV special Boom Boom Out Go The Lights (BBC2, 1980-1). Jackson commissioned a pilot script, and Mayall and Meyer recruited Ben Elton as a third co-writer. The resulting pilot show, Demolition, was shot in December 1981, and won the show a series. The Young Ones was first broadcast in the autumn of 1982 -- a transmission time timed to coincide with the launch of Channel Four, Britain's fourth television channel. Channel Four's first night of programming included The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad in Dorset, written and directed by Peter Richardson. Both shows drew their casts from the leading names of the alternative comedy scene., names which became mainstays of British comedy for the next forty years and counting: Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Nigel Planer, Robbie Coltrane and Alexei Sayle.

BBC executives were horrified by The Young Ones when it was first broadcast but couldn't argue with its quickly growing audience, and a second series of six episodes was commissioned, filmed and broadcast in 1984. (The BBC wanted a third series too, but the writers declined.)

This collection of material comprises:

THE YOUNG ONES, SERIES 2:

-- Episode 1: Bambi. Inked date (3/11/83') to cover sheet (no title page). Unpaginated photocopied typescript, heavily amended and rewritten, pencilled casting notes to cover sheet;

-- Episode 2: Cash. May 1983. '1st DRAUGHT [sic]'. 34pp. photocopied typescript, heavily amended and rewritten, marked 'Remix II 3/11/83' and 'TOO LONG' to title page (and with obscene doodle by Mayall). A second copy, 'READ THROUGH', 83pp. mimeographed typescript, some deletions and annotations. With loose, heavily annotated title page;

-- Episode 3: Nasty. Cover sheet marked 'REMIX II 3/11/83'. 43pp. typescript, heavily amended and rewritten. No title page, pencilled casting notes to second cover sheet. A second copy, undated. 96pp. mimeographed typescript. Inked note to title page, pencilled note to reverse of final page, otherwise unmarked;

-- Episode 4: Time. June 1983. '1st draught [sic]'. 38pp. photocopied typescript, heavily amended and rewritten, marked 'REWORK III 3/11/83' to title page, 2pp. casting notes on separate sheet clipped to front of script;

-- Episode 5: Sick. Undated. 45pp. photocopied typescript, heavily amended and rewritten. No title page. 2pp. casting notes on separate sheet clipped to front of script ('BRIAN DAMAGE - JIM BROADBENT'). A second copy, a photocopy of the first;

-- Episode 6: Summer Holiday. Undated. 'READ THROUGH SCRIPT'. 83pp. mimeographed typescript. Unmarked except for a page of Radio Times listings to reverse of final page ('Roses are red | Violets are blue | Grass is green | And so are my new trousers.') A second copy, with occasional annotations., and a third, RIK MAYALL'S COPY, unmarked except for title page ('Richie's copy so fuck off now.'). 6 loose typescript pp., 3 numbered 19-21;

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:

-- Red binder of scenes variously labelled 'PHOTOS', 'DOCTOR', 'VIDEO NASTY', 'HENS', 'CHRISTIANS', 'DUSTING', 'LIGHT', 'LIGHT BULB', 'CARDS BIRTHDAY', stand-alone sketches and script pages in first draft form -- mostly hitherto unseen material not used in the finished series, some by Ben Elton, some by Meyer and Mayall working together;-- 11 loose typescript pp., with deletions and annotations, all early draft pages from Episode 6;

-- 16pp. typed and hand-written faxed sheets, badly faded, with occasional annotations.

An extraordinary collection of material charting the making of one of the most influential British comedy shows of the last fifty years.