With great delight for fans, UKTV Gold suddenly announced a special one-off documentary for legendary ’90s sitcom Bottom.

This aired last Thursday (17/04) and you can watch the documentary on UKTV Gold or on NowTV. It’s a moving account to a cult classic ’90s sitcom, one with a notable absence throughout its runtime.

Bottom Exposed: Full Documentary (hit pause to make it stop)

For the time being, you can watch the whole documentary above there. Pretty sure that’ll be removed soon, so get in and watch it while you can!

Daily Motion has this very annoying thing where autoplay kicks in and you can’t actually turn it off. A cricket bat to the knackers would sort out such an idiotic dev decision.

Anyway, just so you know… the show is about two hopeless losers!

That’s Richie (Rik Mayall) and Eddie (Ade Edmondson). They live in Hammersmith, London, as unemployable sad acts with no hope of a good life. Lost in their own little world, they’ve created a kind of weird fantasy land through which they lead their lives.

Simple set up! Lots of carnage and British double entrendes await!

Teary Memories of an Ultra-Violent Comedy Masterpiece in… Bottom Exposed

As we’re fast approaching 10 years since the sudden death of Rik Mayall, this documentary is well timed. Not least as Ade Edmondson agreed to take part in it.

Edmondson has noted in his autobiography Berserker! (2023) he doesn’t like to dwell on the past.

Indeed, it’s very rare for him to publicly comment about Bottom or The Young Ones (from the early ’80s). It’s likely, since he just finished writing his book, he’s in a reflective mood and so agreed to appear in Bottom Exposed.

Although we should note he’s no longer a comedian, he almost a decade ago. Now he’s an actor (if you’ve seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi from 2017 he has quite a prominent role in that).

As many viewers commented during the documentary (in real-time via Twitter), many fans were left in tears by this.

A wonderful celebration of the comedy it was, there is that gaping hole (bottom pun there) with Mayall absent from the set the documentary crew had lovingly recreated. Rik is absent—very much missed.

Yet, throughout it all are the reminders of his comedy genius.

He worked fantastically well with Ade Edmondson are they made for one of the UK’s very best funny bones partnerships. That’s what Bottom Exposed celebrates.

Edmondson also takes with Ed Bye, who oversaw the production, and reminisces about a very happy time in his life.

A tribute to that is just how damn funny the show still is.

Bottom Exposed’s Rarities

The documentary has some incredibly never before seen footage that’s been hauled out of the archives. The series kicked off in 1991 and some long lost footage of Rik and Ade on-set and in-around-around recording time.

Some of these had made it online previously (as below), but others were just out of the blue moments of magic.

One section includes the show’s famous closing segment, which plays out to Richie and Eddie dancing around on screen.

As it turns out, this was the very first thing they recorded on the show.

You’d think it’d be the final thing, but there we go. That’s how TV/film productions work. And these insights are a real treat for fans of the show.

The Social Commentary of Bottom

One of the things that confused some of the public in the early ’90s was the sitcom’s intentions. A lot of the press, and no doubt viewers, gave the show a lazy overview of being “puerile”.

Rik and Ade were actually obsessed with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which they’d become interested in at Manchester University in the mid ’70s.

They were fascinated with the idea of two hopeless losers at the bottom of society. And wondered what they could explore with Richie and Eddie as nobodies leading a pointless existence.

There’s a lot of subtle social commentary in Bottom, nodding at class structures and inequality. Plus, the inherent black humour of being doomed in such a squalid situation the show’s characters find themselves in.

We did a full podcast on this a while back if you’d like to know more: Notes on the Bottom sitcom.

The Cartoon Violence of Bottom

Naturally, there was also a lot of cartoon, Vaudevillian violence in Bottom. Lots of it. Rik and Ade beat the crap out of each other.

This element (alongside the toilet humour) are what led the press to provide the show with negative reviews. All the papers did (tabloids, broadsheets etc.).

But the public loved Bottom!

For us as wide-eyed youths, not even 10 when this show first launched, it was something else. Turning bone-crunching accidents and making them hilarious —finding humour in those bleak moments of agony.

Mayall had a very distinctive voice that was perfect for that sort of agonised wailing. Somehow making it hilarious in the process.

Those ridiculous props, and the overall absurdity of the sitcom, taking the edge off what would otherwise be appalling behaviour.

The Live Shows

Bottom Live: The Big Number 2 Tour (1995) is our favourite.

A savage assault on the monarchy system, it’d be impossible to make it now given the patriotic fervour so many Brits have worked themselves up into. You don’t critique the monarchy these days, it’s all about subservience.

We’re surprised Bottom Live 2 has, retrospectively, been burned in the street.

Also, the live show “mistakes” were a big part of the experience. There’s a legendary outtake from the first one you can see above.

We do feel the guys were too professional to forget huge sects of the show. They knew how to play to the audience and it’s a joy to watch. Plus, with video cameras rolling for the VHS tape, they went all out for it.

But anyway, they’re all there in full glory. The first two live shows were terrific, with the third one being entertaining.

The fourth and fifth shows (which we had the good fortune to see live in 2001 and 2003) weren’t great. And that led Edmondson to call time on the Bottom universe.

Now, the body of work that’s left can still muster the darkest of souls into laughter. Yet there’ll always now be that sense of sadness we lost one of the stars when he still had a lot to give.