Formed at London’s legendary Comedy Store in 1980, The Comic Strip launched household names – Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane – inspired a landmark sitcom, The Young Ones, and made many memorable films over 30 years. The man behind it? Peter Richardson, who is bringing their finest films to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, alongside some famous friends. And about time too.
The Comic Strip started on stage, but never did the Fringe?
Not really. Well, Rik Mayall established his poet character there. He went to a reading and started doing this awful poem, and they were hiding behind their hands, trying not to laugh – they wanted to respect poets, no matter how awful! We’ll be running a best-of tribute to Rik in Edinburgh.
How will these shows work?
We’re doing five nights, with [host] Robin Ince, guests, Q&As, showing a dozen films from around 45 we made, different each night – the ones that still make people laugh, that really deliver.
You were hugely progressive, but The Comedy Store, then your Comic Strip club, were owned by Paul Raymond, the porn baron.
We were just renting a venue off him; because we wanted to avoid that safe sort of pub theatre. It was a challenge for people to come into this naughty, glitzy, bad-sex place – the dark corridors of Raymond’s Revuebar. Then you’d hopefully surprise them with something interesting and fun.
Is that why you called it The Comic Strip?
No – in fact a few days before we opened our club, Paul Raymond said, “You can’t say ‘Strip’ here,” because he never used that word, he always said ‘Revue’. All the advertising was ‘Comic Strip’ so we negotiated. The huge poster outside, we took the ‘S’ off. The Comic Trip.
Superstars showed up anyway?
Nigel [Planer] and I did a sketch called ACDC10, where I was hijacking a plane: “What’s the in-flight movie, you fucker?” “It’s Kramer vs Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep,” “Don’t give me that feelgood shit.” As I’m doing it one night I think, ‘God that guy looks like… it is Dustin Hoffman,’ front row of this strip theatre. Two nights later he came back, with Jack Nicholson.
Robin Williams used to come just before midnight, “can I go on? I’ve got David Bowie with me, George Harrison.” We’re closing in two minutes!
You, Nigel, Rik and Ade became an iconic quartet in several films, so it seemed odd that you weren’t in The Young Ones – after a row with BBC management?
Listen, I would have been crap in The Young Ones. I was busy getting the Comic Strip films going, I didn’t want to do sitcoms; I always wanted us to be a modern Ealing Films. We were lucky, coinciding with the beginning of Channel Four. They said, ‘Okay, give us six films.’ ITV and BBC would never have looked at it.
The first one, Five Go Mad in Dorset, went out on Channel 4’s opening night – you’d actually licensed The Famous Five from Enid Blyton?
Blyton herself would probably be turning in her grave! Her estate, they arrived at Channel Four the night before and wanted to throw an injunction at them: ‘Right, we want to see this filthy piece of work’. So they turned the film on in the boardroom, and gradually they’re starting to snigger behind the legal papers: ‘Okay, there’s nothing we’re going to do about that.’ Laughter won the day.
Such great casts: Alexei Sayle in Strike!, you and Keith Allen in The Bullshitters, Peter Cook, Miranda Richardson, Kate Bush, Stephen Mangan. Stephen Frears directed several films?
He had no idea about comedy, Stephen, but was very helpful before my first feature film, The Supergrass – it played in 300 cinemas, pretty good going. I’ve done a new cut of that, a new cut of [mock rock doc] Bad News, bookended with us playing the Donington festival, and slight changes elsewhere. They’re all shot on film, no laugh track, so it’s a proper film experience.
You’re clearly still immersed in it.
I’ve got about three scripts ready to go. I’d love to do another film.
The Comic Strip Presents…, Just the Tonic Nucleus, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 Aug, 1pm