RIP RIk Mayall.

These are words no one was expecting to write today but the 1980s comedy icon has died suddenly, aged just 56. In truth, he’d been half-forgotten, never achieving the huge success of contemporaries like Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Ben Elton. Yet when they all first emerged, he was easily the biggest star and most charismatic performer. Looking at this clip of The Young Ones now, the humour hasn’t aged particularly well but at the time, it was groundbreaking. And without Rik Mayall that ground would not have been broken. I loved practically everything he did. He was very much my generation, my era, so I bet I’m not the only one now feeling slightly more aware of my own mortality.