All this month we are celebrating acts that you need to look out for in 2026. In the final conversation with Talking Bottom Podcast we have a traditional quick fire round – Bottom style.
Rik or Ade?
Mat: Rik
Paul: Rik (Sorry Ade – get your agents to reply to emails and I might reconsider.)
Ange: Rik. (Sorry Ade, everyone loves Rik.)
Favourite character of Rik’s away from Bottom? Why?
Mat: Rick from The Young Ones. Due to The Young Ones being so instrumental to changing British comedy. I’d be a bigger Young Ones fan if Bottom didn’t exist and beat it in terms of quality. I also do have a big soft spot for Kevin Turvey, but there is so little content of Kevin Turvey overall that I can’t waste my vote on him.
Paul: Alan B’Stard as he’s the perfect calculating, murderous, lying, money obsessed psychopath… in other words a Tory MP.
Ange: As much as I want to say one of his other characters (so many are huge contenders!) it has to be Drop Dead Fred. Why? Quite simply, watching Drop Dead Fred made my childhood better. Funnier. More joyful. The concept that someone as brilliantly funny and caring as Fred i.e. Rik could be your imaginary friend is beyond perfect for a little girl’s hopes and dreams… I know he was born from Lizzie’s trauma but if you ignore that element and appreciate how much I love Rik Mayall, Drop Dead Fred is perfect.
Favourite character of Ade’s away from Bottom? Why?
Mat: Vyvyan Bastard from The Young Ones. Same reason as Rick. He’s also a kind of blueprint for Eddie Hitler, he just looks very different.
Paul: Sir Adrian Dangerous for his ability to forget the safe word when he’s on fire.
Ange: Oooh OK I’ll choose a different one – Keith Marshall (and his musical anarchy) from Kevin Turvey The Man Behind The Green Door. I’m also partial to Baron von Richthoven from Blackadder Goes Forth.
Favourite episode?
Mat: Gas
Paul: Gas
Ange: Contest or Culture. Or Gas. I genuinely can’t choose only one.
Favourite quote?
Mat: “We met Dodgy Bob McMayday, the most violent travel agent in the world”
Paul: “Running all the way.”
Ange: This is impossible to answer. You can’t narrow down all of Bottom into one fave quote! I’ll give one from Richie and one from Eddie from one of my favourite episodes, the pilot, ‘Contest’.
Richie: “Oh sod off! Go on, sod off! Get to soddery!”
Eddie: “People like us aren’t meant to win things… Look, you get born, you keep your head down, and then you die. IF you’re lucky.”
Best fight in the show?
Mat: The bathroom fight from Smells.
Paul: The bathroom fight. “Well get some *clicks fingers* pliers then!”
Ange: The bathroom fight *is* brilliant but my fave is the fight after the chess game in Culture.
Least favourite episode?
Mat: Break
Paul: Break
Ange: Terror
In three words describe why Bottom is the best?
Mat: Beckett with violence
Paul: Physicality, writing, fetidness
Ange: Rik f******* Mayall
Welcome to The Phoenix Remix 