The Young Ones (TV Series) Demolition (1982) User Reviews

Nozin around, nozin around.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 3 August 2008]

Mike, Neil, Vyvyan and Rik are four spotty and skint youths sharing a house run by slumlord Jerzy Balowski. They learn that the council are going to demolish the house on the morrow. Vyvyan decides to demolish the house from the inside, Neil thinks that committing suicide is the only option, whilst Rik and Mike deal with it in the only way they know how.

The Young Ones ran for only two series, but any teenager who grew up in early 80s Britain must surely have identified with our anarchic foursome. Permanently skint and at odds with their futures, the Young Ones manages to portray that effervescent vitality that the arrogance of youth brings, punks, poets, hippies and flash harrys all seamlessly come together from the wonderful pens of Ben Elton & Rik Mayall. Here in this episode we are only glimpsing what the show would bring to its eager audience, but it's a very solid start with some quite on the money gags, from South African lentils to corporate TVs attempt to garner the youth viewers, The Young Ones may well be only of its time, but in that we have to say it was timeless to those who lived thru it.

A former pipe-fitter welder from 'arrowgate!

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 22 October 2023]

Crazy introduction to the gang and humour of The Young Ones.

This an enjoyable to start to a show that is very much a product of its time, but if you appreciate the irreverent, unstructured style and the characters, you should have a ball.

All the main characters are introduced well, with Rick and Neil in particular having lots of screen time. Rik Mayall and Nigel Planer are on great form throughout, with Mayall showing fantastic energy with physical and verbal performance. Vyvyan steals much of the limelight when he appears and Adrian Edmondson embodies the hilarious aggression brilliantly.

The cameos by Alexi Sayle and Ben Elton are both enjoyable, with Sayle going through a very good standup routine and Elton doing some great work parodying the type of programming the BBC aimed at youth in the early 80s.

I am not going to be pretentious and say I understand and appreciate every punchline and routine, because some of it is over my head and the timing of some gags I find to be a bit off. This is punk style comedy that follows no formula nor rules of the sit-com world. Virtually everything that comes out of Rick's, Neil's and Balowski's mouths is pure gold.

I love the art design, especially the costumes, props, set design and animation.

''They're gonna knock the house down!''

[Rabical-91 · 10/10 · 26 January 2017]

The start of the '80's saw the introduction of the alternative comedy boom, giving us 'Not The Nine O'Clock News', 'A Kick Up The Eighties', 'The Comic Strip Presents' and, of course, 'The Young Ones'. Like 'Only Fools & Horses' and the later 'Spitting Image', 'The Young Ones' was a slow burner. It attracted only moderate ratings when it first aired in November 1982, however when it was repeated a short time later in early 1983, it suddenly skyrocketed in popularity, making household names of its stars - Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle, Christopher Ryan, and, most notably, the late Rik Mayall.

'Demolition' opens up with Rick ( Rik Mayall ) dancing to 'The Young Ones' on the radio whilst Neil ( Nigel Planer ), overwhelmed by depression, is cooking the lentil casserole for dinner. Indeed, Neil is so depressed he is even planning to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Vyvyan ( Ade Edmondson ) informs his housemates that their house is due to be demolished in the morning by the council as it is considered to be a environmental health hazard, much to the dismay of Mike ( Christopher Ryan ).

The morning of the demolition dawns and the boys do their best to halt the progress, that is until a low flying jet crashes on top of the house, destroying it in the process.

A pretty impressive opener. Its all here, talking rats ( one of which is voiced by Chris Barrie, who is not credited here ), farting hamsters, sudden cutaways to scenes that bare no relevance to the plot and so on. Alexei Sayle makes his debut as the boys deranged landlord Jerzei Balowski. These scenes he wrote himself. Alexei soon went on to find great acclaim in 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff'. A musical interlude ( a condition which was made important by the writers to label the show as light entertainment in order to enable it a higher budget ) is also featured for the first time - here we have Nine Below Zero belting out 'Eleven Plus Eleven'.

Look out, by the way, for a small appearance from a young Gerard Kelly, who later worked with Rik and Ade in the hilarious 'Comic Strip' instalment 'Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door' and later went on to be the star in BBC Scotland's underrated 'City Lights'.

Funniest bit- Rick berating Vyvyan for not washing his hands before dinner. Vyvyan then goes over to the sink, kicks it off the wall and washes his hands from the water gushing out of the overflow pipe!