A Day in the Life of The Young Ones:
6th February 1984

It’s the 6th February 1984 in studio TC4, and Rik Mayall is having a circular saw aimed at his knackers.

I write a lot about comedy on here. Sometimes I write some very silly things about comedy indeed. Take, for instance, this analysis of one of the main sets in Blackadder Goes Forth, and how it showed up in various forms throughout the series. You have to have a certain kind of mind to find that interesting, and admittedly, part of it is a pure puzzle box mentality: “What bit goes where?”

But there is also something a little deeper going on there. For all the careful explanations of what writers were hoping to achieve with their work – which for the avoidance of doubt, is something I’m also extremely interested in – what I really want to be able to do is transport myself back, and be present in the room where the comedy was actually made. I get obsessed with wanting to know how a room felt, either in the writing, or in the shooting. Trying to figure out what piece of wood went where while recording a sitcom is an attempt at nothing less than time travel, however ludicrous that sounds.

Which is where your good old fashioned studio recording tapes come in. Whether it’s just clips in documentaries, longer extracts released as DVD extras, or bootlegs passed quietly around as though we’re all crack dealers, there’s nothing quite seeing the raw footage of how a show is made to get a sense of how things felt. An incomplete sense, of course. Nothing can quite replace a real time machine. But it’s something.

All of which preamble is leading up to this glorious video on YouTube. Two hours of raw studio recordings of The Young Ones, precisely none of which is officially sanctioned for release, and precisely all of which is fascinating.

Let’s be very clear about what the above footage represents. Each episode of The Young Ones – unusually for a sitcom of the era – had two days in the studio. These consisted of a pre-record day for the complicated technical bits, without an audience, followed by an audience record the very next day. The above footage is the bulk of the pre-record days for the episodes “Nasty” and “Cash”. The fact that these are the pre-record days explains the lack of audience laughter on the footage, something a few people in the YouTube comments are a little confused by. An edited version of this material would have been shown to the audience the next day on the studio monitors, along with recording the rest of the show in front of them, in order to get the laughs.

Not that what we are seeing is the edited footage that the audience would have seen, either. This is the complete – or near-complete – recording of the day, featuring multiple takes of the material. In short: this really is as close as we can get to skulking around in the studio for the day, silently watching as the team shoot one of the best sitcoms ever made. We even know exactly when everything occurs; the timecode at the bottom of the screen is literally the time of the recording.

There is no substitute for simply watching the video embedded above. But I thought it might be useful to write some notes to go alongside it. Here then, are some observations on the first half of the video, covering the pre-record day for “Nasty”. In particular, I’ve tried to identify any part of the script which don’t make it into the final edit, along with which of the multiple takes were actually used in the finished show.

Enjoy.

(14:52) Welcome to the most unpleasant place in the universe: Rick’s bedroom. The spell is soon broken, however. Production Manager Ed Bye’s voice rings out, asking for quiet.¹

This is an take of Rick entering his bedroom, afraid of one of Vyv’s hilarious practical jokes. As he gets out his Cosmopolitan and flings himself on the bed, there isn’t anything obviously wrong, but this take is unused. Enjoy the extra Mayall pervy noises that you would otherwise never get to hear, though.

(14:56) A close-up of Rick screaming as a circular saw approaches his knackers, used in the final edit. There is also some amusement, as Mayall discovers an advert in the Cosmopolitan prop with the tagline “Test ride our tampon”. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to track down a copy of this issue, so we can see the whole thing properly.

(15:03) The production’s first attempt at a shot which will take all day to get a half-usable take of: the main shot of the circular saw ripping through Rick’s bed. Jim Francis is hovering around, in charge of the visual effects. After a false start, the saw manages to breaks the bedside table it’s supposed to spring out of, but doesn’t get much further. Brilliant.

(15:13) A retake of Mayall entering the bedroom from scratch. This was used in the final edit. Note that his initial speech – “So anything ghastly which happens to me in the next five minutes isn’t funny at all…” – was later retaken in front of the audience, and this footage is only used from the moment where Rick actually walks into the room.

(15:18) Another attempt at the circular saw shot, with the saw making a noise which is frankly terrifying. The table has been repaired, ready for the saw to spring forth from. Instead, it winds down, the table makes a pathetic shudder, and the door swings open, in the kind of comedy moment that is hard to believe actually happens in real life. “We’ll go on, I think”, says Ed Bye. For now, the scene is abandonded.

(15:22) Two attempts at a transfer from telecine of the special horror opening titles to “Nasty” – interestingly, with the music present and correct, but without the lightning sounds. The second, complete one is presumably the version used in the final edit. Enjoy the extra bit of music at the end.

The titles are probably at their most unnerving when being played backwards and flipped.

(15:30) Time for “Nige in the bath” – specifically, the shot of Neil pulling out his bike. Two takes, the second of which is used in the final edit. This was clearly shot first so the actual bike prop didn’t get in the way while shooting the rest of the scene.

We also get an admonishment from Ed Bye: “Can I just say – we’re rehearse/recording, anybody not directly connected with the production, could they please leave?” Maybe one of us did sneak into the studio in our time machine after all.

As the recording breaks, Planer is being instructed on how to safely fall through the window.

(15:40) One take of the shot where Neil wakes up in the bath, and falls out the window. Used in the finished episode, although a breaking glass effect was dubbed in for the final edit. They start to reset to go again just in case, but it seems like the take is approved, and they don’t need to redo the scene.

(15:46) The third attempt at the circular saw shot, with more terrifying noises as the saw comes up to speed. Mayall leaps onto the bed… which collapses. “Onwards – we’ll pick this one up later”, announces Ed Bye.

(16:11) Hello. It’s Frost, Arden and Peacock, and the spies/cabin sketch. It’s perhaps worth pondering why this was shot on the pre-record day, given how dialogue-heavy it is. Cast availability? Studio space in terms of sets? Or did they just have one eye on how much material they could actually manage shoot in front of an audience?

Mind you, aside from the circular saw scene – understandable, given that it’s a difficult piece of effects work – this scene causes a fair bit of trouble for the production, with a relatively large number of retakes. Ironically, then, part of this very first take is actually used in the final edit of the show; the section from when Arden first stands up, to just before Peacock starts yelling.

There’s also some dialogue here which was cut from the finished episode:²

FROST: What’s the matter?
ARDEN: He’s muttering, he’s grabbing hold of my trousers.
FROST: Maybe he’s trying to apologise about the floor.
PEACOCK: Smelly. Must warn smelly…³
FROST: What’s he saying?
ARDEN: I don’t know, something’s warm and smelly.
FROST: Perhaps it’s got something to do with your trousers?
PEACOCK: Tell smelly… Cooper’s dead…
ARDEN: Oh, it’s Cooper that’s smelly.
FROST: I’m not surprised, he’s dead apparently.
PEACOCK: You must go to to Geneva tonight…

And later on:

ARDEN: I know all that. It’s just that you see I’ve got a really good hand here, you see, and anyway, I mean, how am I going to get to the airport, eh? Who’s going to pay for the ticket?
FROST: Exactly. And you can’t put us up in any hotel, I mean Ken’s a vegan, you know?
ARDEN: Yeah, he knows that. Give me that paper, c’mon. Now, what’s the message?

Both cuts make sense, although I confess to being fond of the warm and smelly/trousers joke, because I am puerile.

(16:20) Second take of the spies sketch. None of this is used in the final show, and it is abandoned near the end because Arden’s trousers fall down. Now that’s comedy.

(16:28) Third take, from the line “I don’t think it’ll be in the paper”, none of which is used in the final show, and abandoned half way through because the door has swung open. Ed Bye requests that they go from the top of the scene again. Nobody looks happy, and Daniel Peacock mutters something akin to “You must be bloody joking.” Ed is very apologetic, almost oddly so. We’re only three takes in, we’re hardly at Kubrick level yet, are we?

(16:31) Fourth take. Most of this is the final take used in the show – only the section when Arden stands up to when Peacock starts speaking goes unused, which is spliced in from the first take in the finished episode. Notably, Arden still can’t keep his trousers on, which it’s now obvious wasn’t actually intentional – but which makes it into the final edit of the show. This is the kind of thing you can really only figure out from viewing the raw footage like this.

Ed Bye isn’t happy about the trouser situation. “That, I’m afraid, won’t do”, he says. They will return to this scene later, despite the fact that they have already shot all of the footage they’ll actually end up using by this point.

(16:37) Two takes of Rick nailing shut Vyv’s bedroom. The second one is used in the final show. Revel in an extra snort from Mayall. “OK, how are we placed on the circular saw, Jim?” queries Ed. They’re good to try again.

(16:41) A fourth attempt at the circular saw sequence. Yet again, the sound of it running up to speed is distinctly alarming. A wide shot is recorded of it sawing through Rick’s bed. Better than any shot attempted so far, but this still goes unused in the final edit.

(16:44) A close-up of the saw coming out of the bedside table, which stops revolving before it exits the shot. Again, unused. They decide to take the scene again… but we then cut to something else, and see no sign of the circular saw for several hours. Clearly, at this point, the effect demanded a rethink.

(16:47) Back to the cabin. An entire fifth take from beginning to end, after a false start where Peacock minorly injures himself. Mark Arden’s trousers remain resolutely up around his waist where they should be. “Lovely, that’s the one”, says Ed, and they move on. Not a frame of this take is used in the final edit. Presumably, they thought the performances were better in the previous takes, and Arden’s trouser situation didn’t matter in the end.

(17:27) We’re in the main living room⁴ set for the first time, for some effects work which would be impractical to do in front of the audience. First we get a single take, used in the final edit, of Vyv pushing the wall closer to the video recorder. This is done by, erm, getting Edmondson to push the wall closer to the video recorder. Note that the glass smashing sound effect as Vyv enters back through the window is played in live in the studio, rather than added afterwards.

This is directly followed by Neil plugging in the video recorder and getting shocked – again, all done in one take. A good chance to appreciate Planer’s excellent electrocution acting. There’s then a recording break of nearly two hours, where presumably everybody had something nice to eat. If anyone can send us the menu for the TV Centre canteen on the 6th February 1984, then please do.⁵

(19:24) So, the effect of the electricity shooting through Neil. How did they actually achieve this?

These days, it would just be done in post-production. But it was far easier in 1984 to do this effect live in the gallery. So the live action effect of the arc of electricity is set up, and then superimposed across a replay of the whole of the scene. Then, in the edit, the relevant shot of the electricity flowing through Neil is spliced in, and the rest of the footage discarded.

This happens twice – once to get the arc in the right position for the close-up of Neil, and once for the wide shot. This is all captured extremely swiftly, and it’s extremely satisfying to watch. There really is beauty in how this effect was created. And the final effect looks great into the bargain.

(19:56) First take of the Painaway advert.⁶ This is entirely unused – Helen Atkinson-Wood is having a little trouble looking at the right camera in time – but does reveal some dialogue which was cut from the final edit:

ANGUISHED SOUL: In my busy life as a working mum, nursery school teacher, and anguished soul cast into the pit for all eternity, sometimes I get those headachy pains. That strange, washed-out feeling that you just can’t explain.
DEVIL: She means period pains.
ANGUISHED SOUL: Mums – you’ve got no time to stop. But you’ve got that achy, all-over feeling… you’re really run down.
DEVIL: It’s periods.
ANGUISHED SOUL: Headaches and tummy pains, that seem to regularly affect your busy Mum’s schedule.
DEVIL: She’s talking about period pains!

Much as I could watch Dawn French say the word “periods” straight down the barrel of the lens for all eternity, even I have to admit this is a good cut.

(19:59) Painaway, second take. This is mostly used in the finished episode, although there is a quick pick-up of the hysterectomy line at the end. Note a sisterly moment as Dawn notices Helen’s make-up is scuffed, and tries to fix it herself before calling someone over, which is the kind of thing you’ll never get in outtakes shows, but says everything about people just being bloody nice.

As the camera pulls back, we see that the Painaway set is placed right next to the cabin set.

(20:06) Painaway pack shot, done as a split screen. Again, this would be created entirely in the edit now, but back in 1984 doing it through the gallery was the easiest way to achieve this.

And that’s it for Painaway; the whole sketch was done and dusted in ten minutes, which is impressive given the visual effects work required.

(20:17) Numerous takes of Neil pulling out the plug socket, the very last of which is the one used in the finished episode. Planer is initially put off by the flash and the bang as he pulls the plug. “That wasn’t in the rehearsals, was it?”, queries Planer, in a resigned tone. Ed Bye mildly tells the effects crew off for not warning everyone. As they set up for another take, we get a “It’s gonna happen, Nige!” shouted across the studio, to much laughter. This is the content I live for. Little moments of joy between crew and cast.⁷

Sadly, the joy doesn’t last for long. As a take goes wrong, Ed Bye is on the warpath. “Listen – that all went wrong because of some noise. I just heard some voices in the background. I want it bloody quiet, OK?” The mood of the studio turns on a dime. I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of a Jackson/Bye combo.

(20:28) A single take of the TV showing the “BLOODY PIRAT” caption, mixing through into Dawn French’s devil, and used in the finished episode. The shot of French is clearly done live and routed directly to the TV prop, rather than being on VT; she reacts as soon as Ed calls the end of the take.

(20:36) Things are now getting slightly tense. “If anybody makes a noise after I say quiet I’m going to find out who they are”, threatens Ed. We then get two takes of the gang reacting to Neil pulling the plug out, the second of which is used in the final edit. This section is particularly interesting because it’s the clearest we can hear Ed (and by extension, Paul Jackson) direct the cast; here, they specifically want the cast to move more clearly in unison. More comedy movement, in other words.

(20:53) Onto recording some of the cutaways used while The Damned are playing.⁸ Firstly, we have two takes of Alexei Sayle’s vampire going into toilet, the second of which is used in the finished episode.

(20:55) Just in case you wondered where the main image for this article came from… here you go. It’s highly likely it was this image was used on the studio monitors during the audience recording too, if my experience of audience recordings is anything to go by.

(20:59) A rogue close-up of some safety labels… and some music. Does anybody recognise it? I certainly don’t think it’s used in the episode.

(21:03) Ah, the famous shagging teddy bears in Rick’s bedroom. Two takes, the second one of which is used. But not used in the original transmitted version of the episode in 1984; this shot first appeared in the version released on VHS. It’s generally considered⁹ that the shot was thought too rude to make it into the initial TX.

Note Ed Bye’s squeaky voice as he issues instructions, as they are doing the voice treatment live, rather than in the edit.

(21:16) Back to the circular saw action. They’ve now been trying to capture these shots effectively over a period of six hours, and they now have less than 45 minutes studio time left, with the plug due to be pulled at 10pm. Are they at last about to achieve their dreams?

Things have changed since they last attempted this shot four and a half hours ago. Ed Bye calls for the saw to be run up to speed, before remembering “Or don’t you need to do that any more?” The thundering, faintly terrifying noise of the saw is nowhere to be heard. And after one false start, we finally get the wide shot as used in the final edit. It’s slightly clunky – it doesn’t emerge particularly cleanly or swiftly from the table – but it’s good enough.

This is followed swiftly by a take of the close-up. It’s here that we spot another difference: the blade has changed. Changed from what, to what, it’s difficult to ascertain, but it’s definitely different. In fact, as @SeanKDLA suggested to me on Twitter, has the entire prop changed?

Exactly what they did in order to finally achieve this sequence is impossible to know from the information we have. There is one thing that is obvious to us now, however: the production never quite get the shots in exactly the way that they wanted. They clearly wanted to show the saw bursting out of the undamaged table. In the final edit of the show, the table is already broken, and the blade has started coming out before we even cut to it.

It all works fine in the finished show with some swift cutting, but it’s only when viewing the raw footage that you see what the production were intending, and couldn’t quite manage.

(21:24) A fascinating look behind probably the most interesting effects shot of the whole episode: Alexei Sayle as the vampire shaving in the mirror, with his reflection being invisible.¹⁰

The answer is obvious once you know: put Sayle in blue mask, replace the blue with the correct background via CSO, and record him shaving with an invisible head in the mirror. Then split the screen, place the recording of the mirror on the left, and a live shot of Sayle, sans-mask, on the right. Play back the left-hand side of the shot with the mirror, and have Sayle replicate his movements on the right. Brilliant.

The shot is completed with a minimum of fuss, in less than 10 minutes. Creating this kind of shot quickly would serve Ed Bye well when he took on directing Red Dwarf, especially episodes with complicated split-screen work, like Me²:

(21:41) Ah, the famed “Alexei Who?” gag, presumably shot in a nearby dressing room. One take, job done. Note that this was deliberately recorded in-between scenes which didn’t require the main cast, to allow for their costume change. They didn’t just throw this show together, you know.

(21:42) Without a recording break, we cut straight back to the studio. And what’s this? Yes, it’s our first, genuine, completely unused scene (rather than just snipped dialogue), featuring SPG and a rat. Two takes of the following:

RAT: Well, you can actually, but don’t tell him.
SPG: Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.

Which, of course, means absolutely nothing without any context. So at what point was this supposed to come in the show? Thanks to Mike Scott, we actually know this, as he went rummaging around in the scripts a few years back.

So, this whole section was supposed to come near the very end of the show, where they try to find a stake to kill the vampire, but can only find a vegetarian sausage. The full cut dialogue is as follows:

NEIL: Hang on a minute, guys – that’s my tea. Why doesn’t Vyvyan drive his own tea through the vampire’s heart?
VYVYAN: Can you kill a vampire with a dead rat curry?

CUT TO A RAT ON A PLATE ON THE SIDEBOARD, SURROUNDED BY CURRY

RAT: You can actually, but don’t tell him.
SPG: Your secret’s safe with me, pal.

Presumably, the rest of the dialogue was actually shot on the audience record day, and then the whole sequence removed in the edit.

(21:47) Another cut line from SPG:

SPG: Excuse me, I just had a heavy curry.

HE ATE THE RAT, THAT’S FUCKING REVOLTING. No idea where this would have come in the episode, but presumably it would just be a cutaway a few lines later. This joke bears a remarkable similarity to the rat cutaway jokes in “Demolition” – “It’s what he would have wanted…” – could this be one reason why it was cut?

Without a recording break, the plate is removed, and this then leads into the last shot of the night: the cutaway of SPG querying “Oh, have we got a video?” Two takes, the first of which is used in the final edit. So oddly enough, this is the single section of this puppet setup which makes it into the broadcast episode; everything else remains unused.

And on that thrilling cliffhanger, that’s the end of the material for “Nasty”. The rest of the video is the pre-record day for “Cash”, which we’ll get to at some point in 2021.

Spoiler: Ed Bye does some more shouting.

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1. It it notable that plenty of people in the YouTube comments for the video call Ed the director, sometimes even confusing him with Paul Jackson. No, Paul will be up in the gallery. Ed is on the floor, relaying Paul’s instructions to everyone. ↩

2. Yes, I know it’s atypical to use actor names rather than character names, but I think it makes things clearer here. ↩

3. It does seem like Peacock is actually saying “smelly” here. Presumably a reference to John le Carré’s “Smiley”. ↩

4. OK Rick, drawing room. ↩

5. This is, of course, a joke, except that if anybody did send me that menu, then I’d get a whole article out of it, so in fact it isn’t a joke at all, sorry. ↩

6. Incidentally, I’ve often wondered if this sketch was written purely by Lise Mayer. Could any man find it within himself to write the brilliant but brutal “So next time you get one of those pains, I recommend a hysterectomy”? ↩

7. Note Planer’s reference to “Dave” – this presumably being David Barton, credited along with Jim Francis as Visual Effects. ↩

8. Notable from their absence on this tape is any of The Damned actually performing, which strongly indicates that their material was shot during the main audience session the next day. ↩

9. “By who?”, as Wikipedia would say. Look, you try tracking down the history of Young Ones edits and their reasons, it’s a bloody nightmare. ↩

10. Now, bearing in mind the revelation that the vampire was Harry the Bastard all along, how do we explain this shot in story terms? Answer: Harry the Bastard is actually a real vampire all along. ↩

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