Rik Mayall: 'Help me get to No 1 so that I can be a great rock star again,' comedian asked fan
The Young Ones star included the request in a signed birthday card
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Your support makes all the difference.As Rik Mayall’s “lost” World Cup anthem "Noble England" edges toward the top 10, one man has revealed the late British comedian’s own efforts to get his tune to the top spot.
Dean Allen posted an image on his Twitter account on Thursday of a message sent to him by Mayall, who died on Monday aged 56, after he requested a 40th birthday wish for his wife three years ago.
Alongside the obligatory greeting addressed to the “darling, sexy, young, attractive Debbie,” Mayall also had a rather cheeky request of his own.
“OK, that’s my part of the deal done; now your part of the deal,” he wrote.
The Young Ones star then asked Dean to either buy or download a copy of his “great new single” to help it get to number one, “so that I can be a great rock star again”.
He signed off the note: “Big snogs to Debbie (tell her I’m available ok? Cool).”
Mr Allen explained that he had approached a number of his wife's favourite artists in the lead-up to her birthday and received "quite a few replies" - but Mayall's was the best.
"His reply was amazing; the cheeky flirtatious nature of his greeting was hilarious and looking back, nothing more than we should have expected from him. The one regret was that we never got to meet him in person," Mr Allen said.
"I kept my part of the deal by downloading his then-new single. He will be sadly missed by many people including my family as my kids became huge fans too."
Mr Allen has publicised the message amid a social media campaign to propel the single to the top spot, following its miss four years ago.
Mayall’s track includes lines “respectfully taken” from Shakespeare’s Henry V (“Once more unto the pitch, dear friends”) and is set against a football chant.
The video features the Blackadder actor in the guise of the king and motivating his “troops” to bring home the trophy and “win for St George”.
A post-mortem carried out today to determine how Mayall died proved inconclusive, West London Coroner's Court has said.
Further tests will now be carried out.
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