Desert Island Discs listeners in tears over Adrian Edmondson’s emotional Rik Mayall memory

‘Sobbing into my lunch,’ one listener said of Edmondson’s ‘beautiful’ musings

Desert Island Discs listeners are reacting to Adrian Edmondson’s tearful recollection of comedian and actor Rik Mayall.

Edmondson was appearing on the BBC Radio 4 show, which is hosted by Lauren Laverne, when the subject of Mayall arose.

Mayall, with whom Edmondson collaborated on sitcoms The Young Ones and Bottom, died aged 56 in June 2014 after suffering a sudden heart attack.

Before introducing the song “Saturday Gigs” by Mott the Hoople, Edmonson remembered splitting professionally from Mayall in 2003 in the belief that the pair had “gone over the top of the mountain”.

However, Edmondson said, Mayall had wanted to work with him again, recalling that whenever he had called his friend, Mayall had thought it was about a possible reunion. Eventually, Edmondson agreed, telling his fellow comedian: “All right, let’s write a couple of episodes of a new series, hand it in... they’ll [the TV commissioners] say no, and then it’s not my fault any more.”

The series ended up being commissioned, but the duo were unable to complete it before Mayall’s death.

When Laverne asked for his memories of Mayall, Edmondson said: “I think of the writing room all the time. We spent more time in the writing room than anywhere else. And I remember just laughing like drains.”

Here, Edmondson grew emotional and, fighting back tears, continued: “His mum... his mum wrote me a lovely letter. I wrote to her after he died, and she wrote back, saying all she could remember was us – she could see us out in the garden, [on] a couple of deckchairs, just laughing and laughing and laughing – and she could never tell what was quite so funny.

“It was funny. It was good fun,” he said, as Laverne added: “He gave that to so many people. Shall we have some more music?”

Edmondson then described “Saturday Gigs” as his and Mayall’s song, stating: “This song is really about the fear we had before every tour, that we no longer had the magic. The song sort of speaks of never quite knowing where the success has come from. ‘Saturday Gigs’ was our song, and would bring a small tear to our eye.”

Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in 1991 (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

Listeners were left in tears by Edmondson’s moving recollections, with one writing: “Sobbing into my lunch listening to Adrian Edmondson talking about Rik Mayall on Desert Island Discs.”

Another added: “You think you’re going to be ready for Adrian Edmondson talking about Rik Mayall, but then you hear it. Don’t fast forward, let it wash over you,” while an additional listener called Edmondson’s memories of Mayall “something quite beautiful”.

Mayall was recently described by Harry Potter child star Oliver Phelps as the friendliest and most encouraging famous actor at the first ever cast table read for the film series.

His role as Peeves was ultimately cut from the film.