'Rik Mayall was extraordinary': Festival held in comic's memory

'Rik Mayall was extraordinary': Festival held in comic's memory2 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAlex McIntyre,West MidlandsandElliott Webb,in Droitwich SpaBBCOff-the-wall series The Young Ones, including Rik Mayall (left) and Nigel Planer (third from the left), helped bring alternative comedy into the mainstreamThe Young Ones actor Nigel Planer has fondly recalled his time working with his "extraordinary" co-star Rik Mayall at a festival being held in the late comedian's memory.Planer, who portrayed Neil alongside Mayall's Rick in the series, brought the tour for his book, Young Once, to the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in Worcestershire on Thursday.He spoke of the "exciting time" he had with the likes of Mayall, Peter Richardson, Alexei Sayle and Adrian Edmonson during the alternative comedy movement in the 70s and 80s.Asked what Mayall was like to work with, he told BBC Hereford and Worcester: "We haven't got time for the long answer to that but he was an extraordinary fellow."He's kind of the opposite of me because he liked being on brand. His brand was 'I'm Rik Mayall'."The 73-year-old remembered someone telling him Mayall used to like going home to watch videos of himself after a night out at the pub."He would literally say 'if I'm not in it, I won't watch it'. That's what's so attractive I think, he loved being Rik," he added.Nigel Planer, who starred as Neil in The Young Ones, spoke to fans at the Rik Mayall Comedy FestivalPlaner was working with comedy partner Peter Richardson on an act called The Outer Limits in the late 1970s when they saw Mayall, Sayle and Edmonson perform at The Comedy Store in London."That was the clincher," he added. "We saw that and thought 'these are people who feel the same way we do'."Both The Comic Strip Presents and The Young Ones were born from those early days, Pla...