Unseen Rik Mayall material to be shown at festival

Unseen Rik Mayall material to be shown at festival14 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGavin KermackWorcestershireBob BaldwinPreviously unseen material by Mayall will form the basis of a new show at the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival on SaturdayAn archive of previously-unreleased material by the late comedian Rik Mayall is to be showcased at the second annual festival held in his honour.Working With Rik and Other Grim Tales will take place at the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in Mayall's home town of Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, which begins on Friday.Bob Baldwin, who was a close friend of Mayall's and directed him in a number of projects, will present unseen excerpts from their collaborations and reflect on their friendship."But where do you start with a relationship that was over 30 years long?" said Baldwin.The archive will be presented in the form of a Q&A session with producer Elene Hadjidaniel."She has done a brilliant job editing together all sorts of bits and pieces from the different things I did with him," said Baldwin."So it's a collection of stuff from our time together as creatives, as director and performer, and as our friendship developed."Bob BaldwinBaldwin (centre) and Mayall worked together on the 2001 show Tales of Uplift and Moral ImprovementThe festival, first held last year, celebrates the legacy of a pioneer of alternative comedy, who died in 2014 at the age of 56.Baldwin and Mayall first worked together on the children's television show Grim Tales in 1989, in which Mayall retold stories by the Brothers Grimm.They came up with the idea during a night in the pub after Mayall had just done a week-long stint reading George's Marvellous Medicine on Jackanory."On the Monday, it started with one million as an audience," remembered Baldwin. "And on the Friday, it had gone up to five million."He may have been exaggerating slightly there, but he was terribly happy with...