Rik Mayall

Such was the first and last tweet from Rik Mayall on the very day that he died of a heart-attack. Or so it would appear. Mayall was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s. He formed a comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, and appeared in numerous cult classic sitcoms, including The Young Ones (1982–84), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987–94), Bottom (1991–95), Blackadder, and in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guest House Paradiso (1999). His acting style was described as energetic “post-punk”. At the time of his death, Mayall was described by Danny Cohen, director of BBC Television, as a “truly brilliant” comedian with a unique stage presence, whose “fireball creativity” and approach to sitcom had inspired a generation of comedy stars. The comedian had previously had a close brush with death sixteen years earlier. In 1998, Mayall was severely injured after crashing a quad bike near his home in Devon. Mayall’s daughter Bonnie and her cousin…