Filthy Rich and Catflap (BBC 1986 - Complete Season 1)

Filthy Rich & Catflap was a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast early the next year.

The series featured former The Young Ones stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters respectively. It was written by Ben Elton with additional material credited to Mayall. One series of six half-hour episodes was produced (although the notion of a second series is played upon in the final episode, and the continuity announcer on the last installment says "...and Filthy Rich and Catflap will return next year").

Although the series gained respectable viewing figures, it did not quite capture the imagination in the way its father programme, The Young Ones, did. While some parts of the show are of their time (particularly the topical satire aimed at Margaret Thatcher and her government) the main theme of the cult of celebrity and the pursuit of it by the talentless remains topical. Lise Mayer has hinted that the reason the series was so short lived was the rivalry between Mayall and Elton, who had previously written as equals on The Young Ones.

The show also included constant references to various celebrities; Jimmy Tarbuck was always referred to as "Tarby", while other celebrities, such as Leslie Crowther were referred to as "Leslie Crowthery" and Terry Wogan as "Terry Wogany". Richie (Rik Mayall's character) liked to think that he was friends with these 'b-list' celebrities, despite never having met any of them.

The style of humour - relying heavily on fart jokes, broad satire, violent slapstick and vulgarity in general - was very similar to that which Edmondson and Mayall would continue in the far more successful Bottom.

The series enjoyed a resurgence of interest in 2004 when it was officially released on DVD by independent DVD production company Playback. The VHS and DVD versions were cut for musical rights. These included Richie singing "Where Is Love", "Morning Has Broken" and "Consider Yourself"; and Eddie singing "Roxanne", "You've Got To Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Message in a Bottle".


Characters

* Ralph Filthy (Planer): Richie's showbiz agent. He is sleazy and sickly and has, to quote writer Elton, "the morals of a dog caught short on a croquet lawn" (a line he would re-use as the tag line for his 1989 novel Stark). Quote: "Boys. It's not often I get excited but right now I feel like I've been locked in an off-licence".

* Richie Rich (Mayall): a perennially "resting" (out of work) actor whose most prominent work to date includes links on TVS. Despite this, he considers himself a veritable superstar and has paranoid delusions about everyone he meets wanting to either cash in on his fame or assassinate him. Hence, he hires a bodyguard.

* Edward Didgeridoo Catflap (Edmondson): Richie's faithless minder; permanently drunk, disloyal, violent and unapologetically working class. Occasionally, Catflap holds up the pretense of being the best friend of Richie, although this is usually for personal gain. (Edmondson's character in Bottom, Eddie Hitler, is similar, but not identical.)


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