The Young Ones Series 1

Demolition was the pilot and very first episode of The Young Ones.  First shown on BBC2 on Tuesday 9 November 1982, the storyline is fairly simple.  The Council has condemned the boys' house and decided that demolition is the only sensible course of action...

The surreal tone of Oil, is set in the opening scene as the guys move in to their new accommodation, when the statue outside the front door complains bitterly, 'More bloody students', and is told by the sunflower stood next to him to, '...shut up and put some clothes on.'

The boys are incredibly bored. So bored, in fact, that they just don't notice all the interesting things that are going on around them. This includes the televised siege that they're watching, unaware that the best action is going on right behind them in their own living room...

There's a dirty great hole in the first floor landing and a large red atom bomb sat unexploded by the fridge. For a while the boys step round the bomb, until at last Vyvyan notices it. Of course panic ensues, but this is dissipated by the arrival of the TV Licence man (Mr Right bleedin' Bastard) who wants a word with the guys about their lack of a licence...

The boys are having a party and as usual, Neil is doing all the work. Rik is just being plain tossy, Mike is being cool and Vyvyan is outside souping up the vacuum cleaner.

This episode is a grower, unlike say its successor, Bambi which has a more accessible theme right from the start. Flood's influences include CS Lewis(!) and The Bible(!!) and Stephen King's The Shining(!!!) - make of that what you will...