Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson (24 January 1957) is in English actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles as Vyvyan Basterd in TV series The Young Ones and Eddie Hitler in Bottom.
| Adrian Edmondson | |
|---|---|
 Edmondson at the 2009 Cropredy Festival | |
| Birth name | Adrian Charles Edmondson |
| Born | 24 January 1957 Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Medium | Television, movies, stand up |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Genres | Black comedy, physical comedy, musical comedy |
| Influenced | David Walliams, Matt Lucas, Stewart Lee |
| Spouse | Jennifer Saunders (m. 1985-present, 3 daughters) |
| Notable works and roles | Vyvyan Basterd in The Young Ones Edward 'Eddie' Elizabeth Hitler in Bottom |
Since 2006 Edmondson has worked more on music instead of acting. He made the band The Bad Shepherds and performs and writes for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.
Edmonson was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is married to comedienne Jennifer Saunders. They have three daughters.
Vyvyan Basterd
Played by Adrian Edmondson, Vyvyan is a psychotic punk metal medical student. He has orange-dyed & spiked hair and four metal stars seemingly embedded into his forehead. In the episode "Interesting", he drinks a pint of blue liquid which makes his hair fall out and the number 666 is visible on the side of his head. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. He never harms Mike, whom he respects, and often addresses as "Michael". He despises Rick more than he does Neil - when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode "Boring", he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but not Rick, whom he refers to as "a complete bastard." Ironically, this antagonistic relationship between Rick and Vyvyan makes them virtually inseparable, as the two spend by far more time together than with the other housemates. Unlike Neil and Rick, Vyvyan appears to come from a working-class background (something Rick incorrectly believes himself to have).
Vyvyan owns a Glaswegian hamster named Special Patrol Group ("SPG" for short) whom he is very fond of, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence, although it is usually provoked, such as when SPG bit Vyvyan in "Flood" or plugging in the TV after Vyvyan swallowed it in "Bomb". His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter, who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan occasionally displays feats of superhuman strength (surviving a pickaxe through his head, moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head) and eats just about anything: televisions, dead rats, caviar and cornflakes with ketchup.
In "Bambi" Vyvyan displays impressive mathematical talent (working out instantly that he has worn his three pairs of knickers 269 times each since their last wash), yet also that he cannot tell the time, although he was earlier able to point out that it was midnight without any difficulty.
In the episode "Flood", he develops a potion to transform a person into an axe-wielding homicidal maniac (he claims "it's basically a cure... for not being an axe-wielding homicidal maniac... the potential market's enormous!"). He has more friends than the others but apparently "he doesn't like any of them." He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb to "pep it up a bit" and adding a small car engine to the vacuum cleaner as previously it "looked a bit on the tentative side" - which then proceeds to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's (the vacuum also prompted one of the few clashes between Vyvyan and Mike; when Mike admonished Vyv not to use it anymore, Vyv replied by calling him a "poof").
Vyvyan is the only member of the group to own a car - a yellow Ford Anglia with red flames painted along the sides, although he is not the only house member who can drive - during Summer Holiday Rick is briefly seen driving the stolen double decker bus.
Albums
| Year | Title | Band | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Bad News | Bad News | Album by The Comic Strip's spin-off band (Re-released 1989 and 2004) |
| 1988 | Bootleg | Bad News | Live album by Bad News, jokingly titled Bootleg |
| 1991 | Cash in Compilation | Bad News | Compilation album of randomly picked tracks |
| 1995 | Stark | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook reading of the Ben Elton book |
| 1995 | The Cat in the Hat | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook reading of the Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat |
| 1995 | Green Eggs and Ham | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook reading of the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham |
| 1995 | Fox in Socks | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook reading of the Dr. Seuss book Fox in Socks |
| 1995 | The Gobler | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook of Edmondson reading his book of the same name |
| 1996 | The Cat in the Hat and Other Stories | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook of Edmondson reading Dr. Seuss' stories (Re-released 2007) |
| 2005 | Pirates | Adrian Edmondson | Audiobook |
| 2007 | Pour l'Amour des Chiens | The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band | Vocals and writing |
| 2009 | Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera | The Bad Shepherds | First album by The Bad Shepherds |
| 2010 | By Hook or By Crook | The Bad Shepherds | Second album by The Bad Shepherds |
- Non-album songs
| Year | Title | Band | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | "Living Doll" | Cliff Richard with The Young Ones | In character as Vyvian from The Young Ones |
| 1991 | "Last Night" | The Bum Notes | Cover of The Mar-Keys track, used in the credits for Bottom |
| 1992 | "This Wheel's on Fire" | Julie Driscoll and Ade Edmondson | As the theme song for sitcom Absolutely Fabulous |
Personal life
Edmonson is married to comedian Jennifer Saunders and they have three daughters, Ella, Beattie and Freya. They have houses in Devon and London.[1][2]
Edmondson is a supporter and current season ticket holder of League 2 football team Exeter City F.C..[3]
References
- ↑ Hardy, Rebecca (23 October 2010). Our year of hell. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1322482/Adrian-Edmondson-struggling-help-wife-Jennifer-Saunders-cancer.html. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
- ↑ "Radio Times". Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
- ↑ "It's fun down here... life outside the Premier League - Football League, Football". The Independent (UK). 27 September 2008. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/itrsquos-fun-down-here-life-outside-the-premier-league-943929.html. Retrieved 12 March 2009.