The Young Ones was compulsive viewing for teenagers and students in the 1980s.
Dysfunctional housemates Rik, Neil, Vyvyan and Mike lived in squalor and they like it that way.
Rik was an annoying attention seeker, the self-titled "peoples poet" 'who tried to give the impression he was a working class hero. He had no luck with women whatsoever.
Neil was a peace-loving technology-fearing long haired hippy with hygiene issues. He was picked on.
Mike was a kind of Happy Days Fonz throwback, who thought he was cool.
He didn't say a lot.
And Vyvyan was a crazy denim-clad punk rocker who roared around in a yellow Ford Anglia with flames up the side and had a pet hamster called SPG.
He was the best. He kept cool even when he lost his head after sticking it out of a train.
The only bit of luxury they enjoyed was getting a new video player - "have we got a video?".
"Yes we've got a video!"
The series was violent, funny, silly, funky and as the character Rik (Rik Mayall) would say, it was "anarchic".
They took toilet humour to the extreme; their toilet was the worst ever.
And they would regularly bash each other about with frying pans and whatever was to hand.
The Young Ones followed the magic 12 episodes formula of Fawlty Towers.
It was disjointed and unpredictable. It would show two flies on the wall discussing the merits of being flies on the wall.
And there would be flashbacks through time with the arrival of a medieval knight.
It would parody other shows, like The Good Life, with Neil anxious to plant the seed.
And it would allow ridiculous things to occur, such as Vyvyan becoming "pregnant" with wind.
The housemates invited the best bands of the moment along to play and incorporated them loosely into the storylines.
Madness turned up and sang House of Fun, other bands included the lesser known rhythm and blues group Nine Below Zero and of course there was Alexi Sayle and his Doc Marten boots number.
In the last episode, Summer Holiday, they all got on a double-decker bus but the characters fell off a real cliff and off our screens.
But the characters came back from the grave and sang along with Cliff Richard to Living Doll, a charity release that became a number-one hit single in April 1986.
And in July 1984 Nigel Planer had stepped out as Neil to release his cover version of Traffic's Hole In My Shoe.
It reached number two in the singles chart just like the original had done.
The show featured a number of actors and alternative comedians who made it into mainstream viewing.
They include: Keith Allen, Helen Atkinson Wood, Jim Barclay, Chris Barrie, Arnold Brown, Robbie Coltrane, Lee Cornes, the co-writer Ben Elton, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, Lenny Henry, Helen Lederer, Norman Lovett, Pauline Melville, Paul Merton, Daniel Peacock, David Rappaport, Tony Robinson and Emma Thompson.
Not The Nine O'Clock News stars Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones also appeared, plus Terry Jones from Monty Python.
And Mayall and Edmondson created Bad News, a spoof heavy metal band in 1983 as part of The Comic Strip Presents.
The band is often referred to as "The Comic Strip's answer to the fantastic Spinal Tap", despite the fact that This Is Spinal Tap was not released until 1984.
The four members of Bad News are:
Vim Fuego: the egotistical vocalist and lead guitarist, played by Adrian Edmondson
Colin Grigson: the posh and unpopular bassist, played by Rik Mayall
Den Dennis: the remarkably stupid rhythm guitarist, played by Nigel Planer
Spider Webb: the hyperactive drummer, played by Peter Richardson