Dear Flashheart,

I remember the first time I saw you, sitting in my little box room at mum and dads, flicking through channels (well it didn’t take long back then) on my almost unwatchable black and white portable TV with twiddly knob….Calling Karl-Heinz to come from his room “you’ve got to see this”…we watched on in hysterics.

Dad came up to check we weren’t dying because we couldn’t get our breaths for laughing…Oh my god ‘The Young Ones’.

The beauty of only 4 channels was that the next day school was buzzing, we’d all seen it – instant cult viewing. Impressions were done, stories were picked over, we could NOT wait for the next episode.

My dad’s love of humour being shaped by the Goons and Monty Python made a huge impression on me and I love that stuff still, but I think the Young Ones and the flood of 80’s alternative comedy felt exciting to me…because it was happening then. You were so different, shocking and absolutely hilarious.

So, I was an avid viewer, through Comic Strip presents, Bottom, Black Adder and I don’t remember the year but Karl Heinz, some friends and I went to see you in ‘The Government Inspector’. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much at anything – to the extent where catching our breath occurred after the rest of the audience had stopped laughing and sounded really loud in the hush.

The young ones shaped the humour of a generation.

In 2006 you said “I had a very happy childhood, happy teenage years and I was famous by the time I was 22. A charmed life.”

Thanks for the laughter Rik.