RIK MAYALL

Really sad news today hearing about the untimely death of comedian Rik Mayall. Aged just 56. Growing up on recorded tapes off BBC 2 of The Young Ones, it was, back then and still is now, one of the funniest things we've ever seen and something that shaped us growing up. We were quoting bits from it on Friday just gone. The Comic Strip and Bad News, Kevin Turvey, Blackadder and Bottom meant he was a household name and a seemingly genuinely nice chap. A real shame. Rest in Peace to 'The People's Poet himself.' TC

"I feel sorry for you, you zeros, you nobodies. What's going to live on after you die? Nothing, that's what! This house will become a shrine! And punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round and all hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader! And all the grown-ups will say, 'But why are the kids crying?' And the kids will say, 'Haven't you heard? Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!' ... And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say, 'Why kids, do you understand nothing? How can Rick be dead when we still have his poems?'"