Adrian Edmondson says boomers have ruined things for younger generations as they “haven’t shared” their wealth.
The Young Ones and Bottom comedy star reflected on the challenges faced by his five grandchildren in a new interview, stating: “Sometimes I think we’ve f***ed the whole thing up for them.”
Edmondson, 68, said the boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964, have “had the best of it” but “haven’t shared” what they were given.
“[We’ve had] the best of the NHS, the best music – we had all the trimmings,” he told The Telegraph.
“We’ve all got our houses, when a house cost three times your earnings. Now it’s, like, 27 times your earnings. How did we let it get like that?“
Edmondson, who stars in new series Alien: Earth, added: “It’s unbelievable the f***ing mess we’ve made.”
He said the political climate “is very similar to Margaret Thatcher’s time rather than any Labour government” as Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “not Left”.
According to Nationwide Building Society, the annual rate of house price growth accelerated to 2.4 per cent in July, from 2.1 per cent in June, which took the average UK house price to £272,664.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “While the price of a typical UK home is around 5.75 times average income, this ratio is well below the all-time high of 6.9 recorded in 2022 and is currently the lowest this ratio has been for over a decade.”
Gardner credited “a period of strong income growth alongside more subdued house price growth and a modest fallback in mortgage rates” in what he described as the steady improvement of housing affordability.
Edmondson has been married to Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders since 1985, and they have three children: Ella, Beattie and Freya.
The actor’s career was launched in the 1980s after meeting his comedy partner Rik Mayall at the University of Manchester the previous decade.
After performing on Channel 4’s The Comic Strip Presents..., Edmondson and Mayall starred in anarchic 1982 sitcom The Young Ones and, in 1991, reteamed for slapstick series Bottom.
Mayall died aged 56 on 9 June 2014 after suffering a sudden heart attack and, in 2024, Edmondson opened up about their friendship and working relationship in a one-off special celebrating Bottom.
Edmondson said “it’s very weird being in a world without” Mayall.
“It’s weird thinking that he didn’t know anything about Brexit, didn’t know about Covid.”
The actor also revealed was not on the best of terms with Mayall at the time of his death.
“I mean, our relationship was strained towards the end,” Edmondson said, but added that he remembers their time working together as “the most joy I’ve ever had in my life”.
