And that's all for today …
Thank you to everyone who took part.
usefulmirage asks:
Will your Malvolio be sympathetic or pompous?
I keep changing him. He's not a very nice man really is he? But he is badly abused. Should you abuse nasty people? I'm playing him as the kind of puritanical bastard he is. Although one line I'm trying to inject is that he is genuinely in love with Olivia and has been all his life really because she's about half his age. I think he's been holding a candle for her for ever. So like most mean-spirited people he's to be pitied.
Martin Grooms asks:
In all seriousness, do you still have the scripts for Bottom series four, or was it never written? If so, would you consider publishing them?
The BBC wouldn't make it but we bowdlerised them and used them in all the live shows.
blindalley asks:
Hello, Mr Edmondson … Tell us a joke.
"Fuck off." That used to be the great thing about being asked to do an impression of Vyvyan. You'd answer with that and they'd say thanks!
James Alexander Reay asks:
Have you ever considered yourself to be a punk? You starred as one in The Young Ones and cover the songs with the Bad Shepherds, but were you actually one?
No, I'm far too middle-class. Punk happened when we were at university - 75/76. I remember the excitement of it feeding the stuff that Rik and I were up to. The idea that you didn't have to follow what had gone before, the ethos of DIY, the adrenaline shoutiness of everything. It was about excitement whereas a lot of comedy at that time was about mild racism and misogyny - and it was quite lazy and unphysical. So we were inspired by punk but I was never a punk.
1234Ramones asks:
What do you remember most about living in Manchester and is there anything you miss about it?
I was there for three years - a tiny percentage of my life - yet it has had a huge bearing on me. I feel it very keenly, like my time there lasted 20 years. It was exciting - we were inventing stuff all the time. I did a drama course and we had a thing called Monday Night Studio. You'd get up and do anything you wanted in front of the whole department. That's when Rik and I started doing our stuff really. Could be two minutes long or 10 minutes. You'd have a £10 budget from the department. We once bought a couple of pink duvet covers - our plan was to hang them up from the ceiling and be god's testicles. But they wouldn't hold our weight...
SinSmithy asks:
What was the “great watch gag” from Bottom Live: Two, where Rik had forgotten to put his watch on?
One of the weapons of comedy is to fake mistakes. We used to do a lot of that in Bottom, especially the live show. They usually start as a genuine mistake and then you keep it in and embellish it for the show.
ForzaInterM asks:
What’s your favourite TV show? And a role you wish you were cast for? Favourite football team?
Exeter City FC. I went there first out of schadenfreude to see them fall out of the league and then I got hooked. It's very honest down at that end of the league. It's the model for fan-owned clubs.
'I can sing through the whole of Grease'
Galesito asks:
After the success of Ben Elton’s Queen musical, would you ever consider a Bad News musical?
Nope. I like the idea of the Rocky Horror Show but it's been ruined by orchestrated audience responses. I can sing through the whole of Grease. I love the musical Nine too. I love musicals but I hate the prissiness of some of the voices - that stage-school sharpness.
exodus77 asks:
Any plans to do more The Dales-type programmes for TV? Really enjoyed them.
I'd never say never but not in my plans at the minute. I'm enjoying acting. I'\ve also started writing books for kids. I started doing that because I was trying to entertain my neighbours' kids because mine are all grown up. I said I'll read you BFG. They said we've heard that. So I said I'll read Wind in the Willows, I do a good Mr Toad. And they said we've heard that. So as a joke I said I'll go and write my own book. And I did.
Neil Challender asks:
How can I get hold of a copy of The Supergrass? My favourite line being: “Do you look at the toilet roll after wiping?”
It's from the mid-80s... maybe go to a charity shop? I spend my life in charity shops these days. I like vinyl so I'm often scouring through bins of 45s looking for something that isn't scratched...
Dan Cross asks:
Just pleased to hear that someone else’s dad used to say “blood and stomach pills” when things, usually DIY, went wrong.
CapeTownFox asks:
Any chance of more from you and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band? I saw you perform with them in 2008 at the Astoria and thinking about it still makes me laugh! [The album] Pour l’Amour des Chien has become my happy place! More!!!!
It was a brilliant two-year association. It was extraordinary. Their records brought Rik and I together in the first place. We could both recite them. There was me and Phill Jupitus, Bill Bailey, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton who worked with them and then me and Phil toured with them - we were actually referred to by them as Bonzos! - and we did a record with them and then they imploded again! I don't think they will ever get back together.
EdwardElizabethHit asks:
In an episode of Bottom you ate lard, as you were “too drunk to cook”. Was that real lard?
Clicketyclack asks:
When you go out as a couple, which one of you is “the funny one”? And if it’s Jennifer [Saunders], are you a bit jealous?
i don't want to burst the bubble but most people would be horrified to learn that really we're just like a couple off gogglebox and we spend our evenings carping at the television simply to use each other. The difference between our social comedy and our professional comedy is profound. People think you live in a sitcom but we live with the same mundane things that everyone has to deal with. Doing the washing, deciding what to have for tea, working out who's going to call up about the dishwasher...
'I think you should have a fat old Hamlet – and it should be me'
I have happy memories of the Dangerous Brothers in that tiny theatre beneath the Raymond Revue Bar in London – and of Vyvyan’s epic rant against The Good Life. Great to hear that you’re joining the RSC. Are there other classical or straight theatre roles you’re attracted to?
Rik and I did Godot. I did Hamlet when I was at school. It went well and when we finished it, I thought I should really go to the RSC. Equity was a closed shop so when we got to university Rik and I started doing variety stuff in order to get into Equity and then we became interested in comedy and other stuff. There's a line in Hamlet where Gertrude says to Hamlet something like, "Oh Hamlet, you are fat and scant of breath." It's around the fight scene. I think you should have a fat old Hamlet - and it should be me. There are far too many handsome Hamlets.
campanologist asks:
Which would win in a fight between a baboon and a badger?
Before the internet there used to be an answering service - "any question answered". I remember sitting in a pub with Harry Enfield, texting them questions like that. Then we asked them who was funniest, Harry Enfield or Adrian Edmondson. But by then they'd twigged it was us asking them.
acbru12 asks:
What are you having for lunch?
Baked potato. Cottage cheese. Tomato sliced on top. And a lot of pepper and salt. I'm having lunch at home then rehearsing tonight.
badyin asks:
You’re my second favourite Adrian, after Mr Smith of Iron Maiden. How would you go about winning me over to claim top spot?
Bad News once supported Iron Maiden at Hammersmith Odeon. We turned up there and part of my costume had gone missing. My trousers to be precise. So Steve Harris said: "I'll lend you mine." I tried to squeeze into a pair of Steve's leopardskin trousers and they only came up to my knee. They were tighty-tighties. Anyway, Brian May used to come on quite frequently with Bad News. He'd be revealed to be playing the real guitar solos that I was pretending to play. At the Odeon I had a guitar battle with Brian May - except my guitar was really being played by Jimmy Page.
LyntonCrosby asks:
What was it like working with Peter Cook on Mr Jolly Lives Next Door?
We were both so in awe that we were too shy to talk to him. He probably thought we were very rude. But we just didn't want to annoy him! He was our idol. And he died pretty soon afterwards.
Also: Peter Cook's last words, spoken as he was in the hospital? "I'm a bit poorly!"
cynicalbugger asks:
Is there a recording of you and Rik Mayall doing the Derek and Clive “This bloke came up to me …” sketch? And what are your views, generally, on Derek and Clive?
No. Not that I'm aware of. We did a tribute to Peter Cook in the West End after he died. We adapted one of our sketches for it.
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'The internet has really ruined hate mail'
trvrgordon asks:
Why have all you 1980s alternative comics become such tedious establishment flunkies?
Bit of hate mail there! The internet has really ruined hate mail. It used to come in green ink, written by fist, on strangely ripped pieces of paper. We used to pin them up on the noticeboard in the room where Rik and I used to work. You don't get a real impression of the bile and hatred when those things are typed out. You can't imagine the fury of the writer as they send it into the internet.
Goosefliesatnight asks:
You have undertaken a variety of work and had good experiences (and/or bad ones). Would you consider writing an autobiography?
The only book I'm considering writing is about me and Rik. Because that story has a beginning and an end. Quite a definite end. I find other double acts interesting - Laurel and Hardy, Vic and Bob. There's a thing going on there that you could examine. They're quite special relationships. So it would be about double acts in general with references to me and Rik. I've got a funny wife and we share a lot of humour. She gets 99% of my jokes but there's 1% that she doesn't get and that Rik would have got. So it's an idea in the back of my head, it might happen one day.
'At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old bastard, they don't make enough sitcoms these days'
BarronVonRJ asks:
Hi Ade (you complete and utter baaaaastard!). Why has the standard of British sitcoms dropped so much over the last few years? Also, do you hold the record for being called a complete and utter bastard on TV most often?
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old bastard I just don't think they make enough sitcoms these days. They make so few of them. There used to be so many sitcoms that a good number of them would stick. If they made more of them there'd be more chance of good ones coming through. But TV is so risk averse these days. They should be bolder. I thought The Windsors was very funny. Upstart Crow is very good. So it's not a dead artform.
JPeterM asks:
You looked fairly terrified going on stage with Bad News at Donington in 1986 – rightly so in the face of all those plastic bottles of lovely fizzy stuff being lobbed at the stage. (“That fucking nearly hit me …”) However, it looked as if you were enjoying that guitar solo and unleashing your inner Hendrix. What sticks out in your memory of that day?
We edited it to make it look like more things were being thrown. Quite a lot of them were actually being thrown at Motorhead. We played Reading after the show came out and people got into it more enthusiastically than we'd imagined. Rik had this amusing idea - that Colin would have broken his leg and would be wheeled around the stage by a roadie. But there were so many bottles that you couldn't move - the wheels got stuck in all the bottles of piss and vomit. It's amazing how people can vomit into a 2-litre plastic bottle. It's very controlled. I quite admire them.
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Jean Noir asks:
We’ve probably watched Mr Jolly more times on video than any thing on telly. Where does it stand in your own appreciation of your oeuvre, and what was Mr Yakimoto like to work with in real life?
The thing about Mr Yakimoto is he couldn't speak Japanese or Chinese. He was very English. But he got the job because he said he could. We'd written the lines in English and wanted him to translate. When it came to the day we all had no idea what he was really saying. He could be saying the most horrible things! Can anyone out there translate for us?
bhenadrecra asks:
You are one of Yorkshire’s most famous sons. What’s your favourite Yorkshire word or saying?
My dad used to have a lot of strange swear word alternatives because he didn't really swear. He used to say "blood and stomach pills" and "my conscience"...
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bruyere asks:
What are your memories of Bradford? Do you still feel a connection to the city?
I remember it as a very dirty place. All the buildings were black with soot. I suppose it was the same all over Britain but that's just where I was. My dad was in the forces so we lived in army bases around the world too. I'd always be the new boy, get bullied and then leave. I can barely find my way around Bradford now. I don't have any family there now.
Vickersone asks:
When are the Bad Shepherds playing again?
They've sort of gone back to their farm for the minute. They're looking after their sheep. We might come back in a year or two. We felt we were just repeating ourselves. You don't want to end up just doing the same stuff.
DiscomfortableCousin asks:
What is the funniest item of clothing you own?
Most of my clothing is unintentionally amusing and I am much too big for it. I have a wardrobe full of very interesting clothes that I can't get into. On the top of the wardrobe is a proper bag for storing clothes in - it's full of my fat clothes, which I refuse to get out. Why do I save them? I suppose because I realise I am going to get fat...
'Peperamis are %100 pork, right down to the boingy schnozzle'
spaknapak asks:
Did you ever find out which bit of the animal Peperamis are made from?
I always used to bring this up in the voice sessions. They would never understand what my reservation was. It certainly tasted like the whole animal. I once worked in a pork pie factory and they said they were 100% pork - and they meant every single bit of the animal, right down to the boingy schnozzle.
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YamiKuriboh asks:
What gives you more satisfaction: a standing ovation from your Shakespeare roles or beating someone unconscious with a frying pan?
A standing ovation from anything is to be savoured ... but I haven't started 12th Night just yet. It's my RSC debut. Rik and I used to do the Woolwich Tramshed as a residency. We did a version of Macbeth set in Vietnam. It ... wasn't very good. At one point we had to pretend to smoke a joint through a double-barrelled shotgun. That kind of thing. There were no standing ovations.
Adrian is with us now …
Updated
Adrian Edmondson webchat – post your questions now
Most people will remember the first time they encountered Adrian “Ade” Edmondson. Loud, anarchic and uproariously funny, the likes of The Young Ones and Bottom are not the kind of comedy you forget in a hurry.
Now, Edmondson is taking on the role of Malvolio in an RSC production of Twelfth Night. Watching the former Vyvyan Basterd don his yellow stockings and take on Shakespeare’s puritanical steward will be intriguing – the play is set to run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 2 November to 24 February 2018.
If you’re wondering how he’s been preparing for the role, now’s your chance to grill him – Edmondson will be in the Guardian office from 10am on Wednesday 11 October to answer your questions on Shakespeare, comedy and anything else you fancy asking. Perhaps you’re interested in the dynamics of his comedy partnership with the late, great Rik Mayall (“There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing,” he recalled. “And now he’s died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard.”). Alternatively, you might want to know the secret to reinterpreting a punk rock song, as Edmondson does with his band the Bad Shepherds. Or maybe you just want a good pasta sauce recipe (Edmondson won Celebrity Masterchef in 2013). Either way, post your questions in the comments below and we’ll endeavour to get them answered for you!
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Right, I'm off to hide in your hard drive and have a bloody good look at your internet history!