Unseen Rik Mayall material to be shown at festival

An archive of previously-unreleased material by the late comedian Rik Mayall is to be showcased at the second annual festival held in his honour.

Working With Rik and Other Grim Tales will take place at the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival in Mayall's home town of Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, which begins on Friday.

Bob Baldwin, who was a close friend of Mayall's and directed him in a number of projects, will present unseen excerpts from their collaborations and reflect on their friendship.

"But where do you start with a relationship that was over 30 years long?" said Baldwin.

The archive will be presented in the form of a Q&A session with producer Elene Hadjidaniel.

"She has done a brilliant job editing together all sorts of bits and pieces from the different things I did with him," said Baldwin.

"So it's a collection of stuff from our time together as creatives, as director and performer, and as our friendship developed."

The festival, first held last year, celebrates the legacy of a pioneer of alternative comedy, who died in 2014 at the age of 56.

Baldwin and Mayall first worked together on the children's television show Grim Tales in 1989, in which Mayall retold stories by the Brothers Grimm.

They came up with the idea during a night in the pub after Mayall had just done a week-long stint reading George's Marvellous Medicine on Jackanory.

"On the Monday, it started with one million as an audience," remembered Baldwin. "And on the Friday, it had gone up to five million.

"He may have been exaggerating slightly there, but he was terribly happy with himself. And that inspired us to think, well, he's obviously a great storyteller.

"And we suggested Grim Tales."

Mayall had made a name for himself in TV shows such as The Young Ones, Blackadder, Filthy Rich & Catflap, and The New Statesman, but Baldwin said presenting a children's programme was "a natural progression" for him.

"He was a multi-dimensional performer," explained Baldwin. "In Grim Tales, he was sometimes playing five characters in each story.

"He was playing the character, the actor playing the characters, and himself watching the actor playing the characters, sometimes all within the same breath.

"Every actor has a contract with the audience to suspend disbelief. But somehow, Rik was complicit with the audience in that disbelief, he was never above it.

"So the kids just warmed to it, I think, because they felt he was one of them."

Baldwin and Mayall were friends before they worked together, which informed their working relationship.

"He was empowering, he was generous, he was curious," said Baldwin. "He was a force of nature, and anybody around him in a professional situation would just have to marshal that.

"Working with him was a complete joy."

Following Grim Tales, the pair went on to collaborate on shows including Horse Opera, Tales of Uplift and Moral Improvement, and Violent Nation.

But it is his friendship with Mayall - who to Baldwin's children was "Uncle Rik" - which Baldwin treasures most of all.

"He was a lovely, generous, thoughtful friend," he said. "He had the most brilliant laugh, a generous and beautiful laugh, that was infectious.

"He was the kind of guy that if there was a party, and there was somebody in the room that didn't quite feel comfortable or fit in, he would make sure they did.

"He would make sure to befriend them and make them feel comfortable."

Baldwin said Mayall's death was "heartbreaking".

"But the funeral service was one of the funniest things I've ever been to," he added.

"I've never heard so much swearing in a church."

Baldwin said the show would be of interest to anyone who wanted to know more about the real person behind iconic characters Richard Richard, Lord Flasheart and Alan B'Stard - and teased some stories unlikely to be heard anywhere else.

"I would tell you the story of how I originally met Rick, but I think it might be too rude," he said.

"I'll save it for the show."

The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival runs at venues across Droitwich Spa from 29 May to 6 June.

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