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Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom
Crafted by Bottom aficionados Paul Tanter, Angela Pearson and Mat Brooks, Talking Bottom is the ultimate guide to an outrageous and unforgettable sitcom.
In 1991, a new comedy hit British screens, and, at first glance, it was just another sofa-based sitcom. Soon, it became apparent that Bottom was a masterpiece. Leaving an indelible mark on British comedy, it continues to delight and disgust new audiences today. Written by and starring comedy legends Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as reprobates Richie and Eddie, their depraved universe unfolded over three chaotic TV series, five explosive live shows and a formidable feature film.
Combining skilful slapstick with nob gags and Beckett-style nihilist humour, Bottom proved that laughter is the best way to confront life’s grimness. Talking Bottom champions the legacy of TV’s greatest losers, investigating every pratfall and punchline along the way. Complete with thorough ‘Bottom Inspections’ and ‘Bottom Nuggets’, this book features never-before-seen photos and draft script excerpts as well as fascinating interviews with cast and crew. Delve inside Bottom with Paul, Ange and Mat as they celebrate Rik and Ade’s unmatched talent for dirty double entendres and prove why this is Britain’s best-ever sitcom.
In 1991, a new comedy hit British screens, and, at first glance, it was just another sofa-based sitcom. Soon, it became apparent that Bottom was a masterpiece. Leaving an indelible mark on British comedy, it continues to delight and disgust new audiences today. Written by and starring comedy legends Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as reprobates Richie and Eddie, their depraved universe unfolded over three chaotic TV series, five explosive live shows and a formidable feature film.
Combining skilful slapstick with nob gags and Beckett-style nihilist humour, Bottom proved that laughter is the best way to confront life’s grimness. Talking Bottom champions the legacy of TV’s greatest losers, investigating every pratfall and punchline along the way. Complete with thorough ‘Bottom Inspections’ and ‘Bottom Nuggets’, this book features never-before-seen photos and draft script excerpts as well as fascinating interviews with cast and crew. Delve inside Bottom with Paul, Ange and Mat as they celebrate Rik and Ade’s unmatched talent for dirty double entendres and prove why this is Britain’s best-ever sitcom.
384 pages, Paperback
Published July 3, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2025
"All a Bottom fan could want!" Actor Roger Sloman (Mr. Harrison!!!) is quoted on the back of the book, which is a perfect summary for this excellently researched and written deep dive into the much loved classic 90's sitcom.
The format is akin to the Talking Bottom podcast. The majority of chapters each focusing on an episode, a live show and finally the film. The structure leads with a short summary "Bottom Compacted" for anyone that needs a refresh, before they get their magnifying glasses out for a good old "Bottom Inspection" as they go into depth. Compared to the podcast, this gives a far greater level of care and attention to detail that comes with committing thoughts to paper (rather than just a well-informed chat). They don't just describe the plot in detail, but truly get into the psychology of the characters, align their actions with the social and political commentary of the time, go into the conventions of sitcom structure/history and of course pull-apart the action set pieces and dialogue to work out what makes it all work. They also frequently shine a light on other sitcom influences and direct homages that are all over every episode of Bottom and how the Bottom itself shaped the next generation of comedy performers, writers and sitcoms. Each chapter finishes with "Bottom Nuggets" where they have a good old probe for little titbits of nerdy trivia, fluffs and insights that we all crave.
Throughout, there are quotes from interviews from a variety of sources (print, TV and many of the interviews by Talking Bottom themselves over the years) from the surviving cast and crew members. These all help to provide a fascinating look behind the curtain into everything from on-set antics, the writing process, producing/directing the show, the amazing design work on the various sets, right down to the internal politics of the BBC. To aid with their research, Talking Bottom were granted access to the full interviews from the Bottom: Exposed documentary from 2024, so a number of unaired insights have been shared. As expected with this sort of book, there's a selection of photographs, behind the scenes shots, rehearsals, sets, merchandising and some original fan art.
A couple of the most enlightening chapters are ‘Smells’ and the real pilot episode 'Contest', where it explores how the script and plot changed during the writing process (with many jokes being cut and re-used in later episodes) to make it the tight 30 minutes we know and love. This is thanks to Talking Bottom being able to get their grubby little mitts on the various drafts of the scripts during a trip to the BBC Archive. This provides a unique insight into the minds of RIk and Ade's writing process as they chopped and added to the story, developed their manic characters seen early on in the likes of The Dangerous Brothers before birthing the deplorably sad but fully developed characters of Richie and Eddie right from episode one (well, episode three by air-date). In addition, the snippets of the less-than favourable professional reviews of these early episodes were very amusing to read.
Yes, they're clearly a bunch of sad, pathetic, w**ker fans but that doesn't mean they're looking at it all with rose-tinted spectacles. They're able to be critical of the content too - finding examples of lines that fall flat, rehashed material and routines that are stretched-out that perhaps worked well in the room (for the live shows) but don't translate well to the home viewing experience. You start to see this in a few parts of series 3 (where the characters and situations become somewhat extreme - even by Bottom standards), with this absurdity becoming more apparent in the latter live shows... thoughts that are candidly expressed in more recent interviews with Ade.
In addition to the introduction which helps to give an excellent overview of Bottom and it's impact, a personal favourite were the bonus chapters:
1. Waiting For Bottom: Mat get to look into the famous Samual Beckett play Waiting for Godot and it's influence on comedy and of course Bottom. Not just in terms of the parallels within their characters, dialogue and plot points but how they bonded over their mutual love for the play as students, which they believed was the funniest thing ever written... and of course exploring the (sadly unreleased) West End version of the play that Rik and Ade performed in 1991 while series 1 was being aired.
2. Bottom? That's nearly an ar*efull: Angela is finally given free rein to wax lyrical about the birth of British sitcom with a full chapter devoted to Galton and Simpson (and a few other iconic sitcoms of course) - the genius writers behind the brilliant Hancock's Half Hour and the stupendous Steptoe & Son. Focusing on the writing and structure of some iconic episodes and how they relate to the Bottom universe, backed-up by interviews with cast and crew showing their undeniably huge influence on Rik and Ade, expressed through their characters, plots and acting styles which owes a massive debt to these behemoths of British comedy.
3. Bottoming Out: a look into the cancelled series four which leaves us lamenting what could have been. There are some rather moving truths here from Ade about his relationship with Rik and the decline in his belief in the quality of the material they were writing in those final years.
There's also an excellent forward by Ed Bye too with reflections on that period of his career, friendship with RIk and Ade and expressing affection for the writers of the ruddy book too.
Reading this brought back nostalgic feelings for the prevalent 'Episode Guides' that I'm sure weighed down most kids/early teens bookshelves in the 90's. None more respected than 'The Simpsons: A complete guide to our favourite family' IMO, which like Talking Bottom consisted of a synopsis, cast lists and nerdy bits of trivia and insights. The only difference being, if that went into as much detail as this book, the worlds strongest man would be needed to lift it.
These classic TV show guides were worth their weight in gold, and in exploring a pre-internet programme like Bottom, this book is no exception. Bottom's online presence is more limited to clips and memes from fans rather than encyclopaedic levels of information, so the insights that have been gathered and committed to print by the Talking Bottom writers in compiling their analysis (of plot, structure, influences, cultural significance etc.), discovery of original script drafts and most importantly interviewing cast and crew of the show is invaluable to preserve the history and memory of one of the most high energy sitcoms with the maddest double acts to ever grace the screen and stage.
The format is akin to the Talking Bottom podcast. The majority of chapters each focusing on an episode, a live show and finally the film. The structure leads with a short summary "Bottom Compacted" for anyone that needs a refresh, before they get their magnifying glasses out for a good old "Bottom Inspection" as they go into depth. Compared to the podcast, this gives a far greater level of care and attention to detail that comes with committing thoughts to paper (rather than just a well-informed chat). They don't just describe the plot in detail, but truly get into the psychology of the characters, align their actions with the social and political commentary of the time, go into the conventions of sitcom structure/history and of course pull-apart the action set pieces and dialogue to work out what makes it all work. They also frequently shine a light on other sitcom influences and direct homages that are all over every episode of Bottom and how the Bottom itself shaped the next generation of comedy performers, writers and sitcoms. Each chapter finishes with "Bottom Nuggets" where they have a good old probe for little titbits of nerdy trivia, fluffs and insights that we all crave.
Throughout, there are quotes from interviews from a variety of sources (print, TV and many of the interviews by Talking Bottom themselves over the years) from the surviving cast and crew members. These all help to provide a fascinating look behind the curtain into everything from on-set antics, the writing process, producing/directing the show, the amazing design work on the various sets, right down to the internal politics of the BBC. To aid with their research, Talking Bottom were granted access to the full interviews from the Bottom: Exposed documentary from 2024, so a number of unaired insights have been shared. As expected with this sort of book, there's a selection of photographs, behind the scenes shots, rehearsals, sets, merchandising and some original fan art.
A couple of the most enlightening chapters are ‘Smells’ and the real pilot episode 'Contest', where it explores how the script and plot changed during the writing process (with many jokes being cut and re-used in later episodes) to make it the tight 30 minutes we know and love. This is thanks to Talking Bottom being able to get their grubby little mitts on the various drafts of the scripts during a trip to the BBC Archive. This provides a unique insight into the minds of RIk and Ade's writing process as they chopped and added to the story, developed their manic characters seen early on in the likes of The Dangerous Brothers before birthing the deplorably sad but fully developed characters of Richie and Eddie right from episode one (well, episode three by air-date). In addition, the snippets of the less-than favourable professional reviews of these early episodes were very amusing to read.
Yes, they're clearly a bunch of sad, pathetic, w**ker fans but that doesn't mean they're looking at it all with rose-tinted spectacles. They're able to be critical of the content too - finding examples of lines that fall flat, rehashed material and routines that are stretched-out that perhaps worked well in the room (for the live shows) but don't translate well to the home viewing experience. You start to see this in a few parts of series 3 (where the characters and situations become somewhat extreme - even by Bottom standards), with this absurdity becoming more apparent in the latter live shows... thoughts that are candidly expressed in more recent interviews with Ade.
In addition to the introduction which helps to give an excellent overview of Bottom and it's impact, a personal favourite were the bonus chapters:
1. Waiting For Bottom: Mat get to look into the famous Samual Beckett play Waiting for Godot and it's influence on comedy and of course Bottom. Not just in terms of the parallels within their characters, dialogue and plot points but how they bonded over their mutual love for the play as students, which they believed was the funniest thing ever written... and of course exploring the (sadly unreleased) West End version of the play that Rik and Ade performed in 1991 while series 1 was being aired.
2. Bottom? That's nearly an ar*efull: Angela is finally given free rein to wax lyrical about the birth of British sitcom with a full chapter devoted to Galton and Simpson (and a few other iconic sitcoms of course) - the genius writers behind the brilliant Hancock's Half Hour and the stupendous Steptoe & Son. Focusing on the writing and structure of some iconic episodes and how they relate to the Bottom universe, backed-up by interviews with cast and crew showing their undeniably huge influence on Rik and Ade, expressed through their characters, plots and acting styles which owes a massive debt to these behemoths of British comedy.
3. Bottoming Out: a look into the cancelled series four which leaves us lamenting what could have been. There are some rather moving truths here from Ade about his relationship with Rik and the decline in his belief in the quality of the material they were writing in those final years.
There's also an excellent forward by Ed Bye too with reflections on that period of his career, friendship with RIk and Ade and expressing affection for the writers of the ruddy book too.
Reading this brought back nostalgic feelings for the prevalent 'Episode Guides' that I'm sure weighed down most kids/early teens bookshelves in the 90's. None more respected than 'The Simpsons: A complete guide to our favourite family' IMO, which like Talking Bottom consisted of a synopsis, cast lists and nerdy bits of trivia and insights. The only difference being, if that went into as much detail as this book, the worlds strongest man would be needed to lift it.
These classic TV show guides were worth their weight in gold, and in exploring a pre-internet programme like Bottom, this book is no exception. Bottom's online presence is more limited to clips and memes from fans rather than encyclopaedic levels of information, so the insights that have been gathered and committed to print by the Talking Bottom writers in compiling their analysis (of plot, structure, influences, cultural significance etc.), discovery of original script drafts and most importantly interviewing cast and crew of the show is invaluable to preserve the history and memory of one of the most high energy sitcoms with the maddest double acts to ever grace the screen and stage.
August 27, 2025
As a lifetime fan of the show, I backed this book what seems like many years ago and waited patiently for it to be written. About 4 years later, and after the crowd-funding company went kaput, eventually we have the book. And, to be frank, it wasn’t worth the wait. Disappointed is not the word.
The book is split into chapters based on the episode/live show/film etc. They are not, however in chronological order, which I think would have been better (so placing the first live show after the second series etc.) The actual content of the chapters is basically a re-hash of the (vastly superior) podcast together with overviews of the content. Little to nothing new is added. All I was thinking as I read it was, how on did this take four years to write? It is little more than a bunch of podcast transcripts. I was hoping for in depth insightful analysis. I wanted to learn something. I got neither.
Unlike other reviewers, I wasn’t as bothered about the overt political references as I do believe that these were things that Rik and Ade clearly added to the shows on purpose so it would be right to draw attention to them here.
What I didn’t like, however, was the absolute pandering displayed. I have read many books on my favourite sitcoms (the best being Mark Ward’s ‘A Family At War: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to 'Till Death Us Do Part.’) A book like that shines a critical light on the subject, and whilst clearly being a fan, doesn’t gush over his subject. Here, it feels like any time the authors wish to be critical they have to preface it by saying things like ‘we don’t mean to be critical.’ Why don’t you mean to be critical?!? When discussing obvious attempts to cash in like the last two live shows, I don’t think even Rik and Ade would be upset by that. It reminded me a book I’ve recently read on the band Queen, where the author was trying to make out that every single thing the band did was gold - it wasn’t, and that’s fine. Much of Bottom was great, but there was also a lot of dross (half of the third series, the last 2 live shows, the film etc) and it’s fine to call them out on it.
In recent years my admiration of Ade has lessoned somewhat. His autobiography, whilst being interesting, made me think a lot less of him, especially when talking down about his Bottom legacy, and Rik when he isn’t here to defend himself. I do think that not allowing himself to be interviewed, or at least provide a foreword, for this book was a bit salty to say the least. The authors managed to interview every bit part player through their podcasts but the only one that really mattered eluded them. They did do a clever cut and paste fake interview with him on the accompanying backers podcast (which was very well built up) but it’s still a shame that Ade couldn’t have given them an hour of him time to validate this obvious passion project some more. To be honest, it further solidifies my firm belief that one of my all time comedy heroes is a in fact a bit of a…well I can’t really say here can I. Saying all of that, maybe he read a rough draft of the book and decided he didn’t want to associate with it…who knows?
In retrospect, it was probably a good thing that Bottom ended when it did and that there was no fourth series, or indeed any further live shows. And whilst I’ve wanted to read something in depth about the show for the past 30 years, we would maybe have been better off had they not bothered.
The book is split into chapters based on the episode/live show/film etc. They are not, however in chronological order, which I think would have been better (so placing the first live show after the second series etc.) The actual content of the chapters is basically a re-hash of the (vastly superior) podcast together with overviews of the content. Little to nothing new is added. All I was thinking as I read it was, how on did this take four years to write? It is little more than a bunch of podcast transcripts. I was hoping for in depth insightful analysis. I wanted to learn something. I got neither.
Unlike other reviewers, I wasn’t as bothered about the overt political references as I do believe that these were things that Rik and Ade clearly added to the shows on purpose so it would be right to draw attention to them here.
What I didn’t like, however, was the absolute pandering displayed. I have read many books on my favourite sitcoms (the best being Mark Ward’s ‘A Family At War: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to 'Till Death Us Do Part.’) A book like that shines a critical light on the subject, and whilst clearly being a fan, doesn’t gush over his subject. Here, it feels like any time the authors wish to be critical they have to preface it by saying things like ‘we don’t mean to be critical.’ Why don’t you mean to be critical?!? When discussing obvious attempts to cash in like the last two live shows, I don’t think even Rik and Ade would be upset by that. It reminded me a book I’ve recently read on the band Queen, where the author was trying to make out that every single thing the band did was gold - it wasn’t, and that’s fine. Much of Bottom was great, but there was also a lot of dross (half of the third series, the last 2 live shows, the film etc) and it’s fine to call them out on it.
In recent years my admiration of Ade has lessoned somewhat. His autobiography, whilst being interesting, made me think a lot less of him, especially when talking down about his Bottom legacy, and Rik when he isn’t here to defend himself. I do think that not allowing himself to be interviewed, or at least provide a foreword, for this book was a bit salty to say the least. The authors managed to interview every bit part player through their podcasts but the only one that really mattered eluded them. They did do a clever cut and paste fake interview with him on the accompanying backers podcast (which was very well built up) but it’s still a shame that Ade couldn’t have given them an hour of him time to validate this obvious passion project some more. To be honest, it further solidifies my firm belief that one of my all time comedy heroes is a in fact a bit of a…well I can’t really say here can I. Saying all of that, maybe he read a rough draft of the book and decided he didn’t want to associate with it…who knows?
In retrospect, it was probably a good thing that Bottom ended when it did and that there was no fourth series, or indeed any further live shows. And whilst I’ve wanted to read something in depth about the show for the past 30 years, we would maybe have been better off had they not bothered.
December 18, 2025
For some of you reading this review, it might "make your noses bleed" to learn that I have watched the 3 seasons of "Bottom" only the once! (...I know terrible!) It's one of the reasons why I wanted to buy this book - to get an insight from loyal fans who have grown up with this iconic comedy and to learn more about it, as I absolutely love this programme....and this book did not disappoint!
I love how the three writers (all from media/journalism backgrounds, so they know their stuff!) look into each individual episode, the live stage shows AND the feature film and share some "nuggets", including quotes from the makers, background history, unseen drafts of scripts, reviews etc. From someone who is a relative newbie to the series all the way to someone who knows every line/action/camera shot etc, I think this is an excellent guide to have and a wonderful way to appreciate not only this particular programme, but other British comedy work as well.
This book celebrates this fantastic series for what it is, pays homage to creators Rik and Ade and everyone who was involved in the production....and I for one am very grateful to the writers that they're keeping the love and appreciation of this programme going after all these years, including with their podcasts, which I personally think are fabulous! (Check them out @talkingbottom!)
You can definitely tell just how much hard work and research the writers have put into this, which I applaud them for! The way it's laid out is very user friendly too, as you can delve into the sections you want to read about or refer to for each episode, live show and for the film. What I've been doing is watching an episode/show/the film and have been reading up about each one afterwards - and it's made me love "Bottom" (oo-er!) all the more, which is an absolute joy!
Buy the book - there are a lot of happy readers who are very thankful that this book is out there and who are thoroughly enjoying it. Congratulations to Angela, Paul and Mat on your amazing work - this book is ruddy FANTASTIIIIICCCC!!!!
I love how the three writers (all from media/journalism backgrounds, so they know their stuff!) look into each individual episode, the live stage shows AND the feature film and share some "nuggets", including quotes from the makers, background history, unseen drafts of scripts, reviews etc. From someone who is a relative newbie to the series all the way to someone who knows every line/action/camera shot etc, I think this is an excellent guide to have and a wonderful way to appreciate not only this particular programme, but other British comedy work as well.
This book celebrates this fantastic series for what it is, pays homage to creators Rik and Ade and everyone who was involved in the production....and I for one am very grateful to the writers that they're keeping the love and appreciation of this programme going after all these years, including with their podcasts, which I personally think are fabulous! (Check them out @talkingbottom!)
You can definitely tell just how much hard work and research the writers have put into this, which I applaud them for! The way it's laid out is very user friendly too, as you can delve into the sections you want to read about or refer to for each episode, live show and for the film. What I've been doing is watching an episode/show/the film and have been reading up about each one afterwards - and it's made me love "Bottom" (oo-er!) all the more, which is an absolute joy!
Buy the book - there are a lot of happy readers who are very thankful that this book is out there and who are thoroughly enjoying it. Congratulations to Angela, Paul and Mat on your amazing work - this book is ruddy FANTASTIIIIICCCC!!!!
December 13, 2025
There needs to be more books like this - it’s not a dry academic text or a cheap rushed money-maker. It’s an incredibly insightful, in-depth and well-researched dive into one of the world’s most overlooked and under-appreciated sitcoms. It has interviews with the cast and crew of Bottom, load of stuff I didn’t know about the show or hadn’t thought about, pictures I’ve never seen before and literally excerpts from scenes that Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson wrote but eventually cut so have never been seen or read before. It’s absolutely the definitive guide to the show that is accessible to not just the die-hard fan but to someone who’s never seen an episode of Bottom before. All comedy fans should have this on the shelf.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews