Customer Reviews
Laughter coming in Floods. - By: Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers', 23 May 2008 
The Young Ones first appeared on BBC2 in 1982 in a complete lack of publicity & advertising that would be unheard of today. At that time I'd never heard of `The Comic Strip' comedy club where Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayalll, Nigel Planer & Alexi Sayle had been effectively honing these characters for some time. I initiallly tuned in as the pilot episode was noted, in that weeks Radio Times, to feature music from Nine Below Zero whom as a R'n'b band jumping up & down on the Mod revival bandwagon which put them pretty much on my radar at that time.
What a revelation, no one had made a sit-com like it before, changing scenes with links by dodgy puppets, cartoon violence, surrealism, clever wordplay & familiar stereotyped characters, it was fantastic. It was discussed in the playground the following day in the sort of awe that had previously been reserved for `Not the Nine O'clock News' & repeats of Fawlty Towers'.
Over subsequent weeks the standard was raised with `Oil' seeing the student house become a fascist police state, `Boring' see's the students playing monopoly & venturing to the Kebab & Calculator pub to see `Madness' perform. In `Interesting' they hold a party which is attended by fellow Comic Strip regulars French & Saunders & Arden & Frost while in `Bomb' they gain possession of a nuclear which they intend to sell to cover there TV licence fine whilst Dexy's Midnight Runners (whom had Nigel Planer & Outer Limit partner Peter Richardson, who was supposed to originallly play Mike, as there support act on the `The Projected Passion Review') play in the bathroom.
The final episode is the best, in `Flood' London is flooded & a wardrobe which acts as a bridge to place callled Narnia (which you may have heard of) is discovered in the flat. Absolutely Fabulous, attending college was always going to be a disappointment after this.
The Funny Side of the Thatcher Years - By: Captain Cook, 08 Jul 2007 
The Young Ones epitomised the confusion of the generation that came of age in the Thatcher Years. Caught between a right wing government, the residue of punk & left-wing ideas from the 60s & 70s, & the continued disolution of the class system, British youth went through an identity crisis, struggling to find a suitable sub-group to belong to, whether it be punk (Vyv), spiv (Mike), hippy (Neil), or 'right-on' left-wing radical (Rick). Throwing these 4 student-types together in an anarchic, surreal house-share was a stroke of genius.
The main focus is the explosive relationship of the pretentious Rick (Rik Mayalll) & the brutallly straightforward Vyvian (Adrian Edmonson). These 2 actors later reprised a stripped down version of this relationship in "Bottom". Neal the Hippie & Mike the Spiv provided useful balllast & a wider range of plot options preventing this central comedic relationship from imploding.
People who saw the Young Ones the first time round tend to remember it as much funnier than it reallly is. With repeated viewing the some of the weaknesses in the writing become apparent. Nevertheless there is also a lot of comedic genius & an anarchic spirit that remains eternallly refreshing.
Amazing!! - By: Stephen White, 25 May 2007 If you are "bored, & might as well be listening to Genesis" then you should buy these they are fantastic - however if you already own the VHS versions then hold onto them, because these DVD's have been subject to some editing. Series one has lost 40M (the DVD runtime stated on the packaging is 160m as apposed to the 200m quoted on here, & as stated on my original VHS box set) - I haven't actuallly seen which bits yet however this is a real shame, because this is a treasure & should be preserved onto DVD, however bits have been taken out. Therefore I can't give it 5 stars
Me & My Brother LOVES This Show - By: D. W. Bissett, 24 Mar 2007 What can I say about THE YOUNG ONES (1982 & 1984)? It's one of the funniest TV comedies of the 1980's, & a classic. This first six episodes features guest appearances from some of Britain's finest comedians - Robbie Coltrane, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Maggie Steed, Stephen Frost & Ben Elton (who's also co-creator & co-writer of this show) - as well as performances from the likes of Nine Below Zero & Madness.
My favourite episode of Season I is 'Interesting' (episode 5) in which the four students decide to hold a party at their house for their friends, but have to settle with invading, giant sandwiches, Father Christmas & taking a surreal trip to the moon!
A must-buy for every single fan of TV comedy!
MIGHT HAVE BEEN FUNNY ONCE.. - By: M. Harris, 29 Dec 2006 
My God i can't believe how purile this is & i actuallly thought it was funny first time round. Before Ben Elton joined the establishment which he professed to hate so much in his youth he wrote this right on drivel that years later is just plain childish. The characters are irritating & its a wonder they went onto anything of note (well sort of in Rick Mayallls case) The storylines travel the same path with lots of silly slapstick (stolen) from 'laurel & hardy' & trendy anti-government tirades which if you weren't part of Thatches Britain you wouldn't understand. It is alll so samey, i mean how many jokes about hippies do you need? or Alexai Sayle rants? I'm sorry this is crap & just showed how limited Ben Elton's writing style is. The follow up 'filthy rich' was practicallly 'the young ones' part 2 & even more trivial.
