The Dangerous Brothers

The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir Adrian Dangerous". Originally appearing on stage in London at the comedy club 'The Comic Strip', the characters were well developed before appearing on TV. First appearing on television on a one off 1980 BBC TV show 'Boom Boom Out Go The Lights', they were also featured in a TV short 'documentary' film 'The Comic Strip', directed by Julien Temple, before they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the TV programme Saturday Live from 1985 on.

The act was, in essence, a prototype of the career which the pair were to forge over the next twenty years in such shows as Mr Jolly Lives Next Door; Filthy, Rich and Catflap; and Bottom - two low-life loser perverts hitting each other in spectacular slapstick ways. It was arguably more hazardous than much of the material which was to follow in later incarnations - stage props in the brief run included a live (and very large, although apparently lethargic) crocodile, blank-firing submachine guns, and Edmondson apparently consuming Vim, a well-known UK brand of powder toilet cleaner. One of the early TV sketches 'World of Danger' went wrong when a stunt to set fire to Edmondson's trousers left him with serious burns - although much of this was left on the broadcast version.

Sketch performed on 'BoomBoom Out Go The Lights'

Sketch performed in 'The Comic Strip'

(The Comic Strip version is a different performance with a slightly different conclusion, and features swearing)

Sketches performed on Saturday Night Live

The Dangerous Brothers were notorious for their unpredictable antics, once even interrupting The Flower Arranging Sketch being performed live by Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie, Fry & Laurie told The Dangerous Brothers they had been banned and they left only to return moments later disguised as The Ben Elton Brothers. One of the final sketches prepared for Saturday Live was entitled 'Kinky Sex'. This fell foul of Channel 4 censors who banned it. The duo responded by apparently hijacking the programme and blowing up the wall on which the show's logo was painted in graffiti art. The sketch, which by modern standards seems fairly tame, was finally released on a compilation video The Dangerous Brothers present: World of Danger. Several Dangerous Brothers sketches are also included on the DVD compilation Saturday Live: The Best of Series One (2007).

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