WTF: Rik Mayall special

• 'I was a very obnoxious child, truly I was. I was horrible.' Rik Mayall.

• At his school in Worcester, the young Rik snaffled chemicals out from the chemistry lab, walked across the playground, and set his trousers on fire. (Via Twitter user Toby Moody)

• Theatre director Tom Attenborough recalls: 'When I was three years old at a wedding Rik Mayall tied a napkin round my face and told me to go rob other guests' jewellery and bring it to him.'

• An autograph hunter once emailed Mayall's agent for a signature. A month later, he received a handwritten response in which Mayall had crossed out his initial reply, but still leaving it visible: 'Here you are you cheapskate money-grabbing Welsh cunt — where's the fucking envelope you deformity??'. He replaced it with: 'Here you are Daniel, thank you so much for writing. I hope you like the picture.'

• 'The last time I saw him he grabbed my crotch and said "Not eaten yet then?",' Bob Mortimer.

• Although alternative comedy came in with a wave of political correctness, Mayall didn't always toe that line. In 2005, he told The Sun: ‘You have to be black, homosexual and a woman to work at the BBC. That’s why they didn’t like Bottom. They were two men who were heterosexual.’

• This is how he reacted when he spotted someone filming him at a tedious corporate event:

• 'When I was 15 me and my bro saw Rik Mayall Live. Afterwards Tik signed my hand. I didn't wash it off for ages,' Tim remembers a formative comedy moment he shared with brother Jeremy.

• He played a B'stard, a Twat and a Cnut. Twat, pronounced Thwaite, allegedly, was his character name in Guest House Paradiso. And following his success as Alan B'stard MP in The New Statesman, writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran wrote a short-lived 2002 ITV sitcom Believe Nothing, in which he played university professor Adonis Cnut, the cleverest man in England

• And he once appeared on the Cannon and Ball show:

• He was once formally warned by police after pulling a toy gun on two strangers in Covent Garden. He had been 'celebrating' St Patrick’s Day, and he subsequently conceded that he had been 'a total prat'.

• Mayall posted only one message on Twitter, in 2010: 'Opening my very own Twitter to stop another bastard from doing it. So fuck off and don't expect to hear from me anytime soon. Love Rik x'. The account, sadly, has now vanished.

• He was cast as Peeves The Poltergeist in Harry Potter – but his scene was cut. However he never told his children, and when they saw the film they were in awe of the make-up job... as they believed it was their dad playing Hagrid, the role Robbie Coltrane actually took.

• 'There’s a quality about me that you don’t quite trust.' Rik Mayall.

• Tweets of the day
Follow If You Dare ( ‏@slater4353): Rik Mayall has died age of 56. That's pretty good considering when I smashed my mother in the face with a frying pan she died immediately
Robin Flavell(@RobinFlavell): I imagine Rik Mayall would rather it were called a nobituary.
Mark Gatiss (@Markgatiss): Half of the fake moustache I'm currently wearing has just come off in tribute to Lord Flasheart.' So long, Rik Mayall.

Published: 9 Jun 2014