Unearthed: The 1980s sitcom pulled after two episodes

Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson appeared in Hardwicke House

Episodes of a British sitcom so bad they have never seen the light of day – despite featuring the likes of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson – have emerged on YouTube after 32years.

Hardwicke House was yanked from the ITV schedules in February 1987 after just two episodes in the face of a hugely hostile critical reaction.

The series starred Roy Kinnear as the headmaster of a secondary school, with other teachers played by Pam Ferris, who would later find fame in The Darling Buds of May, and Duncan Preston, who was already known for his work with Victoria Wood.

Made by Central Television, he comedy launched to much fanfare, with an hour-long opening episode in a primetime 8pm slot one Tuesday night, and the first 30-minute episode the following day But so poorly was it received that the other five episodes were pulled – never to be seen until today – and a planned second series scrapped.

The show was not without controversy, sparking a reputation that it had been 'banned'. Deputy headmaster Mr Mackintosh, played by Roger Sloman, lusted after some of the pupils. In the opening episode, the head girl is shown wearing a revealing leather outfit to school after he told her it was the uniform, and later she dons a ‘sexy nurse’ uniform.

In another scene, the South African ambassador, who is sending his son to the school, tells his wife not to use the word ‘kaffir’, saying: ‘We’re in England now. From now on it’s "darkies".’

The series also featured cartoonish violence, with the head of English Mr Fowl (Granville Saxton) was said to have murdered two people.

Mayall and Edmondson filmed the fifth episode, playing kids straight out of borstal who stripped a teacher to his underpants and hung him upside-down on the blackboard.

And other guest stars scheduled to appear including Jan Ravens, John Fortune and Pauline Quirke

The full series was uploaded by Mark Pickett, a TV shopping channel expert.

He told Chortle: ‘I worked at Central as a sound technician from 1982 to 1987 and this is one of the shows I worked on while I was there.’

Here are all the episodes.