Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s comedy mocked the Royals

It’s hardly known for its delicate, sensitive humour…  but Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s bawdy 1990s comedy Bottom has fallen foul of the censors.

An episode from the 1995 series has been pulled from the catch-up service of TV channel Gold over scenes that ‘could be deemed offensive to the Royal Family’.

The plot of the season three episode Dough involves the pair forging money which contains pornographic doodles of the Royals that are described in the show as ‘tantamount to treason’.

Although the images are not seen, the tenner is said to show a threesome between the Duke Of Edinburgh, Meryl Streep  Edmondson’s character Eddie says the £5 features ‘the Queen’s jugs’.

In response, Mayall’s character Richie responds, shocked:  ‘Eddie, a) the Queen doesn’t have jugs, she’s royalty and b) if she did have jugs she certainly wouldn’t get them out on a fiver - she’d save them for the fifty.’

After a Bottom fan account tweeted the news yesterday that some episodes were being dropped for ‘not being PC’, many fans made the same joke: ‘That would be all of them’.

One said Bottom was ‘over the top, crude, cringe worthy, childish and puerile humour....all the things that made it a great comedy!’, while another said: ‘Everything about Bottom is non pc... Which is why so many people still love it’. 

Another called it ‘a moronic decision’, while many predicted a resurgence of DVDs, so as not to be at the mercy of TV executives pandering to changing tastes. 

However, only one episode is involved – and it was pulled from the catch-up service after the Queen’s death last September, but only just noticed.

And a spokesperson for Gold’s parent company UKTV, promised it would be back soon. They told Chortle: ‘Following the death of The Queen, and in tandem with other broadcasters, we removed some content from the schedule that could be deemed offensive to the Royal family and our viewers. This episode will be available from next month.’

Published: 3 Feb 2023