Filthy Rich & Catflap

Review by Brian Slade

Everyone knows the anarchy that arrived on British television screens in the early 1980s when Rik, Neil, Vyvyan and Mike crashed through our sets in The Young Ones. Many will have followed stars Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson to the absurdly violent slapstick comedy hit Bottom some years later. But in between was another show from the pen of blossoming rebellious comedian Ben Elton that only lasted one series and goes somewhat under the radar of the era – Filthy, Rich and Catflap.

Filthy Rich & Catflap tells the story of Richie Rich (Mayall), a failed but nonetheless egomaniacal actor, along with his horrendously sleazy and immoral agent Eddie Catflap (Edmondson) and alcoholic minder Ralph Filthy (Nigel Planer) – although Eddie and Richie refer to him as Filthy Ralph; seemingly just because he runs discount brothels, people question his moral standing!

Richie is a failure in his career, although he sees himself as some kind of Shakespearean lothario, his vanity matching his ignorance of his lack of acting talent. He ‘chooses’ not to attach himself to a woman in a relationship, and in so doing ensures that, ‘I always know I’m going to wake up with the most attractive person in the world.’ It’s a combination of Mayall’s The Young Ones persona and Flashheart from two of the Blackadder incarnations.

However as much of a failure in both his career and his relationships Richie is, he is matched in his ineptitude by Eddie. Rik is gullible enough to believe everything his agent and alleged best friend says, despite Eddie having only ulterior motives in mind, normally ones to make himself a packet of money. Filthy Ralph is no better, although he does have the excuse of excessive alcohol to blame.

As with The Young Ones and Bottom, our protagonists are without finance as much as they are without talent or charm. Despite the adornment of Richie’s apartment with posters of the great and not so great of the acting profession, his success is so minimal that they have hardly a penny to rub together. Of course, this being the 1980s and with Ben Elton at the helm, it’s often referenced that Mrs Thatcher might well have had a hand in their fiscal failure.

The style of Filthy Rich & Catflap is a little more directed to the audience than its predecessor. The fourth wall is broken early on and is frequently discarded for both physical and verbal comedy. The physical side of things is more intense and a little more graphic than The Young Ones, an indicator of what might await Mayall and Edmondson in Bottom. For instance, the very first episode sees Richie kill the milkman, thinking he’s a journalist about to expose him for having a paternity suit thrown at him. He subsequently kills another with a knife to the forehead, and then kills two more, running them over at the milk depot as he tries to hide the first two bodies.

Subsequent episodes descend into similar chaos. A rare genuine role for Richie comes in the form of a game show that carries more than a passing resemblance to Blankety Blank. Titled Ooer, Sounds a Bit Rude and hosted by Ivor Whopper (Gareth Hale), with Bernie Winters having passed to do a bog roll commercial, Harry Enfield and Chris Barrie guest as they try and control the obnoxious Richie without success. When he’s caught in the dressing room of The Nolan Sisters trying on their dresses in the shower, they subsequently blackmail him.

The series doesn’t just break the fourth wall at times – it stomps on the dusty rubble it leaves. The Nolans’ attempts to sing are thwarted, despite them saying singing was ‘the only reason we agreed to appear in this load of old crap,’ and Richie is constantly referencing his attempts to keep the plotline of the episode running.

The Nolan Sisters and the fellow performers on Ooer, Sounds a Bit Rude weren’t the only guest star cameos. Maybe with the mid 1980s seeing that awkward time between new wave comedy take over from the masters of the craft, some were keen to embrace the changing winds. A host of celebrities were prepared to join the chaos – Barbara Windsor, Anne Diamond, Lynda Bellingham, John Wells, Jools Holland and Midge Ure were among a host of supporting roles, along with the up and coming new comics of Stephen Fry, Hugh Lawrie, Arthur Smith and David Baddiel.

Elton’s stock was rising significantly at the time Filthy Rich & Catflap was broadcast. With alternative comedy in its prime, and Elton at the forefront of the anti-Thatcher movement, it’s no surprise that jokes aimed in her direction are dotted liberally across the script, including Richie telling of ‘the world’s best gag – Thatcher’s 1979 election promise to cut unemployment.’ But even though his opinions are clear, Elton isn’t averse to a little self-mockery, causing Richie to announce at one point, ‘that’s enough left-wing soap box rhetoric for one week.’

The show was at one time purported to have earned a second series, but that second helping never surfaced. Though doubtlessly successful at the time, to a modern audience, Filthy Rich & Catflap sits a little awkwardly at times now. There isn’t the recognition of poverty-stricken students that The Young Ones carried, and the anti-Thatcher rhetoric is frequent enough to have made it less enjoyable for its slapstick than Bottom. That being said, with Rik Mayall having been taken far too soon, it’s a reminder of the boundless anarchic energy that he brought to the screen and makes for an exhaustingly comical three hours viewing.