The Comic Strip is the name given to one of the first “alternative” comedy clubs in the eighties, a group of actor-writer-comedians who emerged from that club, and the comedy films that they made first for Channel 4 and later for BBC2.

The Comic Strip presents is indelibly linked with Channel 4, despite their late defection to the BBC (and cinema movies). Firstly because BBC2 had The Young Ones with much of the same cast, and most famously because their first film “Five Go Mad In Dorset” was shown on Channel 4’s opening night. In fact, Comic Strip leading light Peter Richardson was initially in the frame to play Mike in The Young Ones, but legend has it, he called Paul Jackson a cunt and so was replaced.

The project was astonishingly ambitious. No format. No regular characters. A new, half-hour movie (later longer) each week, in a new genre, with a new cast (although there was a core group), most of whom also wrote, and some of whom directed, especially later on. What follows is an episode guide, in the Halliwell style, with cast lists, key credits, a brief synopsis and a critical appraisal. There is also some debate about what is and is not a Comic Strip film. A box set released a few years ago fails to be definitive, so I’ve aimed to be comprehensive.

Core performers were Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane, Keith Allen and Daniel Peacock. Alexei Sayle initially refused to participate feeling that this would be disloyal to The Young Ones, but he has a cameo in the movie The Supergrass and appears fairly regularly from The Strike onwards. Behind the camera, Peter Richardson almost always writes with Pete Richens.

Wildly unpredictable, the best Comic Strip films are some of the best that British comedy has ever offered. The worst are ghastly, self-indulgent rubbish. This guide lovingly charts all of those (often sickeningly vertiginous) ups-and-downs.

SERIES 1

Original title sequence with map and flashing “you are here” sign. Established TV comedy directors behind the camera. FGMID was the pilot and another five episodes were commissioned by Channel 4 when it was clear that The Young Ones was going to be a hit. Of these, one (“An Evening With Eddie Monsoon”) was pulled by Channel 4 and later resurfaced in the second series as “Eddie Monsoon – A Life”.

1.1 Five Go Mad in Dorset. 2 Nov 1982, C4 Tue 10.15pm (30 mins)
Written by Richardson and Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers.
Featuring Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Peacock, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Ronald Allen, Nosher Powell, Ron Tarr
The famous five have a wizard time, getting foreigners, Jews and queers arrested, overhearing secret plans and consuming lashings of ginger beer.
The first and just possibly the best. The comic idea is instantly understandable, the performances are first rate, there’s just enough plot to sustain the length and the laughs keep coming. Edmondson’s feeble pleas for holiday without adventure magically combine pathos with absurdity and the punchline is superb.

1.2 War 3 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
Written by Richardson and Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Mayall, Peacock, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
In 1985, a young couple try to escape war-torn England.
Sporadically amusing piece which swaps narrative drive for a series of sketches, some great (the tunnel), some not so great (the Mexican cowboys). All the cast play multiple roles (except Peacock and French in the leads) and the rapid pace at least ensures that none of the sketches outstays its welcome. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense and exposes one of Richardson and Richens’ key flaw as writers: trusting that the absurdity (often obscurity) of the central idea will carry the story through. Here it does – just about.

1.3 The Beat Generation 17 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
Written by Peter Richardson & Pete Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Allen, Edmondson, French, Mayall, Peacock, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
In 1960s England, a young man desperate to impress allows – in fact encourages – a motley gang of poets and would-be anarchists to wreck his parents’ house in the name of “freedom”.
Very typical entry with excellent character sketches from all the regulars. Keeps the pace of “War” but by returning to the same characters instead of bouncing off to new ones, it creates a stronger illusion of coherence. The illusion is ultimately shattered, when it ends having found nowhere to go. Terrific sense of atmosphere and style, however, helped by impressive black and white photography and good use of music.

1.4 Bad News Tour 24 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
Written by Adrian Edmondson. Directed by Sandy Johnson
Featuring Edmondson, French, Mayall, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
A clueless fifth rate heavy metal band go on tour.
Hysterical entry, predating “Spinal Tap”, which sometimes breaks the reality for the sake of a good joke (Planer’s insistence on retakes) but when the jokes are this good, it barely matters.

1.5 Summer School 31 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
Written by Dawn French. Directed by Sandy Johnson
Featuring Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Mayall, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
Plus Lois Baxter, Gerard Ryder, Rupert Frazer, Martin Potter, Elaine Ashley
Summer school students learn to fend for themselves in a recreation of an iron age village.
First two thirds operate on a sit-com level, then it takes a more typical darker turn and the ending takes the typical subdued, unresolved route. It suffers from a dearth of good jokes (although Coltrane is good value, as ever) but does at least have the virtue of making sense all the way through.

SERIES 2

2.1. Five Go Mad On Mescalin 2 Nov 1983, C4 Wed 10pm (40 mins)
Written by Peter Richardson & Pete Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Peacock, Richardson, Saunders
Plus Ronald Allen, Harry Towb, Kerry Shale
The Famous Five have further adventures.
Unsubtle retread of the seminal first film with many of the same jokes. The difference in approach is admirably summed up by the two titles. The first plays it straight, trusting the audience to appreciate the irony. The second makes a crassly obvious joke which we could have done without. Another niggle is the shift in characterisation between the two episodes (no more latent homosexuality from Edmondson, instead he’s seduced by a woman). There are, nonetheless, pleasures along the way, notably Kerry Shale’s turn as a revolting American brat.

2.2. Dirty Movie 7 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.25pm (40 mins)
Written by Adrian Edmondson & Rik Mayall. Directed by Sandy Johnson
Featuring Coltrane, Edmonson, French, Mayall, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
A cinema owner plots to watch a dirty movie in his own cinema, and must avoid the attentions of his wife, the postman, and a pair of inept policemen.
Prototypical “Bottom” adventures with some excellent slapstick, a typically libidinous Mayall and a real feeling for pace which other Comic Strip films sometimes lack. Edmondson’s first encounter with the man without the letterbox approaches Laurel and Hardy for agonisingly creeping chaos.

2.3. Susie 14 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (40 mins)
Written by Peter Richardson & Pete Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Alan Pellay
A lascivious schoolteacher screws her way through the Comic Strip men.
Rather dull entry which suffers from a need to give everyone a bit to do. The result is that I scarcely care who lives and who dies. It could be spoofing something, but I’ve no idea what.

2.4. Fistful Of Travellers Cheques 21 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (45 mins)
Written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens & Rik Mayall. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Allen, Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Mayall, Peacock, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Christopher Malcolm
A pair of British tourists with dreams of spaghetti westerns act out their fantasies while on holiday in Mexico.
A central joke that is both immediately grasped and which sustains, aided by great performances. Not only that, but the ending is fantastic!

2.5 Gino – Full Story And Pics 28 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (40 mins)
Written by Peter Richardson & Pete Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers
Featuring Allen, Coltrane, Edmondson, French, Mayall, Peacock, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Arnold Brown, Alan Pellay.
A petty criminal on the run from the police finds that his flight, accompanied by a young typist, gets him deeper and deeper into trouble as he becomes a media cause celebre.
Thoroughly entertaining romp which neatly solves the problem of giving each of the resident cast a bit to do by having the two central characters encounter each in turn. Thoroughly entertaining and blessedly coherent.

2.6. Eddie Monsoon – A Life? 4 Feb 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (35 mins)
Written by Adrian Edmondson. Directed by Sandy Johnson
Featuring Edmondson, French, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Tony Bilbow
Alcoholic, drug-addled TV presenter Monsoon stumbles through an interview with a TV reporter while in a rehab clinic which takes “kill or cure” painfully literally.
Salvaged from a group-written script proposed for Series One, this is another triumph, with some marvellous gags (French’s bone-snapping nurse) and (rather atypically!) a wonderful performance from Richardson as Monsoon’s agent in permanent denial.

2.7. Slags 11 Feb 1984, C4 Sat 10.35pm (40 mins)
Written by Jennifer Saunders. Directed by Sandy Johnson
Featuring Edmondson, French, Planer, Richardson, Saunders
Plus: Mark Arden, Lee Cornes, Steve Frost, Anthony Head, Emma Thompson
In a futuristic wasteland, gang leaders Passion and Little Sister, recently released from prison, try to reclaim their turf.
Boring, incomprehensible nonsense which I skipped over after the first five minutes. If I can bear it, I’ll watch it to the end and see if it gets any better.

Part two will follow shortly…