Adrian Edmondson

Adrian Edmondson

Birth : 1957-01-24, Bradford, Yorkshire, England

History

Adrian Edmondson was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. He went to Manchester University to study drama. Whilst he was there he met Rik Mayall, and the pair began performing as 20th Century Coyote. The act continued after university when Adrian & Rik moved to London, and they became two of the leading lights in the new 'alternative comedy' scene, performing at the newly established Comedy Store, and setting up their own club, The Comic Strip, with 'Peter Richardson', Nigel Planer, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and Alexei Sayle. This spawned two 1980s TV series: The Young Ones (1982), and The Comic Strip Presents... (1982) In the 1990's Ade & Rik continued their partnership with a new series called Bottom (1991), which ran for three seasons and became a major success on the live circuit. It was basically a live sitcom, liberally sprinkled with slapstick humour, and the pair did 5 long tours between 1993 and 2003. Simultaneously, Adrian established himself as an actor, doing two improvised TV films under the Screen One and Screen Two umbrella, with director Les Blair: Screen Two: Honest, Decent and True (1986), and Screen One: News Hounds (1990) (winner of the BAFTA for best single drama). He was a regular in the hospital drama Holby City (1999) from 2005 - 2008. He took the lead in a drama documentary about the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in the series Surviving Disaster (2006), and appeared as Henry Austen in the TV movie Miss Austen Regrets (2008), the film Blood (2012), and the drama series Prey (2014). But his most notable dramatic role to date is that of Count Rostov in the BBC series War & Peace (2016).

Profile

Adrian Edmondson

Movies

Drip Doge: The Movie
Kernel Sanders
The Trick
Edward Acton
The Trick tells the story of world-renowned Professor Philip Jones; Director of Climate Research at the University of East Anglia, who back in 2009 found himself at the eye of an international media storm and the victim of cyberterrorism. With time running out against an unseen enemy, The Trick looks at the potentially devastating consequences to humanity from climate change denial; how a media storm undermined public confidence in the science and how the concept of ‘truth’ took a back seat causing us to lose a decade of action.
Letters Live from the Archive: Union Chapel
Self
Since 2017, Letters Live has produced 11 shows at the Union Chapel, with no two shows being the same.
King Rocker
(archive footage)
How does a working class autodidact, with no visible means of support, maintain his role as the leader of a cult British underground band into its fifth decade? Comedian and writer Stewart Lee, director Michael Cumming and James Nicholls investigate the mysterious existence of Robert Lloyd, Britain’s ultimate post-punk survivor. Robert Lloyd’s Prefects played with The Clash on the White Riot tour in 1977, and their ongoing incarnation, as Birmingham’s Captain Beefheart suffused post-punk poets The Nightingales, recorded more John Peel sessions than any other band. Ever. But what were the social, cultural and economic circumstances that enabled and sustained such outsider artists in the punk and post-punk eras, and how has the world changed to the point where such figures are unlikely to flourish in the same way today? Lloyd’s own odyssey echoes how abstract notions of social mobility, of the value of culture and music, have changed in the last five decades.
Completely Bad News
Music
A double offering of heavy metal madness from The Comic Strip and Bad News.
Completely Bad News
Writer
A double offering of heavy metal madness from The Comic Strip and Bad News.
Completely Bad News
Vim Fuego
A double offering of heavy metal madness from The Comic Strip and Bad News.
The Rizen: Possession
The Interviewer
A group of young urban explorers and a private military unit could become the final pieces in a 60-year plan to reopen a door that should have stayed closed. But what they unleashed could almost tear our world apart.
How The Young Ones Changed Comedy
This documentary explores the legacy of one of the most notorious British sitcoms of all time. Launching alternative comedy onto our screens, the show made household names of its performers and writers and proved to be a huge influence, despite the BBC reportedly being baffled by what they'd commissioned back in 1982. Never before had a flagship comedy show contained so much violence, depravity and anarchy - it was a shot across the bow to mainstream comedians that things would never be the same again.
RSC Live: Twelfth Night
Malvolio
Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love – hilarious and heartbreaking. Two twins are separated in a shipwreck, and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolised by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister... Christopher Luscombe, Director of the ‘glorious’ (Daily Telegraph) Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (2014 and 2016), returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, a brilliantly bittersweet account of "the whirligig of time".
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Captain Peavey
Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.
Interlude In Prague
Herr Luptak
The incredible tale of Mozart's Prague years.
The Rizen
Interviewer
The year is 1955. NATO and the Allied Forces have been conducting secret, occult experiments in a bid to win the Arms Race. Now, they have finally succeeded but what the Army has unleashed threatens to tear our world apart. One woman must lead the only survivors past horrors that the military has no way to control - and fight to close what should never have been opened.
Rocky Horror Show Live
Narrator
The Rocky Horror Show was born at the Royal Court's tiny Theatre Upstairs on June 16, 1973, and went on to become an international stage smash hit and a major motion picture.
Blood
Tom Tiernan
Thriller charting the moral collapse of a police family. Two cop brothers, smothered by the shadow of their former police chief father, must investigate a crime they themselves have committed.
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
Baron von Richthoven/Self
A countdown of the top 40 "Blackadder" moments chosen by cast and crew members, celebrity fans and 15 genuine Blackadders.
Rocky Horror Tribute Show
Brad
Recorded at London's Royal Court Theatre in front of an audience of faithful fans, various cast members from different productions of the Rocky Horror Show come together in a one off concert extravaganza paying tribute to the phenomenon.
Miss Austen Regrets
Henry Austen
An outwardly confident but unmarried woman on the verge of her fortieth birthday reflects on her past suitors and the choices she once made while attempting to help her marriage minded niece choose between a number of potential suitors in this tale inspired by the life and letters of Jane Austen. Jane Austen is about to turn forty, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the aging spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with. Perhaps if Jane had accepted the proposal of a wealthy landowner she could have saved her family from financial ruin, and what of the handsome young physician who once warmed to Jane after tending to her ailing family members?
If It Ain't Stiff: The Stiff Records Story
Himself - Narrator
Adrian Edmondson narrates a documentary chronicling the story of Stiff Records, a tiny independent that took music out of the boardroom and gave it back to the fans. Stiff's successes included Nick Lowe, the Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness, Tracey Ullman and the Pogues. Contributors include Captain Sensible, Jonathan Ross, Suggs, Shane MacGowan and label founders Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson.
Bottom Mindless Violence
Eddie
The only word to describe the amazing duo of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edminson is genius. For the past 25 years they have provided us with some unforgettable programs that left us on the floor such as The Young Ones, The Dangerous Brothers and of course, Bottom. The DVD contains the very best and violent bits from the live shows and TV programmes that have starred the two slapstick legends in the past 25 years. With the help of the great comedy writers such as Ben Elton, they have produced many great moments, such as the sprouts of doom and the towering inferno impression that went horrifically wrong. Here they are, all of the great moments on 1 disc. Here is what you can expect from the greatest compilation of slapstick moments of all time!!!
Bottom Live 2003: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour
Edward Hitler
Eddie has locked himself away in the toilet and Richie finds he's been inventing gadgets and only to find himself joining Eddie on a adventure through time and space on-board Eddie's time machine "The Turdis" which is a toilet cubicle.
Bottom Live 2001 An Arse Oddity
Eddie
Richie and Eddie escapes from the island and try to get to the bar to have a drink, only to find themselves trapped in a underground chamber and Richie thinks they've been abducted by aliens.
Bottom Live 2001 An Arse Oddity
Writer
Richie and Eddie escapes from the island and try to get to the bar to have a drink, only to find themselves trapped in a underground chamber and Richie thinks they've been abducted by aliens.
Mirrorball
Director
The main cast from "Absolutely Fabulous" appear as aspiring, out-of-work actresses.
Guest House Paradiso
Writer
Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK, Guest House Paradiso, neighbouring a nuclear power plant. The illegal immigrant chef has fled and all the guests have gone. But when a famous Italian filmstar, Gina Carbonara, who is in hiding from a fiance she doesn't want to marry, arrives at the hotel, things get very interesting!
Guest House Paradiso
Director
Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK, Guest House Paradiso, neighbouring a nuclear power plant. The illegal immigrant chef has fled and all the guests have gone. But when a famous Italian filmstar, Gina Carbonara, who is in hiding from a fiance she doesn't want to marry, arrives at the hotel, things get very interesting!
Guest House Paradiso
Eddie
Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK, Guest House Paradiso, neighbouring a nuclear power plant. The illegal immigrant chef has fled and all the guests have gone. But when a famous Italian filmstar, Gina Carbonara, who is in hiding from a fiance she doesn't want to marry, arrives at the hotel, things get very interesting!
Big Bottom Live - The Best of Bottom Live
Part compilation/ part mockumentary on the first three Bottom live shows. Various characters around Hammersmith are interviewed on their relationships with Richard Richard and Edward Elizabeth Hitler, interspersed with footage from the live shows.
The Making of 'Guest House Paradiso'
Himself
Go behind the scenes with the late, great Rik Mayall (Richie) and Ade Edmondson (Eddie) as they take us on a tour behind the scenes of Guest House Paradiso, the long-awaited movie based on the hit 90's BBC comedy 'Bottom'.
Jack and the Beanstalk: The ITV Pantomime
Dame Dolly
A televised pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk featuring various celebrities.
Bottom Live 3: Hooligan's Island
Eddie Hitler
Filmed during their sell-out 1997 tour, Bottom Live 3: Hooligan's Island features Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson at their comedic finest. This time around Richie Richard (Mayall) and Eddie Hitler (Edmondson) are marooned on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific.
Bottom Fluff
Bottom Fluff is a collection of bloopers from all 3 series of bottom.
Bottom Live The Big Number 2 Tour
Eddie
Queen Elizabeth is attending a parade in Hammersmith and Richie and Eddie plans on inviting the Queen to join them for supper. But their plan goes wrong.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
Zyke
In the eighteenth film in the series, in late 1918, the Great War may have ended, but a new adventure begins for Indy when a mysterious man's dying words send him and Remy on a thrilling treasure hunt for one of Alexander the Great's most treasured possessions. Pursued by a dangerous one-eyed man, Indy follows the trail of the diamond from London to Alexandria to the South Seas where he has a run-ins with murderous Chinese pirates, is captured by savage headhunters, and meets anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski.
Bottom Live The Stage Show
Eddie
Richie buys an inflatable doll named Monica as his lover, and he tries to conceal it from Eddie. But it all goes terribly wrong when Richie accidentally super glues Monica to his groin, mistaking Eddie's super glue for Handcream.
The Pope Must Die
Father Rookie
A less-than-qualified and far-from-perfect priest is mistakenly named the new pope. As the pontiff, he must deal with Vatican corruption, the Mob and the reappearance of his old lover.
News Hounds
Phil Burke
Every cub reporter wants a front page 'splash' and the journalists from The Brit, a top-selling daily tabloid, are no exception. They're on the trail of a sensational story and their jobs depend on it.
Les Dogs
Best Man
Les Dogs are the band playing in a large marquee to celebrate the wedding of Geoffrey and Angela. During the reception, the fathers of the groom and bride exchange insults and a gun battle ensues in which many guests - and Les Dogs - are casualties though the happy couple escape. Victor, who has wandered in on the scene, is asked to take wedding photographs and has a series of dreamlike fantasies all based around his infatuation with Angela.
French & Saunders LIVE
Director
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders perform a live comedy show in London's West End at the world famous Shaftesbury Theatre, in front of a hugely appreciative sell-out audience. Over an hour of hilarious sketches and gags, with support provided by Raw Sex (Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron as Ken and Duane Bishop).
GLC: The Carnage Continues
Billy/Prince Charles/Giles Cricket Bat Portland
The Greater London Council fight to save the capital against the wicked Ice Maiden.
The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball
Himself
After the criticisms of the 1987 show’s disproportionate focus on music - and the financial disaster of its music-only Festival Of Youth weekend concert in 1988, Amnesty returned to the original formula that had been so successful in the 1976-1981 era with a primary focus on comedy. Pat Duffy was dropped from organising any further benefit events for Amnesty and for the 1989 show, Amnesty hired producer Judith Holder.
An Audience With Victoria Wood
Himself
British comedy legend Victoria Wood entertains a star-studded audience including Julie Walters, Judi Dench and Dawn French in this 1988 special. Watch her crack jokes, play the piano and answer light-hearted questions.
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door
Writer
A couple of bored escorts find themselves suddenly involved with a hit-gang and an ax-murderer - Mr. Jolly. Gratuitous violence, rivers of blood and maximum hilarity, all rolled into one.
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door
A couple of bored escorts find themselves suddenly involved with a hit-gang and an ax-murderer - Mr. Jolly. Gratuitous violence, rivers of blood and maximum hilarity, all rolled into one.
More Bad News
Writer
Four years after they were last the subject of a documentary, Bad News get back together again for another film of their exploits, beginning with a reunion gig at the Flying Horse.
More Bad News
Director
Four years after they were last the subject of a documentary, Bad News get back together again for another film of their exploits, beginning with a reunion gig at the Flying Horse.
More Bad News
Vim Fuego
Four years after they were last the subject of a documentary, Bad News get back together again for another film of their exploits, beginning with a reunion gig at the Flying Horse.
The Strike
Adrian/Slim/Policeman
Paul, a former miner, writes a hard-hitting screenplay about his own experiences of the 1984 miners' strike. However, the Hollywood production company that gets hold of his script turns it into a ludicrously sensationalist and anachronistic action film, starring Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill, and Meryl Streep as his wife.
Eat the Rich
Charles
Alex is a disgruntled waiter at a snobby exclusive restaurant who falls on hard times. Forced to deal with the contempt and disgust of the upper class, Alex & cohorts attempt to go on a rampage. Meanwhile, General Karprov and Spider plot to involve the inept anarchists into their plans to derail the prime-minister-to-be's campaign.
The Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Rude Video Live
In April 1986, inspired by the previous summer's bombastic Live Aid event and the success of Amnesty's first four Secret Policeman's Ball shows, the UK's alternative comedy scene (and a few of the old guard) put on a fund-raising comedy revue at The Shaftesbury Theatre, London. The show's took place on 4-6 April, a recording was broadcast by the BBC on 25 April.
Honest Decent & True
Alun Pickersgill
Trendy employees of a small London ad agency try to market beer for an old-fashioned client.
Dangerous Brothers Present: World of Danger
Sir Adrian Dangerous
The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir (or occasionally Lady) Adrian Dangerous". Although originating before the show, they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the 1980s TV programme Saturday Live. Eventually being banned for being "too sexy and too violent", they staged a protest by returning as 'The Ben Elton Brothers', and blowing up the car park at LWT Studios. One of the final sketches prepared for Saturday Live was entitled 'Kinky Sex'. This fell foul of Channel 4 censors who banned it. The duo responded in the sketch Dangervision by apparently hijacking the programme and blowing up the wall on which the show's logo was painted in graffiti art. The banned sketch, which by modern standards seems fairly tame, was finally released on a compilation video The Dangerous Brothers present: World of Danger.
The Supergrass
Dennis Carter
While taking a holiday in the country with his mother, Dennis hits on a scheme to impress a girl so that she'll go away on a trip with him as his girlfriend. Although he fails to gain any interest from the girl, the police take a great interest in his story. From this point on, Dennis digs a deeper hole for himself at every turn
A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques
Billy
Two students calling themselves Carlos and Miguel arrive in Spain dressed as gunslingers to live out their dream of being in a spaghetti Western. At a cafe in a remote town they meet two Australian girls who have picked up a scruffy hitch-hiker and a would-be rapist dressed as a matador.
Bad News Tour
Writer
A documentary crew films heavy metal band Bad News as they have trouble starting their van, pick up a schoolgirl groupie, and meet up with rock journalist Sally at a motorway service station where they argue about the cost of sausage and chips.
Bad News Tour
Music
A documentary crew films heavy metal band Bad News as they have trouble starting their van, pick up a schoolgirl groupie, and meet up with rock journalist Sally at a motorway service station where they argue about the cost of sausage and chips.
Bad News Tour
Vim Fuego/Alan Metcalfe
A documentary crew films heavy metal band Bad News as they have trouble starting their van, pick up a schoolgirl groupie, and meet up with rock journalist Sally at a motorway service station where they argue about the cost of sausage and chips.
Dead on Time
Fool
Bernard Fripp is told by his doctor that he has only 30 minutes left to live. This sets Bernard bumbling off on a mission to live his final minutes to the fullest.
Kevin Turvey: The Man Behind the Green Door
Keith Marshall
A week in the life of Redditch investigative reporter Kevin Turvey. As you would expect, not a lot happens!
The Comic Strip
Writer
A tongue-in-cheek "behind the scenes" look at the Comic Strip comedy club in the early 1980s, which gave rise to 'The Comic Strip Presents'
The Comic Strip
A tongue-in-cheek "behind the scenes" look at the Comic Strip comedy club in the early 1980s, which gave rise to 'The Comic Strip Presents'