Have we got a video?

Being a younger sibling, there's no doubt I was influenced by my older brothers. They were quite a bit older than me and they introduced me to a lot of music and movies I still love today. There was The Beatles, The Doors, Big Wednesday and, of course, The Young Ones.

I still vividly remember my eldest brother talking about this crazy show he'd seen the night before with a hippy and a punk and how hilarious it was. Before long The Young Ones was a permanent fixture on our TV. VHS tapes scrawled with words like 'Sick', 'Bambi, Money, Nasty, Oil, Flood could be found scattered around. These tapes were played over and over again. Catch phrases such as "Have we got a video?" and "You utter, utter bastard" were bandied about the house. I was definitely far too young for it, but I loved it all the same.

Besides being completely hilarious, there was fab music and one of my all-time favourite bands Madness were regulars.

Years later, when those taped VHS tapes had disintegrated I got the whole series again on a brand-new shiny tape. Loving it more at 18 than I did at 8.

Another 20 years on, little quotes or scenes from The Young Ones still pop up in brain, completely ingrained in my mind. I loved Bottom and The Comic Strip (especially The Famous Five Go Mad on Mescaline) but there's something special about The Young Ones.

When a story about the death of Rik Mayall popped up on my computer last night, I felt that little moment of shock, "What a shame" I thought. Then I realised how much he'd been on my screen through my life.

Here are some of the best Rik moments: