"Oil" is the second episode of British

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

'' The Young Ones''. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. It was first aired on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 16 November 1982.

Plot

The guys settle into their new house after the destruction of their previous abode in the show's

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

and allocate the bedrooms. As Rick and Vyvyan argue over one bedroom, Mike discovers

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

in his, having survived the plane crash on

The Day the Music Died On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became ...

by parachuting out and smashing through the roof. He is still tangled in the parachute and hanging upside down from the ceiling, and he proceeds to sing Mike a song about the diet of insects on which he has subsisted since that day in 1959. Mike dreams of getting rich off the song, but his plan ends abruptly when Holly falls loose and hits the floor, breaking his neck. Dragging the body into the cellar, Mike discovers two elderly men lying on their backs under a bare light bulb and hallucinating that they are adrift at sea. Rick and Vyvyan give the room they have been arguing over to Neil after Vyvyan sets its bed on fire, and Mike briefly converts Rick's room into a roller disco and charges him admission to enter. After a solo match of

Murder in the Dark ''Murder in the Dark'' is a collection of short fiction by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1983. Some of the pieces were previously published. The 27 pieces range over a variety of styles, including fictionalized autobiography, par ...

, Vyvyan announces that he has struck oil in the cellar, and instantly forms a

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

with Mike (whom Vyvyan calls "El Presidente") to extract and sell it. They decide to use Rick and Neil as slave labor, with Vyvyan enforcing discipline by beating the two with a cricket bat as they lie on the floor. After Neil inadvertently impales Vyvyan through the head with a pickaxe while digging for the oil, Rick tries to start a workers'

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

and organizes a benefit concert in the house. The effort fails, though, as the band (fronted by Alexei Sayle in his Balowski persona) demands a large fee and Rick has not bothered to sell any tickets. During the end credits, a disoriented but conscious Vyvyan stumbles around the cellar, swinging a pickaxe at random. He ends by addressing the camera, saying that he lied about finding oil. The episode featured a performance of " Doctor Martens' Boots" by the fictional electronic band Radical Posture, with Sayle on lead vocals.

Characters

As with all episodes of ''The Young Ones'', the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (

Christopher Ryan Christopher Ryan (born Christopher Papazoglou; 25 January 1950) is a British actor best known for his roles as Mike TheCoolPerson in the BBC comedy series '' The Young Ones'', Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy series ''Bottom'', Tony Driscoll in t ...

); Vyvyan ( Adrian Edmondson); Rick ( Rik Mayall) and Neil (

Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End mu ...

). Alexei Sayle appeared as Alexei Balowski, a protest singer and

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an ...

of the students'

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...

Jerzei.

Home video edits

Early VHS and DVD releases feature edits to the original version of this episode. The opening scene featured

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

's "

Travellin' Light "Travellin' Light" is a UK No. 1 single recorded by Cliff Richard and The Shadows and released in 1959. It was the follow-up single to Richard's first No. 1, " Living Doll" and remained at No. 1 for five weeks (one less than "Living Doll"). "Tra ...

" as the main cast approaches their new home. When the song could not be cleared for commercial releases, the song was removed entirely. Due to the recording of the original dialogue no longer existing, the cast members returned to re-record their dialogue for early VHS and DVD releases. A similar edit occurs during the basement scene in which Vyvyan criticises Rick for not working hard enough, before head butting the ground to speed up the digging, leading to Neil accidentally putting the pick axe through Vyvyan's head. The scene began with an obscure

Roy C Roy Charles Hammond (August 3, 1939 – September 16, 2020), better known as Roy C or Roy "C", was an American southern soul singer, songwriter and record executive, best known for his 1965 hit, "Shotgun Wedding". Another song, " Impeach the Pres ...

song from 1973 called "I'm Bustin' My Rocks (Working on the Chain Gang)" playing on Rick's radio. Once again, the inability to clear the song for commercial releases led to the section of the scene where it can be heard to be trimmed to only show the pickaxe event and aftermath. Both scenes were restored to their original unedited versions on ''The Young Ones: Complete Series One & Two'' DVD set released in October 2007, released in the US as ''The Young Ones: Extra Stoopid Edition'' in November 2007.

References

External links

* {{The Young Ones The Young Ones episodes 1982 British television episodes Cultural depictions of Buddy Holly Television shows written by Ben Elton