The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo

Rik Mayall Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative ...

and

Ade Edmondson Adrian Charles Edmondson (born 24 January 1957) is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series '' The Young Ones'' (1 ...

, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir Adrian Dangerous". Originally appearing on stage in London at the comedy club 'The Comic Strip', the characters were well developed before appearing on TV. First appearing on television on a one-off 1980 BBC TV show 'Boom Boom Out Go The Lights', they were also featured in a TV short documentary film 'The Comic Strip', directed by Julien Temple, before they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the TV programme '' Saturday Live'' from 1985 and into its first series in 1986. The act was, in essence, a prototype of the career which the pair were to forge over the next twenty years in such shows as '' Mr Jolly Lives Next Door''; ''

Filthy, Rich and Catflap ''Filthy Rich & Catflap'' is a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast in 1987. The series featured former '' The Young Ones'' co-stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters. It was written by Ben Elton ( ...

''; and ''

Bottom Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or dominant * Bottom (sex), a term used by gay couples and BDSM * Buttocks or bottom, part of th ...

'' - two low-life loser perverts hitting each other in spectacular slapstick ways. It was arguably more hazardous than much of the material which was to follow in later incarnations - stage props in the brief run included a live

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

, blank-firing

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

s, and Edmondson apparently consuming Vim, a well-known UK brand of powder toilet cleaner. One of the early TV sketches 'World of Danger' went wrong when a stunt to set fire to Edmondson's trousers left him with serious burns - although much of this was left on the broadcast version. Sketch performed on 'BoomBoom Out Go The Lights' * Knock Knock Joke / Gooseberry in a Lift Sketch performed in 'The Comic Strip' * Knock Knock Joke / Gooseberry in a Lift (The Comic Strip version is a different performance with a slightly different conclusion, and features swearing) Sketches performed on Saturday Live * World Of Danger (AKA The Towering Inferno) * Big Stunt * Torture - featuring

Norman Lovett Norman Lovett (born 31 October 1946) is a British stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Holly, the ship's computer in ''Red Dwarf''. Career Lovett became a stand-up comedian in his thirties, initially supporting punk ba ...

* Crocodile Snogging (which featured a live crocodile) and featuring John Bird * Flying Zebra * Exploding Politicians * How To Get Off With A Lady - featuring Edmondson's wife

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of ...

* Babysitting - featuring

Morwenna Banks Tamsin Morwenna Banks (born 20 September 1961) is a British comedy actress, writer and producer. She appeared in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show '' Absolutely'', and wrote, produced, and appeared in the British ensemble film ''The Announcemen ...

as the wife and John Bird as the husband. * Dangervision - featuring

Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...

and

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

. * Kinky Sex One of the final sketches prepared for Saturday Live was entitled 'Kinky Sex'. This fell foul of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

censors Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

who banned it, the reason ended up getting the duo banned from Saturday Live for being "too sexy and too violent," despite that, the duo continues to have their last TV appearance on Saturday Live, the duo responded by apparently hijacking the programme and blowing up the wall on which the show's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

was painted in

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

art along appearing on a "flower arranging dance" sketch with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. The sketch, which by modern standards seems fairly tame, was finally released on a compilation video ''The Dangerous Brothers present: World of Danger''. Several Dangerous Brothers sketches are also included on the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

compilation ''Saturday Live: The Best of Series One'' (2007).

Dangervision: The DVD

A DVD of all of the sketches featured in the show was released in 2009. However, the Kinky Sex episode is taken from a home video source as the original could not be found. Some of the sketches appear to be edited longer and slightly shorter than others. Music edits have also been made, of which some are obvious if you have seen the video. The laughing in the unseen audience is also different, where the video used the real studio audience laughter and also canned laughter. The DVD just uses the original studio audience. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dangerous Brothers, The English comedy duos