To shamelessly pilfer from the Cliff Richard song which was adopted as the theme tune for 1980s groundbreaking sitcom The Young Ones, once in every lifetime, comes a comic genius like Rik Mayall. Utterly fearless and rammed full of bravado, Mayall catapulted himself (given his love for physical comedy which bordered on the quasi-violent you could imagine this being quite literal) into the forefront of that era’s alternative-comedy movement.

From playing the pompous ‘radical’ Rick in that anarchic student-flat sitcom to being sleazy self-serving Tory MP Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman plus scene-stealing cameos in Blackadder as Lord Flashheart and performing in Waiting For Godot with his key comedy partner Adrian Edmondson, Mayall developed a stirring and chaotic body of work that was sadly cut short ten years ago this month after suffering a heart attack at home. This hour-long documentary from writer Max Kinnings touches on all of that, but zeroes in on his collaboration with Mayall in 2004 to write the latter’s memoir, Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ.
The book’s publisher HarperCollins may have commissioned a fairly straight autobiography but what they got (and probably half-wished for) was an off-the-rails stream of mayhem and faux-megalomania which did everything it could to reveal as little of the real man as possible. Kinnings positions himself as the cap-doffing straight man but allows us to hear his off-the-cuff sparring with Mayall as they try to ‘jam’ their way to uncover comedic concepts that could form the backbone of this so-called memoir.

Most movingly, we hear from Mayall’s three children about the kindness, encouragement and love they were always shown by their dad while Ben Elton speaks of a partial disbelief that his comedy hero was also a friend and colleague. No doubt elements of Mayall’s work would probably be considered a little bit raw for some modern sensibilities but, to paraphrase the man himself, if you don’t like it, you’re a wanker. 
Rik Mayall: Panglobal Phenomenon is available on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds from Saturday 1 June; main picture: BBC.