Contest (Bottom episode)

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003 - Contest
Script	Ade Edmondson & Rik Mayall
Director	Ed Bye
Producer	Ed Bye
Original transmission	September 30, 1991
Series	One
Length	30 minutes
Preceded by	Gas
Followed by	Apocalypse

Contest is the third episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on Monday September 30, 1991 .

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Notes
4 Cast

[edit] Synopsis

With Eddie having spent most of their remaining £11.80 on a fish supper and a porn magazine, he and Richie spend a night in front of the televison.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with Richie placing his head in the oven in a suicide attempt. He has left a suicide note on the table for Eddie to read. It is revealed that this is in fact an elaborate plot to guilt Eddie into buying him a drink in the pub. Eddie enters the room, places his suitcase on top of the note and proceeds to read the newspaper. When he notices Richie with his head in the oven, he is disinterested, and Richie relents.

It emerges that while Eddie has been out all day trying to claim his dole money, Richie has spent all day making an inexpensive dinner for the pair (everything has been grown, found or forraged), which, it emerges, is inedible. Eddie refuses to eat the dinner and reveals he has been denied his dole as he has too many savings - £11.80, which ought to last him two months - the majority of which he has "invested" in a second hand copy of a "jazz" magazine. Eddie sits down to watch "Miss World", but Richie refuses to let him. The two have an argument and, in anger, Richie throws Eddie out of the flat. He then settles down to masturbate while watching "Miss World". Eddie, who has been preparing to apologise to Richie (claiming "it's either that or Nasty Linda" *shudder*) catches Richie in the act and agrees to keep it a secret if he is allowed to return and watch "Miss World".

When Richie questions how Eddie has spent so much on a porn magazine, he reveals he has also placed a bet on Miss World. Richie is annoyed when he finds out Eddie has placed the money on the hideous Chinese contestant, as he felt the odds were so good.

The pair must then deal with changing a fuse when Richie breaks the televison. In the ensuing chaos, Richie is electrocuted, burns his hand on the kettle several times (exclaiming "I didn't think the kettle would be hot!") and falls out of the window. When Eddie fixes the lights, he notices Richie is gone. Only now does he find the suicide note and assumes Richie has killed himself. After briefly mourning his friend, he begins planning to sell all of his possesions.

Richie returns and the two discuss their state in the world. Eddie states his philosophy on life - "you're born, you try to keep your head down and you die. If you're lucky". Their contestant loses "Miss World", and Richie is further depressed. Eddie reveals that he never placed the bet in the first place, he only claims to have done so so Richie would let him watch "Miss World". Eddie had instead spent the money on a "slap-up grill" as he saw Richie preparing "dinner" when he left that morning. Richie punches Eddie in the face and the episode ends.

[edit] Notes

There is good reason to believe that this episode - though third in the series run - was originally the series pilot. Mayall's hair is different, Edmondson actually has some hair rather than being bald, the set differs from the rest of the series run, and the reasoning behind the series title is revealed when Richie bemoans his life saying "I've really reached my bottom". The episode is also closer in theme to the original premise of the series, which was a modern-day Waiting for Godot about boredom, in a world where nothing happens.
When the electricity in the flat goes out, Eddie opens the fridge while looking for the fuse wire. The fridge light is clearly on.
It is revealed that the flat belongs to Richie's auntie Mable and that Eddie is Richie's sub-tenant, though he has never paid rent. However, from "'s Up" onwards, the pair have a recurring landlord character, Mr. Harrison.
This is the first episode which features no one other than the two lead characters. This device would be used again in "Culture" (again in the flat, although this doesn't take place entirely in real time) and on top of a ferris wheel in "Hole". This means that there is a rather claustrophobic episode once per series.