Culture (Bottom episode)

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Bottom episode
“Culture”
Episode no. Series Two
Episode 002
Writer(s) Ade Edmondson & Rik Mayall
Producer Ed Bye
Director Ed Bye
Original broadcast October 8, 1992
Episode chronology
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“Digger” “Burglary”

Culture is the second episode of the second series of British TV sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on the 8th October, 1992.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Richie and Eddie desperately need to entertain themselves after their television is taken back to Rumbelows.

[edit] Plot

This episode begins with the pair doing a crossword. They get really bored so Richie suggests playing "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". However, since there is nothing in the flat to play with, they end up playing "Stick the Sellotape to the Fridge". After this they have a "see how much custard you can fill in your underpants" competition.

They argue about whose fault it is that the television has been repossessed. Richie said that Eddie went to Rumbelows with the money to pay the rent, but instead gave the money to a wizened old man in return for some magic beans. Eddie responds that Richie was going to the rental shop every month but instead going five doors down to Dr. O'Grady's personal organ enhancement clinic.

They then try to play chess with Richie's antique chess set that his Great Aunt Dorothy left him. Richie puts on a smoking jacket, which is actually his Mac, turned inside out. Richie tells Eddie that the chess set is the one that Wellington played with on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. We then see that Eddie has been stealing the valuable chess pieces and selling them. Because there's only a few pieces left, they have to play chess with different objects as the missing pieces such as frozen prawns (in place of pawns), a potted cactus, a tomato ketchup bottle, a large Spider-Man figurine and a toy skeleton. They also create cocktails using Pernod, Ouzo, marmalade and salt as ingredients, naming their creation the Esther Rantzen, as it "Pulls your gums over your teeth". Just as they are about to start playing, Richie tells Eddie he doesn't know the rules of chess

We then cut to a few hours later; it is now 5 o'clock in the morning and Eddie has been up since 10 o'clock last night telling Richie the rules of chess 124 times. They have been through the Ouzo, the Pernod, the Old Spice and all three litres of the Industrial Strength Floor cleaner. After a very short game of chess, in which both Richie & Eddie cheat, Eddie eventually wins; Richie retaliates and they start inflicting pain on each other. The episode ends with Richie getting the television from behind the fridge, saying that it hadn't been taken; he had hidden it to see what a night without television would be like. Eddie then smashes the set over Richie's head.

[edit] Notes

  • This is the second episode which only has the leading characters in.
  • The objects used as chess pieces are a ketchup bottle shaped like a tomato for a black knight, a vinegar bottle for a white rook, brown sauce for the black king & tobasco sauce for the other black knight, a carved animal figurine for a white knight, a model skeleton for a black rook, a Spider-Man figurine for the other black rook, 16 four-year old prawns as pawns obviously, a cactus with a paper crown to represent the black queen, a counter representing Mrs Peacock from Cluedo for a black bishop, a pork pie for a white bishop and a sausage for the other black bishop.

[edit] Consistency Errors

  • In Apocalypse , Richie claimed to know the rules to chess. However, in this episode Eddie is attempting to teach Richie as Richie doesn't seem to know, although this can probably be explained by the fact that Richie was trying to trick the Grim Reaper (who was really Eddie in disguise) into letting him live.

[edit] Continuity and Production Errors

  • Richie and Eddie are playing chess. In one scene, Eddie flips the table with the chess board and drinks on it, so it lands on Richie's toes. As it lands, the camera angle changes and the props on the table disappear.

[edit] Cast

Cast Characters
Rik Mayall Richie
Ade Edmondson Eddie