'S Up

"'s Up"

Episode no.

Series One
Episode 005

Directed by

Ed Bye

Written by

Ade Edmondson & Rik Mayall

Produced by

Ed Bye

Original air date

15 October 1991

Guest stars

Evie Garratt
Mike Redfern
Roger Sloman
John Wells

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Apocalypse"

Next →
"Accident"

"'s Up" (short for Bottom's Up) is the fifth episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on Tuesday 15 October 1991.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Notes
4 Consistency Errors
5 Continuity and Production Errors
6 Cast
7 External links

Synopsis

Richie and Eddie mind their landlord's shop for him, but end up getting stuck on the rooftop after trying to watch cricket from there.

Plot

As the episode begins, Richie is trying to enjoy an English Sunday morning, while Eddie is trying to watch what he believes are pornographic videos. After Eddie has forced Richie to sit down to watch the film, the pair observe that the film is not particularly erotic and Richie suggests that the "Furry Honey-pot Adventure" is probably a kids film. Eddie's other purchases also turn out to be innocent - "Big Jugs" is a history of Victorian pottery and "Swedish Lesbians in Blackcurrant Jam" turns out to be "Swedish Legends in Blackcurrant Jam Making". At this point, the landlord Mr. Harrison bursts into the flat asking Richie and Eddie if they would mind his shop, so inconvenienced is he with his Mother's funeral.

In the shop, Richie demands to wear a white overcoat and make Eddie, his assistant, put his jacket on "back-to-front" so customers can see that Eddie is merely his assistant (there was no "assistant" nametag). Mr Harrison leaves and Richie engrosses himself in the role of shopkeeper, while Eddie empties all the packets of Hula Hoops that Richard repeatedly crushes with the counter flap. Richie insults a friend of Eddie's who wants to buy the newspaper Richie is reading and beats Richie's head against the counter when Richie argues with him; an old woman who hears Richie talking to himself and enquires if he is mad; and a doctor who refers to Richie as "assistant." Richie is in desperation with the state of the nation when Eddie suggests they go up to the roof and watch cricket. Eddie sets up a bell on the door so they know when people are entering the shop.

On the roof, the pair chat before Eddie hears the bell and goes downstairs to serve a customer. Richie realises that the roof flap cannot be opened from the outside and panics before Eddie opens the flap, hitting Richie in the face. When Eddie goes down to serve another customer Richie sets a trap Eddie comes back up and tricks him into falling for it. When going back down again, Richie sets a trap where the trap door will smash Eddie's head, but the plan backfires and the hatch shuts, trapping them on the roof. People start looting the shop and Eddie climbs down the drainpipe to stop them. Unfortunately, Richie has used the string that holds it to the roof in his trap. Eddie falls to the ground and stops the looting, then comes back to the roof. As soon as Eddie gets back up, the door slams shut and it begins to rain. The episode ends with Richie punching Eddie off the roof.

Notes

This episode sees the first appearance of Roger Sloman as "Mr. Harrison", the boys' landlord. Sloman had previously made appearances in The Young Ones and also made an appearance in the Mr Bean episodes "Mr Bean" and "Mr Bean rides again".
Michael Redfern, who played the role of John Cooper ("Mr 55p") the shop customer, had starred as a policeman in The Young Ones, and Filthy Rich & Catflap.
This was the first episode that clearly confirmed that episode titles were to be added to the show's name, like "Bottom Smells and "Bottom Accident", this episode being "Bottom's Up".
When Richie and Eddie are sitting up on the roof, a low flying jet is heard to fly over, leading to a section of dialogue referring to it. The dialogue is removed from the final edit of the episode for timing reasons (with Richie suddenly jumping on to his dreams of becoming a farmer), but is available to read in the first Bottom script book. Unlike many other removed scenes and chunks of dialogue, this removed section did not appear on the 'Fluff' bloopers VHS release, and has not been reinserted for the Region 2 DVD releases.
Despite the fact that the video "Big Jugs" is portrayed as a pottery video it is clear that along the spine of the cassette case there is an 18 Certificate logo.
Eddie reads from the Sunday Sport: "The whole cast of Brookside are lesbians", to which Richie replies "British journalism Eddie — best in the world". This occurred more than two years before Brookside would depict the infamous lesbian kiss scene between Beth Jordache and Margaret Clemence.

Consistency Errors

In "Contest" Richie claims the flat is owned by his auntie Mabel. In this episode it is owned by Mr Harrison.

Continuity and Production Errors

Richie and Eddie are on the shop roof as Richie is trying to make it rain. Before doing his "rain dance", he pulls up the legs of his trousers. After he pulls a muscle in his groin, the right trouser leg falls back down. In the next shot, it is pulled back up again.
Shown on the Bottom Fluff out-takes video, during the recording of this episode Mayall is seen holding a fish finger in front of Edmondson. However, Edmondson suggests that the fish finger should be turned around so it is in full view. They both sarcastically argue that the fish finger should remain in its original position due to continuity errors (Mayall was seen in the previous shot running with the fish finger in that position). A production assistant is then seen re-adjusting the fish finger to its first position, and Mayall quips "Who was right? It was me, wasn't it?"
Despite it being ascertained or suggested in other episodes that Eddie is a virgin (most notably the Series 3 episode "Terror") in this episode it is revealed that he 'shagged' Richie's only girlfriend to date, Ethel Cardew, on the Christmas Club Coach Trip to Bruge some years previously.

Cast

Cast	Characters
Rik Mayall	Richie
Ade Edmondson	Eddie
Roger Sloman	Mr. Harrison
Michael Redfern	John Cooper
John Wells	Doctor
Evie Garrett	Old Lady

External links

Bottom

Episodes

Series 1	"Smells" "Gas" "Contest" "Apocalypse" "'s Up" "Accident"

Series 2	"Digger" "Culture" "Burglary" "Parade" "Holy" "'s Out"

Series 3	"Hole" "Terror" "Break" "Dough" "Finger" "Carnival"

Live shows

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