'S Up

" '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.

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" Eddie was disappointed that he spend an hour choosing some wrong videos and ruin his Sunday entertainment. 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 "stupid Mother's bloody funeral!".

In the shop, Richie demands to wear a white overcoat and make Eddie, his assistant by wearing a brown coat but Mr. Harrison was in a hurry, Richie tells Eddie to 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 goes on bizarre nationalist rants, repeatedly insisting that British things are 'best in the world', and is extremely rude to every customer who enters the shop; he insults a friend of Eddie's who came to complain that his newspaper wasn't delivered. The customer wants to take the newspaper Richie is reading and beats Richie's head against the counter when Richie argues with him (Richie timidly calls "thug", to which Eddie responds "British thugs, best in the world"); an old woman who hears Richie talking to himself and inquires 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 Richie refuses to watch the cricket when he has responsibility but then change his mind when the same little old woman came back with her big tattooed son to beat up Richie for threatening her.

On the roof, the pair chat and watch the cricket game before Eddie hears the bell and goes downstairs to serve a customer. Richie sets a trap for Eddie by sabotaging his deckchair, then he realizes that the roof flap cannot be opened from the outside and panics before Eddie opens the flap, hitting Richie in the face. His plan backfires as Eddie helps Richie to the boobytrapped chair and Richie injures himself further. When Eddie goes down to serve another customer Richie sets another trap with Eddie's favourite sandwich, pickled onion, where the trap door will smash Eddie's head. The plan backfires again 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, The Dangerous Brothers 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.

Cast

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: 'S Up

• "'S Up" at BBC Programmes
• "'S Up" at the Internet Movie Database
• "'S Up" at TV.com