Adrian Edmondson

Adrian Edmondson on Jennifer Saunders' cancer ordeal

While his wife Jennifer Saunders has been enduring a 'brutal' course of treatment for breast cancer over the past year, Adrian Edmondson has been desperately trying to support her and their three daughters. And the hardest part, he reveals here, is how helpless he feels.

Video: Lost Pete and Dud sketch re-enacted

A lost Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch is re-enacted with Dud (played by Adrian Edmondson) waking up screaming from a dream. Pete (played by Jonny Sweet) decides to attempt to decipher Dud's dream using Freud's theories.

The Wardrobe sketch is from the landmark television comedy show, Not Only... But Also which was largely wiped from the BBC archives.

Was it madness or arrogance that persuaded the volunteers on Pete And Dud: The Lost Sketches that they could sketch in the shadow of genius? The idea of the likes of Angus Deayton and Adrian Edmondson attempting to emulate the comedy chemistry of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore seemed like the product of a lock-in after the Baftas. In other words, it should never have survived the cold light of day.

Yet, though it was light on belly laughs and clearly in thrall to its source material, Pete And Dud: The Lost Sketches was oddly entertaining. Introduced by lifelong Pete and Dud fan Jonathan Ross (and for once he seemed genuine), the set of sketches performed - 'lost' in the sense that the BBC unbelievably wiped the original TV tapes, so they only survive in audio or script form - at least served as a priceless reminder of one of the truly great comedy pairings.

It was like watching a rock tribute band who know all the words and get the notes in the right place. You could sing along but inevitably there was a spark missing. It was the brief clips of the real Pete And Dud that were worth sticking around for, the mix of surreal allusion, schoolboy smut and lady frocks making it clear how much the duo influenced everyone from The Fast Show to Little Britain.

There was a missed opportunity in the mix: Stephen Fry and David Mitchell, only featured as talking heads, would have made a perfect Pete and Dud.

Instead the originals were lovingly, though palely, imitated, new boy Jonny Sweet coming closest to catching the anarchic 1960s spirit that Pete and Dud encapsulated.

Now what we need is a series that rounds up every clip that still exists.

Right up until the late Seventies, it was common policy for the BBC to wipe reels containing previously broadcast programmes in order to make space in the archives and save money by reusing the tape. One of the most significant casualties was Dudley Moore and Peter Cook's seminal comedy sketch show Not Only... But Also, of which fewer than half of the 22 episodes survive - despite apparent efforts by Peter Cook to purchase the masters from the BBC before they were wiped. While some of Pete & Dud's famous routines have been recovered from other filmed performances, others now exist in script form only.

Hence this project, spearheaded by Jonathan Ross, to resurrect Moore and Cook's lost sketches by reperforming them with a group of contemporary comic actors, including Adrian Edmondson, Alistair McGowan (who is rather good as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling) and Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis. The scripts still sparkle despite the passing of time, but the performances, perhaps inevitably, make you miss the real Pete and Dud all the more. However, the film has undoubtedly been made with the best of intentions, and includes rare archive footage of the original duo in action too.

"Hey, do you remember that teddy bear you had as a kid? You really loved that thing, huh? Bet you'd love to have it back, wouldn't you? Well here it is! We've cut off its head and vomited on it for you too!" Some of Cook and Moore's deleted Not Only But Also sketches are ruined beyond repair by a horrific line-up of Angus Deayton, Alistair McGowan, Hugh Dennis and Adrian Edmondson. Watch this if you enjoy becoming murderously angry before you go to bed on a Sunday night.

The old Young Ones has grown on us, except for the Adrian Edmondson one. It's winning and really stupid but in a properly consistent manner.

Ade: It is SO boring

Actor Adrian Edmondson says cult sitcom The Young Ones, which made him a star, is the most boring TV show ever.

Quite possibly the least funny sitcom that has ever been broadcast appeared in March 2008, and it starred Adrian Edmonson. Teenage Kicks - which had been sat on ITV1's shelves for several months - featured the former Young Ones star as a father who had been forced to move in with his two kids. It was appalling. This was a show that made jokes about 'comedy' Chinese accents.

Teenage Kicks is possibly the worst programme I've ever seen. Now, I don't say that lightly because, as a bloke, I really like Ade Edmundson. However, on the strength of this, I could easily go right off him.

Edmundson plays Vernon who, basically, is going through a messy divorce. With that, we should be treated with a spectacular nervous breakdown and maybe some deluded Saxondale-isms. What we get is a programme that looks cheap (and is cheap) with woeful acting, a complete absence of ideas and, worse still, jokes about a Chinese man.

On the close of the show I actually sighed and said thank f*ck that's over, which is something that doesn't normally happen. Teenage Kicks has joined the unenviable list of 'Worst TV Shows Ever' in my head. It's up there with Blunder, My Hero and You Are What You Eat.