You’d think Adrian Edmondson would have left his flatsharing days far behind him in the 1980s, along with his psychotic The Young Ones incarnation Vyvyan, but he’s getting back into the old Pot Noodle, mouldy-cheese-in-the-fridge game for ITV’s latest stab at sitcom glory, Teenage Kicks.
The series, which started out life on Radio 2, debuts on ITV1 on Friday 28 March and stars Edmondson as ageing rocker and ultimate embarrassing dad Vernon who moves in with his student kids when his wife throws him out.
If we’re honest, it owes more to cosy shows like My Family than the anarchy that Edmondson is usually associated with, but it’s a fairly inoffensive way to spend half an hour on Friday night when you don’t fancy popping down to the pub.
We caught up with Edmondson to find out more…
How would you sum up the show? Vernon has just divorced and has nowhere to go so he moves in with his kids and has to live in the cupboard under the stairs. He moves in promising to stay for three days and the series starts three months after he has moved in and there doesn’t look to be any sign of him moving out.
What is he like? He used to be in a band at uni and thinks he is a songwriter although he has never sold a song but he has lived off a very successful wife who is a Euro MP. I really like him although he is an idiot. He thinks he could be young again, but he just wants his kids to love him.
Is this a traditional sitcom? It is definitely a family sitcom but in an inverted form, they have to look after a stupid child rather than him look after them. It is aimed at anyone who has ever been a parent or a child, which is everyone!
How do his kids feel about him moving in? His daughter Milly has only just got to uni so you can imagine how mortified she is, she’s just about to experiment and do all the things she wasn’t allowed to do at home and then her dad moves into the cupboard. He is completely impinging on her newfound independence. Max, the son, is older and always out clubbing for 48 hours at a time, which is the kind of life that Vernon would really like. Their other flatsharer is David Chang, a Hong Kong engineering student who is very strait-laced and Vernon sees him as a potential student to teach how to be groovy, but David’s hero is Phil Collins so it is hard one to crack.
What antics does Vernon get up to? Most of the episodes are based on themes. One is based on sex where he goes out speed dating and on a blind date and then he meets Milly’s tutor who is rather attractive. We have one about health where he goes to a rave and ends up in hospital. In another he is left alone for the weekend and decides to commit suicide but because he hasn’t got his reading glasses on it doesn’t go quite according to plan. And in another they throw him out and he ends up on the street wearing his skis and he finishes up in hospital again.
Does he have any friends? Bryan (Mark Arden) is his old friend from school and uni; he was in the band and was much more successful at pulling than him. But now he is a very straight deputy head, so they meet every week and there is a niggle about which one has got the better life.
What was the inspiration for the show? When I did Comic Relief Does Fame Academy I was in my late 40s with groovy young people like Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates and I deluded myself into thinking I was one of them and was young and brilliant. But I realised they just thought I was an old buffoon instead of one of their mates and they were calling me Uncle Ade. I just like to think I invented youth culture single-handedly, that all 70s music is just being copied now and that they should be grateful to me for trailblazing the way rather than treating me like someone who should be sitting down with some cocoa.
Have you enjoyed doing another TV sitcom? It has been a while since I have been in a really good one! I love doing them; it’s what I grew up doing and what I really love. When it works and when it is on song it is just brilliant, there is no better job in the world.
Are there any parallels with The Young Ones? They’re not linked but I think it is useful for people to know that’s what I used to do, because when Vernon protests that he used to be a groovy young student they can think: ‘well, he could have been,’ because I used to play one. But unlike Vyvyan, Vernon has no punch in him. Although I think Vyvyan would be a very straight consultant now, he was based on medical students we knew and hospitals are full of people who used to be wild and they all become intelligent and sensible.
Are you an embarrassing dad yourself? I don’t think I am, but I’m sure that’s what my kids think of me, I never dare ask them outright but I’m sure they don’t think I am groovy. I joined Facebook once and it sent off automated emails asking my kids if they wanted me to be their friend and I got the weirdest replies back saying: ‘Why are you on Facebook!’
Is there any of the frustrated rocker in you too? Absolutely, I should have been a musician but I was never good enough. I play all the time but I’m just not a famous singer, which I would dearly like to have been. I have been in the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and did a tour and made an album and now I am trying to do another music project with Phill Jupitus. There is nothing better than playing music.
What are you doing next? I am back at Holby City. Abra comes back as a patient because some trauma has happened in Africa and he will be sponging off Ric. I’m sure people are surprised I’m in it, but I don’t give a toss. I have always liked it. It’s like any soap – if you watch it, you get stuck in. I love working on it.
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