The Young Ones (TV series) Basterd (Adrian Edmondson); conceited wannabe anarchist sociology student, Rick (Rik Mayall); oppressed paranoid hippie peace studies student, Neil Wheedon Watkins Pye (Nigel Planer); and the suave, charming would-be underground mob boss, Mike The-Cool-Person (Christopher Ryan). It also featured Alexei Sayle, who played various members of the Balowski family—most often Jerzei Balowski, the quartet's landlord—and occasional independent characters, such as the train driver in "Bambi" and the Mussolini-lookalike Police Chief in "Cash". The show combined traditional sitcom style with violent slapstick, non-sequitur plot turns, and surrealism. These older styles were mixed with the working and lower-middle class attitudes of the growing
Oil (The Young Ones) Rick briskly between the legs with a cricket bat (Rick: "Ha! Missed both my legs!"). After Neil unwittingly injures Vyvyan with a pickaxe through the head whilst digging for oil, Rick commands Neil to "Throw off the shackles of oppression" and prompts a workers' revolution which is ultimately proved futile by a demanding benefit band headed by Alexei Sayle in his Balowski persona. In the first instance that Rick, Vyvyan and Neil are in the cellar digging for oil, there is a song playing on the radio, which is an obscure Soul hit from 1973 called "I'm Bustin' My Rocks