The Young Ones (TV series) opening night on 2 November 1982, with "The Young Ones" following a week later on BBC2. The series was written by Mayall, his then-girlfriend Lise Mayer, and Ben Elton (who had attended the University of Manchester with Mayall and Edmondson). Richardson was originally set to play Mike, but clashed with Jackson. He was replaced by Christopher Ryan, the only member of the group who was not a stand-up comedian. The show was voted number 31 in the BBC's Best Sitcom poll in 2004. The main characters were four undergraduate students who were sharing a house: aggressive punk medical student, Vyvyan
Nasty (The Young Ones) of gravediggers that the lads tell their story to. Arnold Brown appears as the man in the opening scene playing chess against Death. Dawn French and Helen Atkinson-Wood appear in the pain reliever commercial set in Hell. The opening scene of a man playing chess with Death is a reference to Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film, "The Seventh Seal". At the grave site when the vicar says "Ashes to ashes," Rick responds with "Funk to funky, we all know Major Tom's a junkie", referencing lyrics from the David Bowie song 'Ashes to Ashes'. Later in the episode, Rick proclaims to Neil