Demolition (The Young Ones) on their house instead. As with all episodes of "The Young Ones", the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (Christopher Ryan); Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson); Rick (Rik Mayall) and Neil (Nigel Planer). However, there are several telltale signs of this being the pilot episode - the characters' individual personalities aren't as fleshed out as in later episodes, Rick's outfit is different, and Vyvyan and Rick sport shorter haircuts. The episode also introduces their landlord Jerzei Balowski (Alexei Sayle), a character who would only appear once more during the first series, and twice more in total. Sayle, however, featured in every
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