Alternative comedy and sketch comedy, consisted of Manchester University and Royal Central School graduates Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Dawn French, and Jennifer Saunders, who began to aim their talents at television. As "The Comic Strip Presents", the group made over 40 television films for both Channel 4 and BBC. Ben Elton, who had by then become the Comedy Store's next MC, was invited by Rik Mayall to join him as co-writer of BBC2's TV hit sitcom "The Young Ones". However, it was as MC of Channel 4's new comedy show "Saturday Live" that Elton found fame in his own right.
Ben Downing (writer) continues to publish poems in "The Atlantic", "The New Criterion", "The Yale Review", and elsewhere. Since 1993 Downing has worked at "", of which he is currently the co-editor. He has taught literary seminars and workshops at Columbia, Bryn Mawr, and the 92nd St. Y, and he currently teaches a small private class, known as The English Salon, for advanced non-native speakers of English. He lives in New York City and graduated from Harvard University. Ben Downing (writer) Ben Downing (born April 17, 1967) is an American writer, editor, and teacher. Specializing in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British social life and