Letter: The quieter side to Rik Mayall

http://www.theguardian.com/global/2014/jun/10/letter-rik-mayall-obituary

Version 0 of 1.

There was another, quieter side to Rik Mayall, as I found when sharing a platform with him at a conference on broadcasting and censorship in the 1980s, at a time when the BBC had dropped, banned or cut a succession of controversial programmes. Of course one knew there had to be more to him than his anarchic, explosively violent comic creations, but I still half expected him to burst out onto the stage and start an eye-popping, spittle-flecked rant.

Instead, he actually seemed quite shy and even slightly vulnerable beneath his impeccable manners and modest demeanour. He was one of the most handsome people I've ever met, with striking blue eyes, a surprisingly gentle manner and understated charisma as he spoke. He was inevitably highly critical of the coercive and repressive tendencies within Thatcherism but equally scathing about the number of times the BBC had succumbed to the prevailing pressures. He argued with a kind of icy precision that we all too often censor ourselves, both as individuals and as institutions that are meant to serve the public such as the BBC, effectively doing the job of social control on behalf of the conformists and agents of repression. It was clear to me that there was a vein of continuity between his art as a comedian and his way of thinking as a citizen. He was a consistently free and liberating spirit who enriched all our lives.