EastEnders star Adrian Edmondson tearfully shares emotional memory of Rik Mayall
EastEnders' Adrian Edmondson has emotionally remembered his late friend Rik Mayall, nine years after his sudden death.
Joining radio host Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs, the comedy writer (who briefly played Walford's Daniel Cook) opened up about the good old days when he and Mayall were crafting classic sitcoms like The Young Ones and Bottom together.
"I think of the writing room all the time. We spent more time in the writing room than anywhere else. And I remember just laughing like drains.
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"His mum... his mum wrote me a lovely letter," Edmondson continued, fighting back tears.
"I wrote to her after he died, and she wrote back, saying all she could remember was us – she could see us out in the garden, [on] a couple of deckchairs, just laughing and laughing and laughing – and she could never tell what was quite so funny.
"It was funny. It was good fun."
Related: Ade Edmondson on Rik Mayall death: 'I feel privileged to have known him'
Edmondson, who is married to Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous, also revealed how Mayall always believed that their phone calls would lead to another collaboration, despite splitting professionally in 2003.
In the end, he crumbled and told his fellow comedian: "All right, let's write a couple of episodes of a new series, hand it in... [the TV commissioners] say no, and then it's not my fault any more."
Unsurprisingly, their material proved popular and received the green light, yet Edmondson and Mayall were sadly unable to bring it to life prior the latter's passing.
EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer.
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