The Dangerous Brothers

The Dangerous Brothers was a stage and TV act by anarchic comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, performing respectively as "Richard Dangerous" and "Sir Adrian Dangerous". Although originating before the show, they appeared in a number of brief sketches in the 1980s TV programme Saturday Live.

The act was, in essence, a prototype of the career which the pair were to forge over the next twenty years in such shows as Mr Jolly Lives Next Door; Filthy, Rich and Catflap; and Bottom - two low-life loser perverts hitting each other in spectacular slapstick ways. It was arguably more hazardous than much of the material which was to follow in later incarnations - stage props in the brief run included a live (and very large, although apparently lethargic) crocodile, blank-firing submachine guns, and Edmondson apparently consuming Vim, a well-known UK brand of powder toilet cleaner. One of the early sketches went wrong when a stunt to set fire to Edmondson's trousers left him with serious burns - although much of this was left on the broadcast version.

Sketches performed

• World Of Danger (AKA The Towering Inferno)
• Big Stunt
• Torture - featuring Norman Lovett
• Crocodile Snogging (which featured a live crocodile) and featuring John Bird
• Flying Zebra
• Exploding Politicians
• How To Get Off With A Lady - featuring Edmondson's wife Jennifer Saunders
• Babysitting - featuring Morwenna Banks as the wife and John Bird as the husband.
• Dangervision - featuring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.
• Kinky Sex

The Dangerous Brothers were notorious for their unpredictable antics, once even interrupting The Flower Arranging Sketch being performed live by Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie, Fry & Laurie told The Dangerous Brothers they had been banned and they left only to return moments later disguised as The Ben Elton Brothers. One of the final sketches prepared for Saturday Live was entitled 'Kinky Sex'. This fell foul of Channel 4 censors who banned it. The duo responded by apparently hijacking the programme and blowing up the wall on which the show's logo was painted in graffiti art. The sketch, which by modern standards seems fairly tame, was finally released on a compilation video The Dangerous Brothers present: World of Danger. Several Dangerous Brothers sketches are also included on the DVD compilation Saturday Live: The Best of Series One (2007).

Dangervision: The DVD

A DVD of all of the sketches featured in the show was released in 2009. However the Kinky Sex episode is taken from a home video source as the original could not be found. Some of the sketches appear to be edited longer and slight shorter than others. Music edits have also been made, of which some are obvious if you have seen the video. The laughing in the unseen audience is also different, where the video used the real studio audience laughter and also canned laughter. The DVD just uses the original studio audience. The DVD is also known to be very hard to find in retail shops.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: the dangerous brothers