He founded the Comic Strip troupe of performers, which showcased his double act with Nigel Planer and boosted the careers of French and Saunders, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and Alexei Sayle.

Richardson began his career as a teenager acting in Alan Bennett's Forty Years On, before he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1971 to 1973.

Although he did not reach the same level of public recognition as some of his contemporaries, Richardson was influential on British television comedy throughout the 1980s as the driving force behind The Comic Strip Presents... films, first shown on Channel 4 in 1982.

He developed the series into feature films; The Supergrass, Eat the Rich, The Pope Must Die, and Churchill: The Hollywood Years, none of which achieved great box office success.

In the 1990s, Richardson introduced a new generation of performers: Doon Mackichan, Mark Caven, Phil Cornwell, Sara Stockbridge, George Yiasoumi and Gary Beadle, who appeared in his productions.

[5] Around this time Richardson and Planer were heavily influenced by U.S. comedians Sal's Meat Market, an early duo of John Ratzenberger and Ray Hassett, as well as the group Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias.

With the assistance of Caroline Jay, they produced a show called "Rank", inspired by the police raid of the 1974 Windsor Free Festival, which premiered at the Roundhouse Downstairs in August 1976.

[5] After Rank, Richardson toured with a band in Italy and also helped run drama courses for children at his parents' house in Devon.

He worked as an extra on Michael Palin's Ripping Yarns' second series in 1979, appearing as a German spy pretending to be a Cornish fisherman, in Whinfrey's Last Case.

The Outer Limits were hired by Kevin Rowland as an opening act for Dexy's Midnight Runners on their tour of The Projected Passion Revue in 1981.

[5] Richardson followed this up with the 1987 film Eat the Rich, written by himself and Pete Richens, about a waiter at an exclusive restaurant called Bastard's, who stages a rebellion against the government.

Hal Hinson writing in the Washington Post gave the film a lukewarm review and said "The punk jaggedness they bring to their derivations is the only hint of originality, but this, too, seems a little staid.

"[17] Vincent Canby in the New York Times was more favourable and drew comparisons to "an upscale John Waters satire" and "Jean-Luc Godard's pre-Maoist period".

[20] Several British newspapers found that the script was being considered, generating anger amongst the Catholic establishment and after some unfavourable press attention Channel 4 scrapped the project.

Shortly after this Richardson moved The Comic Strip Presents... to the BBC and produced two episodes based on the original trilogy screenplay, although they were much changed.

[21][22] He reworked the remainder of the story and again with backing from Film4 used elements of it to write the 1991 film The Pope Must Die, starring Comic Strip regulars Robbie Coltrane and Adrian Edmondson along with Herbert Lom and Paul Bartel.

The film was badly received, with Time Out London saying, "None of the new crew of Sayle, Richardson, Mayall and Planer is remotely endearing in their awfulness.

"[32] In 2003 Richardson began filming on his return to the big screen, directing Christian Slater and Neve Campbell in Churchill: The Hollywood Years, which was released in December 2004.

The sense of the absurd is watered down",[38] while Michael Rechtshaffen in the Hollywood Reporter said, "What might have achieved a degree of cult status across the pond when it was aired in 10-minute installments, struggles to pass big-screen scrutiny in a feature-length treatment that hinges on the flimsiest of plot lines."

[40] During the last series of Comic Strip films, Richardson introduced a new group of performers: Doon Mackichan, Mark Caven, Phil Cornwell, Sara Stockbridge, George Yiasoumi and Gary Beadle, and went on to star them in "The Glam Metal Detectives".

[citation needed] Apart from the Comic Strip, Richardson's best-known work is the sitcom Stella Street, which he directed and co-wrote with Phil Cornwell and impressionist John Sessions.