The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.
He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but realising it was unsuitable for a theatrical production and running out of enthusiasm for the play, he decided to continue with the idea of a cabaret night.
Almost simultaneously, the BBC signed Edmondson, Mayall, Planer, and Sayle to star in The Young Ones, a sitcom in the same anarchic style as the Comic Strip.
Richardson was initially to have played the role of Mike (ultimately given to Christopher Ryan), but did not, the result of differences with the show's producer, Paul Jackson.
The second episode, Private Enterprise, was the tale of a music business rip-off, where Peter Richardson steals a studio recording session tape and passes the results off as his own work.
They included The Strike, which won the Golden Rose of Montreux; More Bad News, a sequel to Bad News Tour showing the band reforming after five years to play at Castle Donington; and Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door, written by Mayall and Edmondson in the violent style of their sitcoms Filthy Rich & Catflap and Bottom, which featured Peter Cook as a psychotic contract killer (the eponymous Mr. Jolly) and Nicholas Parsons.
Peter Richardson and Pete Richens only contributed one episode to the third series, allowing cast members such as Planer and Sayle to get their ideas on screen.
By then, the show had proved a hit, and some big names appeared in later productions, including Leslie Phillips, Miranda Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Nicholas Parsons, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Cornwell, Kate Bush, Richard Vernon, Ruby Wax, Graham Crowden, Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Elvis Costello, and Benjamin Zephaniah (as a Rastafarian police van driver), and several musical acts, particularly from the Bad News series which was also aided by Queen guitarist Brian May, such as Def Leppard and Marillion.
By now, all the regulars (with the exception of Peter Richardson) had become more famous for their own shows, and more recurring performers such as Gary Beadle, Phil Cornwell, Steve O'Donnell, Mark Caven, Sara Stockbridge, and Doon Mackichan were brought in.
Rik Mayall was contracted to ITV's The New Statesman, and was only able to appear in two of the BBC productions (GLC, and the Comic Relief special Red Nose of Courage).
It starred Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) and Tamer Hassan (Layer Cake) alongside several of the regular cast members.
In May 2010, it was announced that Gold would broadcast a 30th-anniversary documentary, preceded by the next new scripted episode of the series, Five Go to Rehab, a sequel to Five Go Mad in Dorset which featured the entire original cast (Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson, as well as Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Stephen Mangan and Robbie Coltrane) and was filmed in the first weeks of July 2012, in and around Totnes; Richardson wrote and directed the film.
[9] In addition, a documentary broadcast 3 November 2012, 30 Years of Comic Strip, detailed the filming and reception of several Comic Strip episodes including both original Five Go Mad episodes, The Strike and its semi-sequel GLC: The Carnage Continues, A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques, The Bullshitters/Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown, Bad News Tour/More Bad News, and The Hunt for Tony Blair.
A lot of the original cast were interviewed for the documentary, alongside other people involved with the series at some point such as James Buckley and Stephen Mangan.
It combined archive footage with revelations from many of the stars involved – such as Planer, Alexei Sayle, John Lloyd, Paul Jackson, and Lise Mayer – while later comedians discussed The Young Ones' impact on British comedy generally.