Film

The Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Rude Video Live

Name: The Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Rude Video Live
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1986
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Lenny Henry, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie

Comedy
Light-hearted

A live comedy revue from 1986 capturing the UK's alternative comedy scene at its peak: Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and others performing sketches and stand-up for Comic Relief. It's raw, uneven, thrillingly immediate—the feeling of being in a packed theatre watching comedians at their hungriest, before most became household names.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy rough-edged sketch comedy from the mid-eighties alternative scene, where the jokes come thick and fast and the rudeness is deliberate, a sort of gleeful vandalism.

Skip it if you want a single story or consistent tone, since this is a patchwork of short routines whose hit rate varies and whose topical jokes have dated.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes of short, uneven bits you can dip in and out of, with a live audience in the room for every punchline.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Secret Policeman's Ball1979

The spiritual predecessor that proved comedy could raise serious money for serious causes. Monty Python, John Cleese, and emerging talent performing at their most inventive—the template Comic Relief followed.

But It's now nearly 50 years old and some sketches have dated hard. The sound mix is occasionally rough and the pacing meanders.

Live Aid1985

The bombastic music event that directly inspired Comic Relief's format. Watching the whole 16-hour broadcast (or the edited film) captures the era's optimism about entertainment as activism.

But It's exhaustingly long, the sound quality varies wildly, and some performances are more historically important than musically thrilling.

Filthy Rich & Catflap1987

Ben Elton (who appears here) wrote and starred in this sitcom about struggling comedians. It captures the same chaotic energy and alternative comedy ethos as Comic Relief, but sustained over a series.

But It's very much a period piece—the humour is deliberately provocative in ways that now feel dated. The plot is secondary to the attitude.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Rude Video Live

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Amarcord1973

Both are revue structures—multiple writers, multiple performers, a place and a moment instead of a plot.

A film built from loosely connected sketches and vignettes of provincial Italian life. Like Comic Relief, it's a revue rather than a narrative—capturing a place and a moment through many voices. Utterly different in tone (dreamlike, elegiac) but structurally it's the same idea: the sketch as the truest unit of storytelling.

But It's 13 years older, in Italian, visually ornate and deeply melancholic. If you want your comedy literal and laugh-tracked, this will baffle you.

The Young Ones1982

The anarchic sitcom that proved alternative comedy could work on television. Same era, same DNA, same hunger—but with a story holding it together.

But It deliberately breaks every rule of traditional sitcom structure. If you want coherent plots and character arcs, this will frustrate you.

Blackadder1983

Hugh Laurie's here, and Blackadder shows what happened when alternative comedy writers met historical settings and tight scripting. Smarter and funnier than it had any right to be.

But The first series is uneven and takes a few episodes to find its rhythm. You'll want to skip ahead to Series Two.

Not the Nine O'Clock News1979

The sketch show that bridged the gap between Monty Python and 80s alternative comedy. Rowan Atkinson before he was a superstar, proving his gift for physical comedy on the small screen.

But Some sketches are painfully thin, and the topical bits have lost their sting entirely. The pacing drags in the middle of episodes.

Pennies from Heaven1978

Many of the performers and writers moved between light comedy and this kind of drama. It's the shadow side of the same talent.

Created by Dennis Potter, this bleak serial drama about a sheet-music salesman in 1930s Britain feels like the inverse of Comic Relief—the same performer types (Bob Hoskins, Cheryl Campbell) in heartbreaking realism instead of comedy. It's what happens when you point the same talent at suffering instead than laughter.

But It's grim, sexually explicit in ways that shocked 1988, and built on clinical depression rather than joy. One of the darkest things ever made for British television.

Withnail & I1987

Same era, same alternative comedy sensibility, same understanding that character and voice matter more than what happens next.

Written by Bruce Robinson, released the year after Comic Relief. It feels like what would happen if you took two failed comedians from a revue and followed them into a feature film—desperate, hilarious, sad, powered by performance and quotable dialogue rather than plot.

But It's a shaggy, plotless ramble with a drinking problem at its centre. If you need narrative momentum and resolution, it will drive you mad.