2002 saw my two most favourite comedians trying to make a sitcom comeback, with not altogether successful results. In January 2002, Gregor Fisher took on the role of a golf mad police detective ( which was an attempt to shake off the shadow of 'Rab C. Nesbitt' ) in the BBC sitcom 'Snoddy' but sadly viewers were unimpressed and after six episodes it was dropped. In July 2002, Rik Mayall took on an ITV show scripted by his 'New Statesman' reliables Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran entitled 'Believe Nothing' which had him cast as Quadruple Professor Adonis Cnut - the richest, most intelligent man in the world. It was obvious that Marks and Gran were attempting to conceive another Alan B'Stard ( well, look at both characters surnames ). Both were rich, vain, greedy, sleazy and were not above stooping to underhand methods to get what they wanted. Much publicity hype was made about the show ( like with 'Snoddy' ) but sadly it was all in vain. 'Believe Nothing' achieved only disappointing ratings and only lasted six episodes before ITV axed it, which is a great pity as 'Believe Nothing', whilst not up to the standard of Marks and Gran's earlier show, was a handsome production with many witty lines and situations.
It starts off like this - Adonis, despite his success, is a lonely man whose only companion is his servant, the dour Albumen ( Michael Maloney ), who Adonis has a Piers and Alan relationship. One day, he meets attractive Dr. Hannah Awkard ( who believes she is grotesque ) and becomes smitten by her right away, however Hannah constantly rebuffs his advances.
The plots sometimes could be rather difficult to follow but overall when the show hit the target, it really hit the target. Rik put his usual obnoxious energy into the character and I suppose could easily have been a distant relative of B'Stard. Michael Maloney, whilst nowhere near as funny as Michael Troughton's Piers was nevertheless good value as Albumen. Emily Bruni also made a good female foil for Rik.
It really needed a second series to get it up and running but ITV ran out of patience and gave up on it very early on. Perhaps if it hadn't been drafted into the comedy unfriendly prime-time slot of 10:00 PM it may have found a better audience
It starts off like this - Adonis, despite his success, is a lonely man whose only companion is his servant, the dour Albumen ( Michael Maloney ), who Adonis has a Piers and Alan relationship. One day, he meets attractive Dr. Hannah Awkard ( who believes she is grotesque ) and becomes smitten by her right away, however Hannah constantly rebuffs his advances.
The plots sometimes could be rather difficult to follow but overall when the show hit the target, it really hit the target. Rik put his usual obnoxious energy into the character and I suppose could easily have been a distant relative of B'Stard. Michael Maloney, whilst nowhere near as funny as Michael Troughton's Piers was nevertheless good value as Albumen. Emily Bruni also made a good female foil for Rik.
It really needed a second series to get it up and running but ITV ran out of patience and gave up on it very early on. Perhaps if it hadn't been drafted into the comedy unfriendly prime-time slot of 10:00 PM it may have found a better audience