"Cash" was the eighth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on May 15, 1984.
Characters
As with all episodes of The Young Ones, the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (Christopher Ryan); Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson); Rick (Rik Mayall) and Neil (Nigel Planer). Alexei Sayle starred as a Mussolini cabaret act and police recruitment officer.
Plot
The quartet are so skint they are burning their clothes and belongings just to keep warm, while Neil is being forced into preparing meals of snow, passed off as risotto, from outside. Eventually they decide that someone - Rick - needs to get a job to bring money into the house, but when the only vacancy advertised in the local paper is for the Army, Rick and Mike both rule themselves out on medical grounds (Perforated eardrum and flat feet, respectively), while Vyvyan, after Neil demands to know why he can't join up, declares he is pregnant. After a poor haircut and a quick loan of Mike's suit, Neil goes to join up, but, having been told not to mention it, is rejected for being a pacifist. After spotting a recruitment poster, the other three throw Neil into the police station next door, where he meets Alexei Sayle's character, a Mussolini-lookalike. While the others get lucky when a lorry full of food and expensive furnishings crashes through the front window, Neil takes to his new job - arresting a bunch of his drugged-up hippie friends. Arriving home, Neil tries to arrest his flatmates, assuming they had stolen all of the luxury items. His harsh use of the truncheon forces Vyvyan into labour. Mike leaves the room, being afraid of the sight of childbirth. Instead, Vyvyan actually ends up loudly passing wind. Rick and Neil frantically try to escape the smell, having been handcuffed together, and with Vyvyan, but Neil is unable to find the key. Unaware, Mike comes back in, and tries to light a celebratory cigar. The flame reacts with the gas, causing the house to explode, thus sending all their new-found riches up in smoke. The episode features a performance from Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve, a one-off conglomerate of high-profile rock musicians and theme writers, including Jools Holland, Stewart Copeland and Chris Difford performing Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan. For contractual reasons, this has been edited out of DVD releases in the past, but has been reinstated for the 25th Anniversary edition.
| Preceded by “Bambi” |
The Young Ones episodes | Followed by “Nasty” |
