Adrian Edmondson was born in January 1957 and is thus now nearly 67 years old. He has spent around fifteen weeks of his life playing Vyvyan from The Young Ones, much less than 0.5% of his life so far. He enjoyed The Young Ones and remains proud of it, but has not really watched it for forty years. He was embarrassed when, working with Richard Briers around a decade later, the older actor on their first meeting repeated to him, Vyvyan’s famous tirade about the “SO BLOODY NICE” Good Life starring “FELICITY “TREACLE” KENDALL AND RICHARD “SUGAR-FLAVOURED SNOT” BRIERS” from The Young Ones virtually verbatim. They got on alright after that.
He thus discusses his most famous role slightly reluctantly. The book’s chapter on The Young Ones reads simply: “Surely enough’s been said about this over the years.” However, this is immediately followed by a second chapter (in fact, the longest in the book) discussing his memories of the sitcom in detail.
But there are many other things to enjoy in this well-written autobiography. For starters, there’s Ade’s dislike of his own name. The moniker, “Adrian Edmondson” has never exactly tripped easily off the tongue and is awkward to spell. Just as his friend and comedy partner Richard Mayall became “Rik,” Ade planned to change his name to the similar sounding but catchier “Eddie Monsoon” but he missed the paperwork deadline and Adrian (or “Ade”) he remains. “Edina Monsoon” was, of course, the name chosen for his wife Jennifer Saunders’s most famous creation in Absolutely Fabulous.
There is actually very little about Jennifer (in fact, Ade’s second wife who he married in 1985) or their three daughters here. This is fair enough. The couple have long agreed not to discuss each other much in public and besides, she has written her autobiography already (2013’s Bonkers: My Life in Laughs).
We do, however, learn about his childhood spent in Bradford and in many other international trouble-spots, his sometimes strained relationship with his often difficult father, his brief run-ins with corporal punishment at school and less formalised violence on the mean streets of Bradford, his early joyous days with Rik both at Manchester Uni and during his comedy career on The Young Ones, The Comic Strip and Bottom.
He also talks a little about his occasional mental health struggles and about the eventual souring of his relationship with Mayall in the decade before his death, his music career (of less interest to me) and the somewhat higgledy-piggledy nature of his work in the last two decades (Celebrity Masterchef, some music, some drama: Twelfth Night on stage, War and Peace on TV and some comedy: a supporting role in comedy drama, Back To Life).
He may not be a young one anymore, but this remains a good read about a fascinating life and career.
Chris Hallam's World View 
I’m old enough to remember the young ones. Ade is one of the very few to have made a living from comedy and drama. A rare breed. I’m guess the 0.15% rule applies here too.