Adrian Edmondson left in tears as he remembers pal Rik Mayall nine years after his death
Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson worked together on the sitcom Bottom
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Actor Adrian Edmondson was left sobbing in a recent interview as he remembered his late pal and fellow comedy writer, Rik Mayall.
Mayall died aged 56 following an "acute cardiac event", his wife said at the time.
When asked if he was able to "think about the good times" he spent with Mayall, Edmondson replied: "I think of the writing room all of the time.
"We spent more time in the writing room than anywhere else and I just remember laughing like drains," he added before stopping himself for a moment.
The sound of Edmondson crying could then be heard before he managed to continue: "His mum wrote me a lovely letter, I wrote to her after he died.
"And she wrote back saying all she could remember was us laughing, she could see us out in the garden on a couple of deck chairs just laughing and laughing and laughing.
Ade Edmondson was a pallbearer at Mayall's funeral
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"She could never tell what was quite so funny," he added as interview host Lauren Laverne let out a sympathetic reply.
After a few seconds' pause, he went on to add: "He was funny, he was good fun."
"He gave that to so many people too," Laverne commented while Edmondson sobbed.
Edmondson's touching tribute to his late co-star led to floods of support by similarly emotional fans online.
After listening to the interview, one fan said on Twitter" "Just cried out my eyes out listening to this. Brilliant, but melancholy in places, and when he talks about Rik.... v powerful radio."
While a second echoed: "Came to listen to the lolz of my hero @AdrianEdmondson’s Desert Island Discs with @laurenlaverne, and found myself weeping. Some of the best radio this year. Love him more now."
Elsewhere, another said: "This is brilliant - tough in parts and might need a hanky at the ready when he talks about Rik."
And a fourth added: "Wasn't quite prepared for the amount of pain and still-raw emotion running through Ade Edmondson's trip to Desert Island Discs."
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Rik Mayall died in 2014
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Another concurred: "One of the most open and honest episodes I've heard of this with Ade Edmondson. It gets very emotional when he talks about Rik."
While a sixth weighed in: "You think you're going to be ready for Adrian Edmondson talking about Rik Mayall, but then you hear it. Don't fast forward, let it wash over you. A really special episode." (sic)