Stuart Heritage, writing about the death of Rik Mayall for The Guardian:
According to an old story, Mayall once ended a typically explosive take on Blackadder by turning to the dumbfounded cast and crew and asking: “Have I won?” It had to be quietly explained to him that acting doesn’t really work like that. But the truth of the matter is that he did. Lord Flashheart burst in and out of Blackadder in an instant – kicking the doors in, thrusting his pelvis endlessly, roaring all his lines with impossible confidence and then exploding again as he made his exit. Upstaging an entire fleet of world-class comedians should have been impossible. Mayall made it look effortless.
The morning after this Blackadder episode, everyone at my school was talking about it and doing our Flashheart impressions.
You'll have your own favourite Mayall moment from the Young Ones through The New Statesman and beyond (I never heard my stepbrother laugh louder or longer than when watching Bottom), but this 3 minute scene is mine. The first time I saw it, a performance so unexpected and relentless in energy it made me laugh so much it hurt.