There are some personalities so synonymous with your youth that you get the feeling that you are almost buddies despite never having met. Adrian/Ade is just such a guy to me.

Ever since literally crashing into our TV screens as anarchic Vyvyan in the Young Ones at the start of the eighties, being a founder of The Comic Strip Presents along with such alternative comedy royalty as French & Saunders and Robbie Coltrane, and as half of the riotous Dangerous Brothers alongside the sadly missed Rik Mayall, I have been thoroughly entertained by Mr Edmondson.

Throw in the hilarious Bottom, again alongside Rik, and you have a group of my all time favourite comedy characters.

Vyvyan Basterd, Sir Adrian Dangerous and Eddie Hitler all have something in common with the actor that played them. They were all angry young men with a violent bent.

The actor never resorted to actual violence (as far as I know), but his characters were certainly vehicles for expressing pent up fury.

Adrian had a very checkered upbringing – stern inexpressive parents, a lack of familial love and an often beastly boarding school existence.

Growing up in the ‘just don’t talk about it/stiff upper lip/corporal punishment is good for you’ generation shaped him, sometimes leading to suicidal thoughts that thankfully he had the strength to repel.

The writing is incredibly honest, often funny and always thoughtfully delivered. A thoroughly recommended read.

As a fellow lover of punk music, an adopted Devonian and a big fan of Exeter City, I count him as a pseudo mate. He’d certainly make my perfect cousin.