Have just heard on the radio that he has died age 56 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27770266 Genuinely shocked by this! One of my all time comedy heroes everything from the Dangerous Brothers through The Young Ones and Bottom to Alan B'Stard in the New Statesman. Not forgetting Lord Flasheart in Blackadder. Saw him in the stage version of the New Statesman about 8 or 9 years ago in Bromley, B'Stard had been updated to New Labour but was very much still a b*stard! RIP Rik, you will be missed.

Have just heard on the radio that he has died age 56 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27770266 Genuinely shocked by this! One of my all time comedy heroes everything from the Dangerous Brothers through The Young Ones and Bottom to Alan B'Stard in the New Statesman. Not forgetting Lord Flasheart in Blackadder. Saw him in the stage version of the New Statesman about 8 or 9 years ago in Bromley, B'Stard had been updated to New Labour but was very much still a b*stard! RIP Rik, you will be missed.

Rob from Erith wrote:Have just heard on the radio that he has died age 56 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27770266 Genuinely shocked by this! One of my all time comedy heroes everything from the Dangerous Brothers through The Young Ones and Bottom to Alan B'Stard in the New Statesman. Not forgetting Lord Flasheart in Blackadder. Saw him in the stage version of the New Statesman about 8 or 9 years ago in Bromley, B'Stard had been updated to New Labour but was very much still a b*stard! RIP Rik, you will be missed. Seconded, and don't forget Kevin Turvey Investigative Reporter

Rob from Erith wrote:Have just heard on the radio that he has died age 56 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27770266 Genuinely shocked by this! One of my all time comedy heroes everything from the Dangerous Brothers through The Young Ones and Bottom to Alan B'Stard in the New Statesman. Not forgetting Lord Flasheart in Blackadder. Saw him in the stage version of the New Statesman about 8 or 9 years ago in Bromley, B'Stard had been updated to New Labour but was very much still a b*stard! RIP Rik, you will be missed. Seconded, and don't forget Kevin Turvey Investigative Reporter

Alternative comedian before it really existed - I remember seeing The Dangerous Brothers on Saturday Live (or was it Friday then?) and realising that this was comedy for me, instead of my Mum and Dad.

Very sad news indeed.

"I feel sorry for you, you zeros, you nobodies. What's going to live on after you die? Nothing, that's what! This house will become a shrine! And punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round and all hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader! And all the grown-ups will say, 'But why are the kids crying?' And the kids will say, 'Haven't you heard? Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!' ... And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say, 'Why kids, do you understand nothing? How can Rick be dead when we still have his poems?'"

RIP good sir and thanks for the lasting impression you have had on so so many people

Just to push this thread back to the top.

Dave's original show Crackanory returns to screens tonight and Rik is one of the storytellers.

I believe this was one of the last things he did before his untimely death.