Culture

Culture is the second episode of the second series of the sitcom Bottom, it was first broadcast on October 8th 1992

Plot
The episode starts off with Richie and Eddie doing a cross word in the newspaper but afterwards Eddie gets frustrated and tears up the newspaper.Eddie questions why they had to take away their telly when Richie says they took it away as Eddie whilst heading down with the TV rent money, the money for the TV rent was used to buy supposedly magic beans (a reference to Jack and the Beanstalk)costing the exact amount as the TV rent money did. Eddie insists the beans are magic but then goes on the argue further with Richie saying it wasn't him letting them get behind with the rent and then questions how they got £86.23 behind in the first place, Richie tries to change the subject only for Eddie to point out it wasn't him (Eddie) passing Rumbelows every week for the last 3 months but taking the money five doors along to Dr.O'Grady's personal organ enhancement clinic turning out to be a botch job.

Richie then complains about his boredom, and then suggests playing "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". However, since there is nothing in the flat to play with, they end up playing "Put a bit of Sellotape on the Fridge", in which Eddie wins. After this, Eddie suggests that they have a "see how much custard you can fit in your underpants" competition, in which Richie wins after Eddie sits down, splattering his custard all over the room.

After cleaning up, they try to play with Richie's antique chess set that his Great Aunt Dorothy left him. Richie puts on a smoking jacket, which is actually his Mac, turned inside out. Richie tells Eddie that the chess set is the one that Wellington played with on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. Here, it is made clear that Eddie has been stealing the valuable ivory chess pieces and selling them. Because there's only five pieces left, they have to play chess with different objects as the missing pieces such as frozen prawns (in place of pawns), a potted cactus, a tomato ketchup bottle, a large Spider-Man figurine and a toy skeleton. They also create cocktails using Pernod,Ouzo, marmalade and salt as ingredients, naming their creation the Esther Rantzen, as it "Pulls your gums over your teeth". Just as they are about to start playing, Richie tells Eddie he doesn't know the rules of chess.

The episode then cuts to a few hours later; it is now 5 o'clock in the morning and Eddie has been up since 10 o'clock last night telling Richie the rules of chess 124 times. They have been through the Ouzo, the Pernod, the Old Spice and all three litres of the Industrial Strength Floor cleaner. By now Eddie's nerves are frayed and furiously forces Richie to begin the game. Richie, having learned nothing over the previous seven hours, acts out a war situation with his pieces, destroying half of them in the process and Eddie, realising that Richie still doesn't have a clue about the rules, moves his Queen around the board several times in one go to confuse Richie, and then drags Richie's pieces over to his side, then declares checkmate. Richie retaliates with a punch and they have a massive fight, in which Richie gets his feet crushed with a table, has a chair broken over his head and his head slammed in the fridge, but not before ramming the spike of an umbrella into Eddie's groin. The episode ends with Richie pulling the television from behind the fridge whilst Eddie talks to the viewer about how "they say television encourages violence, well I'm smashing his face in and we haven't got one!". Richie explains that it hadn't been taken; he had hidden it to see what a night without television would be like as he wanted to get a bit of interaction going, Eddie smashes the TV over Richie's head and the episode ends

Cast
Ade Edmonson

Rik Mayall

Errors
In the series 1 episode Apocalypse Richie says he knows the rules to Chess but in this episode he doesn't know how to play the game

Its implied in the live stage shows that Eddie cannot read or write, in this episode he is seen writing down his answers on the crossword and is also shown reading out the questions for the crossword in the newspaper

When Eddie is asked by Richie what colour chess pieces he wants to be and when he has won the game due to only having five pieces left they are both standing in front of the sofa, in the next shot they are both standing behind the sofa

When Eddie flips the table so it lands on Richie's foot the props are on the table, in the next shot which is a close up of the table landing on Richie's foot all the props have disappeared

Before Eddie flips the table Richie punches Eddie, as Eddie falls backwards he takes the chess pieces with him in which he had his arms around

Richie suggests the game of sellotape a sausage to the fridge and Eddie says they haven't got a sausage but one of the replacement items used the compensate the missing pieces is a sausage

Even though the telly is hidden by the fridge whenever Eddie goes up to the fridge he never seems to notice the TV