Richie and Eddie are enjoying a game of poker whilst all around them heaters and radiators are burning at full power. This is because they have connected an illegal gas pipe to their next door neighbour's gas mains and are stealing his supply. However, they panic upon hearing a knock at the door. It is none other than a man from British Gas, who is checking the meters in the neighbourhood due to a complaint from their neighbour that he is paying too much for his gas supply.
Alas, Richie and Eddie fear the consequences of being caught and just before the gas man leaves they beat him up by punching him and hitting him repeatedly with a frying pan. Richie and Eddie cannot find a pulse.
Worse to come, they must find a way to get next door and disconnect the illegal pipe without being caught by their neighbour - the violently psychotic Mr. Rottweiller.
'Bottom' had only been on air a fortnight when it came up with this little cracker. Yes, it is crude and crass and yes it is unbelievably stupid but it is bloody funny. Theft of fuel and gas ( usually by squatters and travellers ) was rife in the 1990's and to this day still takes place. It was therefore only natural that two scumbags such as Richie and Eddie should undertake such an unacceptable deed. Of course, they are later rumbled. Mark Lambert ( who I recall as the hapless man who lost his luggage in the 'Airport' advert used for Hamlet Cigars ) plays the nervous gas man. Stealing the episode is the late Brian Glover, who as the aptly named Rotweiller looks as though he could be a relative of Grant and Phil Mitchell from 'Eastenders'. Glover is probably best remembered for his role as the heavy handed P. E teacher Mr. Sugden in the brilliant 1969 drama 'Kes'.
One thing that bothers me though. Why on earth would the gas man attend Rotweiller's flat in the middle of the night to read his meter? One can only assume it is caused by confusion due to the blows to his head he sustained from Richie and Eddie
Funniest bit - Richie and Eddie knocking ten bells out of the gas man!
Alas, Richie and Eddie fear the consequences of being caught and just before the gas man leaves they beat him up by punching him and hitting him repeatedly with a frying pan. Richie and Eddie cannot find a pulse.
Worse to come, they must find a way to get next door and disconnect the illegal pipe without being caught by their neighbour - the violently psychotic Mr. Rottweiller.
'Bottom' had only been on air a fortnight when it came up with this little cracker. Yes, it is crude and crass and yes it is unbelievably stupid but it is bloody funny. Theft of fuel and gas ( usually by squatters and travellers ) was rife in the 1990's and to this day still takes place. It was therefore only natural that two scumbags such as Richie and Eddie should undertake such an unacceptable deed. Of course, they are later rumbled. Mark Lambert ( who I recall as the hapless man who lost his luggage in the 'Airport' advert used for Hamlet Cigars ) plays the nervous gas man. Stealing the episode is the late Brian Glover, who as the aptly named Rotweiller looks as though he could be a relative of Grant and Phil Mitchell from 'Eastenders'. Glover is probably best remembered for his role as the heavy handed P. E teacher Mr. Sugden in the brilliant 1969 drama 'Kes'.
One thing that bothers me though. Why on earth would the gas man attend Rotweiller's flat in the middle of the night to read his meter? One can only assume it is caused by confusion due to the blows to his head he sustained from Richie and Eddie
Funniest bit - Richie and Eddie knocking ten bells out of the gas man!