Rik Mayall, one of the UK’s best loved comedy actors, grew up in Droitwich from the age of three.

His parents, both drama teachers, moved here from Essex and Rik performed in plays they put on at the Norbury Theatre. The theatre proudly displays a signed photo of him.

It’s believed his first show was Waiting For Godot in 1971 (he later performed it in the West End with comedy partner Ade Edmondson) and according to sources he left graffiti in one of the followspot booths. Misleadingly, it read: “I am a no hoper.”

Rik’s big breakthrough came with the classic anarchic sitcom The Young Ones. He became the pin up boy for the ‘alternative comedy’ scene of the 1980s and is also well known for Bottom, The Comic Strip Presents, The New Statesman and his scene-stealing cameos in Blackadder.

He died in 2014, aged 56. Calls to erect a statue of Rik – possibly flicking the Vs like his Young Ones character – have so far fallen on deaf ears.

Click here for a compilation of some of Rik’s memorable moments from The Young Ones.