Equally revolting, vicious and arrogant, they spend their lives avoiding work and instead living in filth, devising hair-brained moneymaking schemes and deluded plans to snare beautiful women.

They also share a penchant for ultra-violence: weekly kicking seven shades out of each other with anything from household implements to heavy industrial machinery.

Mayall and Edmondson, most famous for their work together in 80s classic The Young Ones, used the show to explore the far depths of comic possibilities offered by squalid bachelor life and to provide plentiful outlets for their trademark slapstick.

The surreal nature of the violence - for instance, enabling Eddie's legs to be chain-sawed off temporarily in one episode - led to no shortage of visual jokes and gave Bottom a zany, cartoony feel.

It was never looking for mainstream appeal, but it did spawn a strong and loyal cult following over three TV series, a succession of outrageous shows on stage (where the pair first honed their act) and finally a movie version in 1999 (Guest House Paradiso).

Freed from taking itself seriously, the script would often openly refer to the fact that it's just a sitcom (another anarchic touch descended from The Young Ones).

The net result was a crude yet often hilarious show in which truly anything could happen in the next half-hour.