RIP Rick
"The peoples poet is dead. I guess it must be time to grab the last freedom moped out of nowhere city and not even tell our parents what time we'll be back."
YOUNG ONES Series 2 ep.1:
[Rick is trying to commit suicide]
Rick: I feel sorry for you, you zeros! You nobodies! What's going to live on after you die? I'll tell you - nothing! That's what! [struggling to hang himself] Oh, this is pathetic![he gives up trying to hang himself, then sees a jar of pills and attempts to overdose]Neil: [upon seeing Rick eating the pills] Vyv, Vyv – er, can you, like, actually kill yourself with laxative pills?
Vyvyan: I don't know Neil, but I'm going to stay and find out!
Neil: I think I'm going up to my room for a bit![Rick swallows pills in front of Neil as he leaves]
Rick: This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and rastas will all gather round and 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!"[Vyvyan crouches down to watch Rick's rear as he talks]
Rick: And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say, "Other kids, do you understand nothing? How can Rick be dead when we still have his poems?" And then another kid will say... [he then farts loudly and realises what he's been taking]
Pack of matches: Don't look at me. I'm irrelevant.
Gone too soon. His friends say his health never fully recovered after suffering brain injuries when falling off his farm bike 16 years ago. May be connected to his sudden death. I was surprised at the time he made such a good recovery, his injuries were so bad. Working to the end but mainly small parts in recent years. He had to quit the stage show of "The New Statesman" in 2007 due to bad health.