There is no denying the fact that Rik Mayall knows how to make an audience burst into laughter. Even in a film with touchy subject matter like Drop Dead Fred, Rik still utilized his trademark goofy facial expressions, lively body language and animated voice to make audiences giggle profusely. Even though Rik’s niche was as a comic for the past twenty years, he was no foreigner to straight acting. Rik grew up in a household that lived and breathed theatrical arts. His parents were both drama teachers and he spent a good deal of his childhood on the stage performing in his parents’ plays. After graduating high school, Rik majored in drama at the University of Manchester where he would meet longtime business partner Adrian Edmondson and the rest is humor history.
After achieving major success in comedy, Rik would follow in the risky footsteps of such noted comedians as Robin Williams and Denis Leary by trying on the dramatic mask. In 1993 and 1995 Rik starred in his own collection of six one hour long dramas titled Rik Mayall Presents for ITV. Even though the series had its share of humor, it was a huge departure from Rik’s more energetic approach. Each episode contained a different element that steps far away from the slapstick, boisterous fare that made Rik a household name in the UK. From the dark and twisted Briefest Encounter to the rich and provocative The Big One, each episode had a unique theme. While the latter was set to the beat of a grittier tune, Dancing Queen is the lightest and best of the bunch, a soft hearted tale of love and friendship that blossoms between two unlikely people.
Neil (the lovely Rik) is a wealthy and sophisticated gentleman that is getting married. The night before the wedding, his friends throw him an extravagant bachelor party. His friend Nigel (Nathaniel Parker) hires a stripper named Pandora (Helena Bonham Carter) to dance at the party. After a drunken induced haze, Neil wakes up on a train next to Pandora (whose real name is Julie). As it turns out, Nigel and his mates drugged Neil and loaded him onto the train as a practical joke. Their plan to get the groom back home has backfired, and Neil is left stranded far away from home on his wedding day.
In the role of the unlucky Neil, Rik shows the audience that he can do more than rely on a hyperactive persona to entertain. In Dancing Queen he proves that he can provide the chops of a legitimate straight actor. His portrayal makes the audience despise Neil at first for his snobby aggressive behavior. Eventually his act of desperation grasps onto the heartstrings and never lets go. In one moving scene, he is seen on a beachside in an emotional breakdown with his arms up in the air screaming about wanting to get married. The way Rik made that poignant delivery was touching and genuine. From the look in his sad expressive eyes to his distressed cries, you experience the pain that Neil is enduring. Here is a man who has been through hell on what is supposed to be the most special and important day of his life.
Rik and Helena ignite chemistry together as Neil and Julie, two people who could not be any more different. Neil was brought up in wealth and refinement while Julie is an independent, carefree woman that lives the seedy lifestyle of a drifter. Despite his snobbish attitude towards her, Julie still maintains her caring personality. In fact it could be agreed that her act of kindness might have saved Neil’s life. As he is on the beach in an emotive state, the fear lingers in the back of the our minds that his misery might drive him to the nearest solution, to walk off into the sea and drown. Luckily Julie would emerge like an angel to rescue Neil from a fateful death by speaking words of encouragement. In the end it is clear that he has fallen in love with her, which sets the backdrop to one of the most exquisite conclusions I have ever witnessed in the show. Julie is twirling an umbrella in her hand while cheerfully dancing to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” on the boom box while Neil is racing down the coastline in his BMW to reach her. In one shot, Neil peers through the window in admiration watching Julie dance. Rik looked so stunning in that moment and the lighting upon him really exemplified his beauty. His smooth complexion, his sparkling eyes, the way his hair swayed in the breeze, Rik looked so beautiful it‘s breathtaking.
Romantic comedies are not my cup of tea but Dancing Queen captured my heart. I believe that if older American women watched it, they would admire it as much as Four Weddings and a Funeral and put Rik up on a pedestal next to Hugh Grant as the loveable Englishmen they wish to marry.
