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Friday March 18 - Thursday March 31 2011
NEWS
Rik Mayall films with Kingston’s Young Ones LARS THOMESEN K0929606 IN THE Young Ones he was a hell raising student. Now 35 years later Rik Mayall is teaching Kingston Students how to do the same. A short film by a Kingston University student has attracted the British comedy legend to the proceedings. The film, co-written by second year history student, Red Richardson, mocks celebrity and
modern culture, and stars Mayall, famous for films such as Drop Dead Fred and comedy series, The Young Ones, as Tommy, a useless celebrity agent. “Sid, the other writer, showed him the script and he loved it, so we offered him the part of Tommy,” said Red. He believes the attention is mostly down to Mayall’s involvement in the film, and believes if it turns out to be a success then they will mostly have him to thank. According to Red, the character of Tommy played by Rik “is
Rik Mayall during filming, and below creator Red Richardson
basically a complete scumbag”. “He tells his girls where to go and who to sleep with so he can sell stories to tabloids,” he said. He is a completely useless manager and a complete pervert.” The half-hour film was written by Red and Sid Mayall, who is Rik’s son, and was released on YouTube and Facebook on March 11. “Our initial goal is to hit one million views on YouTube,” said Red, 22, who hopes the film will become a YouTube sensation. The main characters, Red and Sid, are two guys that like to party
hard and sponge off their celebrity dads’ cash and have no problem with the way they live their lives. Red said: “They both consider themselves actors and musicians, but neither do anything to achieve this goal. They are two pointless reality TV stars.” The film, which took eight days to film, involved cameraman, Nick Page, 24, who has experience working on many films, including Steven Spielberg’s film War Horse The writers have ideas for six more episodes and are hoping for a TV company to take an interest
and perhaps make it into a TV show. Red urged people to see the film for themselves. He said: “Go on YouTube and watch it, it’s sick!” He also wants people to join the ‘Showbiz Kidz’ Facebook group.
Fire chaos cancels students’classes OLIVIA HEATH K0816568
A SUSPECTED arson attack on the second floor of a university building caused gridlock in the surrounding campus and left thousands of students with cancelled lectures. The classes are said to be rescheduled in study week, meaning many students will have to come back to Kingston early in order to catch up on vital lessons. Politics and international relations student, Fiona Richards, condemned those who started the fire in the JG building in Penrhyn Road. She said: “I think it’s stupid, irresponsible and pretty pathetic. It is a university with adults who should be behaving. It’s not a primary school. “It’s ridiculous that students are now having to give up time during reading week to attend re-scheduled classes.” Throughout Penrhyn Road corridors became a fire risk themselves when huge numbers of students flocked to nearby buildings after escaping the fire. The fire caused a frenzy as the building closed for the whole day.
Worried students evacuating
Although no one was injured, concerns have also been raised about the fire alarm system in the £20m building as students claim that they did not hear the fire alarm go off until they got outside the building. Harry Roberts, a sport science student, said: “We made it down two flights of stairs and got to the doors to the fire point and only then did the fire alarms go off. “It was actually a pretty big fire. It’s worrying to think what might have happened had nobody seen the fact the room was on fire.” Film studies and television stu-
Natasha Roberts
dent, James Finlayton tweeted: “We pretty much carried on our lecture for a few minutes because we thought it was a drill.” Journalism lecturer, Mary Braid, who was teaching on the same corridor, said: “All of a sudden we heard a man shouting ‘It’s a fire. It’s a real fire’. This was before the alarms had gone off. “We went into the corridor to have a look and there was lots of black smoke.” Kingston University will now review the incident which will include an audibility check of the alarms in the six storey complex.
Ian Appleford, health and safety manager at Kingston University said: “What might have happened in this specific instance is that a few students on the second floor were verbally told to leave the building by security staff just before they sounded the alarms. “I attended the scene very soon after everything started. The alarms were sounding loudly and could be heard from Fassett Road as staff and students were evacuating. “Initial reports and observations suggest the evacuation procedure worked well with the building being evacuated within about seven minutes.” Staff and students were escorted back into the building in groups to collect their belongings but the John Galsworthy building remained closed for the rest of the day and opened the following morning. Arson is a serious crime which can carry up to a life sentence. Aggravating factors include whether it was pre-planned and risk of the fire spreading. The fact that it is a public building makes the crime even more serious. Kingston Police are looking into who may have been responsible for the fire.
TV fire students caged for 2 years TWO Sheffield University students were jailed for two years in a similar incident last month. The drunken pair put a TV in an oven and set fire to a chair in their halls of residence. The biomedical sciences students returned to their four-storey block of flats where they then covered heat detectors and smoke alarms with plastic bags after starting the fire. The pair were sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on February 24. Daniel Gyi, 21, was jailed and Joshua Hart, 20, sent to a young offenders’ institution - both for two years after pleading guilty to criminal damage and recklessly endangering lives. The court heard how the students panicked and fled from the building when toxic fumes poured from the oven and started to fill the room, leaving their oblivious flatmates sleeping nearby. Gyi told the police “we just fancied burning it for no reason”. Emma-Louise Geary,