RIP Pete Richens

Pete Richens, who co-wrote more than two dozen of the Comic Strip films, died August 6, 2018 in Devon, England at the age of 65. Born Peter Richens on August 18, 1952 in Devon, he started working with the troupe – whose core members were Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle – at their live shows at the Raymond Revue Bar in Soho. There he would transcribe the comedians’ improvisations and create a coherent narrative from them. His contribution to the group’s films was overshadowed by Richardson, who was the driving force behind the Comic Strip. However, Richens co-wrote 25 of the films, from the first, 1982’s Five Go Mad In Dorset, to the last, Redtop, in 2016 and occasionally made cameo appearances, most notably as a cheerful depressive in Gregory: Diary of a Nutcase. Richens was co-writer on “A Fistful of Traveller’s Cheques” (1984).