At the same time, the BBC wanted a piece of the action and 'The Young Ones' (1982-84) was developed. Planer appeared in almost 30 episodes of the long running anthology series 'Comic Strip Presents' (Channel 4 1983-2012) most notably as Den Dennis in the 1984 heavy metal spoof 'Bad News.' A sort of British version of the concurrent 'This Is Spinal Tap' (1984), the fake band even released an album produced by Queen's Brian May. The buzz surrounding the club unsurprisingly attached TV interest and soon the Comic Strip was being courted by fledging TV network Channel 4, first appearing on TV in a documentary about the club in 1981. They helped smash down the barriers of old-fashioned, staid comedians, helping create the alternative comedy scene. The venue was a strip club the rest of the time, so the group took on the name The Comic Strip. They performed as The Outer Limits, just one of the acts that appeared at the Raymond Revue Bar in Soho in the early '80s, alongside Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Alexi Sayle. Having studied drama at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Planer formed a double act with a comic named Peter Richardson. Nigel Planer was a member of the Comic Strip, a loose collective of actors and comedians who changed British comedy forever in the early 1980s.

Nigel planer hogfather