Stars pay their respects at Rik Mayall’s funeral

Nigel Planer, who played hippie Neil in the 1980’s anarchic comedy The Young Ones, was one of more than 100 mourners also including Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, who worked with the comedian on The Comic Strip Presents series.

Others who attended the service at St George's Church in Dittisham, Devon, near Mayall's country home, were actor Alan Rickman and stand-up comedian and writer Ben Elton, Mayall's friend from university and one of his co-writers on The Young Ones.

The service began with Mayall's wicker coffin entering the church accompanied by Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale on organ.

Mayall died aged 56, at his home in Barnes, south-west London of a suspected heart attack.

A more public memorial service is expected to be held in September.

He gained fame in his role as self-styled anarchist student Rick in The Young Ones and went on to star alongside fellow Young Ones alumnus Adrian Edmondson in Bottom.

Other roles include his turn as the conniving MP Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman, and Lord Flashheart in Blackadder.

Mayall is survived by his wife, the Scottish make-up artist Barbara Robbin whom he married in 1985, and his three children Rosie, 28, Sidney, 26, and Bonnie, 19.