The Comic Strip has always been praised for being against inequality, but in the early days Rik Mayall felt that some appeared to be more equal than others.

Says Dawn French (in an interview with Time Out magazine): “[Jennifer and I] worked seven nights a week for five pounds each a night, and we loved it! It was Rik Mayall, actually – God bless him – who pointed out at one meeting that we were earning five pounds each and they were all on 80 quid or something. So it wasn’t quite as equal as we might’ve hoped. But then it changed immediately, and we were all on the same money.”