Quote
From the play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), by Oscar Wilde. The full quote is:

Lord Illingworth. I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. But, if you wish, let us stay here. Yes, let us stay here. The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.
Mrs. Allonby. It ends with revelations.

The quote refers to the Bible ("the book of life"), beginning with The Book of Genesis, which features the Garden of Eden, and ending with The Book of Revelation (incorrectly called Revelations quite often, including by Mrs Allonby, for witty Wildean reasons).

As my note at the end points out, the Bible actually begins in chaos and darkness: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep." And Revelation ends in a feverish vision of an impossible Heaven.

When you finish reading the story, you may decide for yourself whether it follows the second model suggested by the Bible or not. 

The Garden
The relationship between Julian and Noel in the story begins in a garden, to suggest the beauty and innocence of Eden. The new arrivals who are still at the House of Healing are shown smelling flowers in delight and helping themselves to fruit from the trees – the name Eden may be from the Hebrew for "pleasure, delight". The scent of the flowers and taste of the fruit no doubt have healing properties in themselves.

The Garden of Eden is also about temptation, and Julian certainly feels a little tempted here!

Defending Your Life
Julian and Noel are vaguely analogous to the main characters in the film, Daniel and Julia. The awkward, insecure Daniel (Albert Brooks) faces being sent back to Earth. He falls for Julia (Meryl Streep), a sweet warm person who embraces all the pleasures offered to her, and seems to be headed for a higher plane of existence. You can see how Julian and Noel seemed perfect for these respective roles!

Noel Reality Check
Noel has blond hair in the story, because his natural hair colour in youth was a sort of dark blond/light brown colour. He's dyed it dark for years, but I imagined how he looked when he dyed his hair blond in his twenties (see Photo Album). It makes sense to me that dyed hair, along with other body modifications such as tattoos, piercings, cosmetic surgery, and prosthetic limbs, would not follow you into the Afterlife.

Julian thinks Noel might be a child when he first sees him. Noel joked that he looked 13 when he was 23 and met Julian – he did look very young, and could have easily passed for 16 or so. 

Noel's naughty comment on his youthful appearance compared to the older, tall Julian: 

Noel caught hepatitis when he was at college, was ill and exhausted for a year, and didn't drink alcohol for the next five years. He credits his friend Nigel Coan for helping him through this difficult time; Nigel would later become an animator on The Mighty Boosh TV show. In real life, this happened a year or two later than in the story – I might as well admit now I didn't settle on a timeline for the story until it was almost over, and originally I was thinking of Noel and Julian as being a bit older.

Noel went to the Croydon School of Art, then did his BA in Graphic Design and Advertising at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, now Buckinghamshire New University. He may be referring to either of these as "art college".

Noel's mother Yvonne died of liver damage in 1990, when Noel was 17. His "second mother" is Diane Fielding, who married his father when Noel was three. Diane played Diane the green faced witch, a member of the Shaman Council, in two episodes of The Mighty Boosh.

I have been told Noel pronounces Julian's name as having one and a half syllables, Joo'n. I confess I can only hear one syllable, and it sounds to me exactly like June. You may hear this in your head either way.

Noel really did go to Julian's comedy gigs when he was in college, and became a fan.

It was actually Noel who had his posters defaced, not Julian: they wrote, You're shit. He was still indignant about it years later, which shows how hurtful an act it is to a performer.

Noel really was extremely tactile with Julian; it is rare to see an interview where they are not touching, gradually creeping closer and closer. It looks both affectionate, and an effort to calm and comfort Julian, who hates interviews.

Julian Reality Check
Julian was into heavy metal as a teenager, and was in a metal band called Vamongus. Inspired by Black Sabbath, Rush, and Van Halen, he makes it sound like him and another guy playing endless guitar solos back to back. His dream was to be in Kerrang magazine.

Musical References
Brian Jones
Founder, lead guitarist, and original lead singer of The Rolling Stones. He drowned in his swimming pool, aged 27. It was ruled "death by misadventure", although rumours continue that it may have been murder.

Bryan Ferry
Lead singer of Roxy Music, and solo artist. Like Noel, he was an art student, and became known for his fashion style and elegant image. Noel is a huge fan of his, and in his youth, once made a collage out of magazine photos which depicted Bryan Ferry living in a jungle as Noel's father - oddly enough, Bryan Ferry did end up being worshipped by a tribe in the Congo in real life. This early art piece helped inspire the episode "Hitcher" in the first series of The Mighty Boosh. In 2010, Noel had an art exhibition called Bryan Ferry vs The Jelly Fox, featuring a shrine to Ferry and several portraits. Bryan Ferry was apparently both touched and bemused by this artistic tribute.

https://youtu.be/k_9glkn3LdY

Captain Beefheart
American singer-songwriter with The Magic Band, avant-garde, absurdist, and eclectic. Both Julian and Noel are fans, and so were their fathers.

Frank Zappa
American singer-songwriter with The Mothers of Invention, and solo artist, his work marked by improvisation, experimentation, and satire on American culture. Julian was a fan of his work from early on, and in 2010, Julian and Noel did a tribute show to Zappa, playing covers of his songs. Frank's daughter, actress Diva Zappa, played the role of Astrid in the episode "Party" in The Mighty Boosh. She and her family were fans of the show, and she wrote to Julian and Noel, asking if she could be involved in some way.

Rolling Stones
Classic rock band. They are one of Noel's favourite bands, and he modelled his androgynous style on lead singer Mick Jagger. In The Mighty Boosh, Noel's character Vince literally worships Mick Jagger, and he says the Stones are "like a religion" for him. Noel got to meet Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and is friendly with fellow artist Ronnie Wood.

Led Zeppelin
Classic rock band. According to Noel, The Mighty Boosh based their "Mod Wolves Song" from the episode "Jungle" on Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song".

Motörhead
Classic hard rock and heavy metal band. Their 1979 album Bomber was the first album Noel ever bought, which he says changed his life.

Kiss
American glam metal band. Noel has been a fan since the age of eight, and reportedly was taken to one of their concerts as a child in full Kiss make-up, going backstage to meet the band. Noel often included Kiss memorabilia on the show, and he and Olly Ralfe, as Vince and Leroy, wear Kiss makeup as a glam-folk double act in the episode "Electro".

Gary Numan
Frontman for synth-pop band Tubeway Army and solo artist, a pioneer in electronic music. Julian was a big fan of his as a teenager, although in the show, it is Noel's character Vince who is the Gary Numan fan. Gary Numan had a brief cameo as himself in the episode "The Power of the Crimp" on The Mighty Boosh.

David Bowie
Rock star, famous for constant reinvention of his onstage persona. Both Noel and Julian are fans, and he has been a big influence on Noel's androgynous style and image changes. There is a homage to Bowie in the episode "Nanageddon" on The Mighty Boosh, where a street scene is composed to look like the cover of Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Characters
Joey
Noel's healer is named Joey, a reference to zookeeper Joey Moose in two episodes of The Mighty Boosh, played by Dave Brown. Joey is a parody of Australian zookeeper and wildlife educator, Steve Irwin.

Jeannie
Noel's Case Worker. Noel says she is "two hundred years old", so was either born in the late 18th century, or more likely, died then. Noel might be thinking of her death as her "birth" into the Afterlife. More of Jeannie later! 

Write What You Know
When Julian first sees Noel, a thin 19-year-old dressed in pyjamas and dressing gown, he is unsure whether he is an adult or a child. At the same age, I had to go into hospital for a couple of days to have my wisdom teeth removed. I'm short and round-faced, and noticed that when I was in my hospital gown, the doctors and nurses assumed I was a child, and spoke to me as if I was about ten.

For some reason, they got quite annoyed with me when they learned I was actually a second year uni student, as if I'd deliberately made myself look small and youthful as a prank. How it could be my fault, when they had my birth date on forms and even on a tag around my wrist if they had only looked, I cannot fathom.