Comedy Double Act

The comedy double act of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer has been part of British TV for the past decade, taking them from cult status on Channel 4 to prime time success on the BBC.

Vic began doing stand-up comedy and chose 'Vic Reeves' as just one of many different stage aliases he would use each night and for some reason it stuck. He quickly gained popularity on the South London pub circuit for his zany performances which were unique among the fashionably trendy political comics at the time in the late 80s. Meanwhile, Bob became a solicitor.

Bob attended one of Vic's marathon three hour performances, which was part music, part satire of variety shows, some physical comedy; in other words, anything for a laugh, which he now admits was mostly "performance art" most of the time. They met, hit it off immediately and Vic and Bob began collaborating. Vic also made an early TV appearance on The Tube in 1986, doing the first of his send-ups of game show hosts.

Television came calling, namely Channel 4 which was making a name for itself with the sort of edgy, you've-never-seen-this-before type of entertainment which Vic and Bob were becoming known for. Vic Reeves Big Night Out premiered in 1990, with Bob taking 10 weeks off from his solicitor job to film the series. BBC 2 came calling, and with Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) as a producer, they created The Smell of Reeves & Mortimer in 1993 combining sketches with their "sitting behind a desk" host interaction.

In 1995 they debuted their most popular programme to date, the comedy quiz show Shooting Stars. It was created so they could have an on-air "gang" of co-conspirators, in this case celebrities, who would be willing participants in this extended game show parody. It made household names of former weathergirl and Gladiators host Ulrika Jonsson and comic Mark Lamarr as the weekly team captains, as well as willing accomplices in pre-taped sketches. Each episode ended with a celebrity guest "winner" to have to perform some bizarre stunt, using very odd props. The nonsense words that Vic used like "eranu" became national catchphrases. They did three years of Shooting Stars and then a live stage show version.