HEALTH PROBLEMS
LAUGHTER is never far away as Bob Mortimer reels off a list of ailments that drive him, how should we put it... well, nuts.
Bob is sitting alongside comedy pal Vic Reeves as they chew the fat over the much-anticipated TV return of their Big Night Out show.
The pair are about to turn 60 and health dominates the conversation.
Vic’s been told he is bordering on obesity and his cholesterol is high.
Bob has had heart bypass surgery and his knees give terrible trouble.
You’d think rheumatoid arthritis is no laughing matter and, of couse, for the most part it is anything but.
But then Bob reveals it’s a bit like that lager ad on the telly – it reaches parts that other ailments don’t.
He explains: “I have long periods where I don’t suffer from it and they say stress causes it. Two days before a big gig, I would get it and I now know that if I am worried or stressed then bang, it returns with a vengeance.
“My heart attack doesn’t impinge on my life at all, but it’s my f ****** joints that do!”
Vic interjects: “I mean, you have even got it in your eye... you had to leave the studio.”
“That’s right, I got eye-arthritis,” confirmed Bob.
“Rheumatoid arthritis generally happens when your immune system attacks your joints, but I’ve had it attack my iris.”
Then he bursts with laughter and adds: “The worst one was arthritis in me b ****** s – I had that when we were filming Big Night Out!”
Ouch. And right there is an interview answer we never expected!
I have had arthritis in my eye but the worst one was in my b ****** s! BOB MORTIMER MAKING LIGHT OF HIS CONDITION
STiTcHES
No offence is taken, of course. It’s just fun being in the company of two comedy greats who have kept us in stitches for decades.
The pals are back on BBC Four with a new run of Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out. Expect surreal gags and silly banter – but none of the tearing around of the old days.
Vic says: “We have calmed down and we don’t climb in trees and play the blues on our guitar any more.
“Once upon a time we were excitable youths with an appetite for fun and now I have just got an appetite for food and television.
“I suppose I don’t feel it but as soon as you get to 60, apparently all your bits start to fall off.
“I am really trying not to eat cheese at night. It’s become a real problem and I have now got high cholesterol. I have to do something about it.
“I went to the doctor and she said, ‘You are bordering on obese’ but it seems you don’t have to be much to be obese nowadays.” Vic, real name Jim Moir, has four children – two with first wife Sarah and two with current wife Nancy. Bob has two kids with wife Lisa, who he married just hours before his triple heart bypass in 2015. And as the big 6-0 beckons he, too, admits taking things ever more easy – more at the pace of his BBC2 angling show with comic pal Paul Whitehouse, 60. Bob says: “I have totally calmed down. I just sit and watch telly for 365 days. “I might go out two or three times a year and I like to go fishing. “But after my heart op, I can’t do as much. I’m falling to pieces. I’ve a