Vic and Bob are back where
THE OLD adage holds that laughter is the best medicine, which makes the return of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer to our TV screens a very welcome one.
Not that Reeves thinks the current climate is much more dour than before: “Do you think we’re living in miserable times?” he ponders.
“I guess we are but then times are always miserable, aren’t they? Like in the 1970s there were the binmen strikes and things.
“There’s always miserable times and there’s always good times.” He adds, with a grin:
“We provide the latter.”
Along with comedy partner Mortimer, Reeves has been making people laugh for three decades and he’s as droll in person as he is on screen.
The 59-year-old believes woefulness is a widespread trait: “I think a lot of people just like being miserable,” he says. “I hate being miserable myself. I’m never miserable.”
Mortimer points out that there’ll be lots of jollity and no politics in the new four-part series of Vic & Bob’s Big Night Out.
Also 59, he insists: “We’re not miserable characters and we don’t address current affairs in the show. For 30 years we’ve never done that, actually. We’re clowns, not commentators. You could air our shows from 30 years ago now and they’d be fine. We don’t deal with areas like race, religion, politics or current affairs.”
Vic chimes in: “You wouldn’t get Tommy
Cooper going, ‘Hey, check out Brexit!’ and you won’t get us doing that either.”
The new Big Night Out promises the usual mix of madcap sketches and silly stunts plus songs, competitions and guest stars including Bear Grylls, Paul Weller and George Ezra.
It comes after a successful Christmas special last year, itself a reboot of the show that debuted in 1990 – although Reeves notes that the compere he played in the original run was pompous and controlling whereas he’s more genial now.
After the second series of the variety-style show in 1991, the pair teamed up for sketch shows The Smell Of Reeves & Mortimer and Bang Bang, It’s Reeves And Mortimer, as well as the comedy quiz show Shooting Stars, their Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) revival and comedy drama Catterick.
Why did they decide to revisit the Big Night Out formula? “Because we were asked to,” Bob deadpans. “It’s as simple as that.”
I meet Leeds-born Vic (real name James Moir) and Middlesbrough lad Bob (who refers to his pal as Jim, not Vic, in conversation) in bustling London fish and chip restaurant Poppie’s.
Mates since they met on the comedy circuit in the late 1980s, they made their television debut as a duo with that first 1990 series – then called Vic Reeves Big Night Out – and have worked together every year since, whether for TV shows, tours, charity skits or guest appearances. “So we slot straight back into our rhythm,” says Bob. “We work as a unit, no one is the boss. It’s
a very simple writing process and we don’t come to the table with prepared stuff. Say we have a character we want to do and one of us goes, ‘He could do this’, if the other is silent then we know it doesn’t work. We keep at it ’til we go,
‘That’s it’, then we write that down. It’s very easy and natural.”
Mortimer seems very chipper in the chippy, although he refrains from ordering anything to eat. Fatty foods are pretty much off the menu since his triple bypass operation in 2015.
He went to the doctor with what he thought was a chest infection but was found to have severely blocked arteries: “Which was scary at the time but is actually not such a big deal,” he says. “They’re churning out heart bypasses at a rapid rate.”
Asked if it’s changed how he lives his life, Bob admits that he’s not as strict with his diet as he should be.
“I packed in smoking so that’s a good thing. I still have cheese, although I probably shouldn’t, and I miss pies so much – but then I do have the occasional one.”
Vic is trying to diet too, sighing: “I used to be able to eat anything but now you eat something unhealthy and end up piling on the weight. I seriously have to start thinking about not nibbling things at night.
“I used to have a Magnum every night and blocks of cheese and it wouldn’t stop there –
‘We’re thoroughly happy we haven’t got bigger than we have’
some nights I’d also have a Solero – but I can’t do that any more.” Fearful that he might not survive, Mortimer married long-time partner Lisa Matthews in a small ceremony just 30 minutes before his surgery.
Parents to grown-up sons Harry and Tom, they have been together for 22 years: “And I don’t know if we’d have got married if the heart attack hadn’t happened,” Bob admits, “but you get all emotional.” He laughs and adds: “You’ll marry anything.”
HOW DID Vic feel at the time? “It’s upsetting because it’s your friend.” Droll as ever, he looks at Bob and adds: “It also seems to be all we talk about these days.” Bob smiles. “I know. Sorry about that, Jim.”
The pair say they’re great mates because they never fail to make each other laugh. “I don’t think you can go much deeper than that,” Vic says.
Bob adds: “We can talk for hours but although it seems like we see a lot of each other, it’s only when we’re working. I don’t socialise with anybody.”
Staying home in Tunbridge Wells with Lisa is Mortimer’s idea of perfect downtime.
Father-of-four Reeves is equally happy at home in the Kent village of Charing with his wife Nancy Sorrell, saying: “Even if I did want to go out to a boozer – which I don’t really – there are none left in Charing now.”
When they do venture out, fans don’t bombard them with catchphrases like,
“You wouldn’t let it lie”, it’s either “Where’s Vic?” or “Where’s Bob?”
They are very much a double act in the public’s eyes and they’ve never even had a bust-up in private. “Never,” says Vic. “I’ve never had a row with my wife either. I don’t remember my mum and dad arguing. There were never any rows going on in our house.”
Next year they’re planning to make a low-budget, UK-set film called The Glove, which will see them trying to track down a piece of Michael Jackson memorabilia.
Might they also bring back the much-loved Shooting Stars? “No one’s asked us,” is Vic’s laid-back answer to that.
“It’s not in our nature to go ‘We want to do this’ and ‘We want to do that’ but we’re thoroughly happy with everything we’ve done so far and the fact we haven’t got bigger than we have.”
Bob grins. “Thirty years on, to still be going along in our little slipstream is pretty good.”
How about another 30? Bob looks at Vic and grins again. “Yes please, that’d be nice.”
Vic & Bob’s Big Night Out is on BBC Four, Wednesdays at 10pm from November 28