Reeves and Mortimer: ‘It feels more precious after all these years’

The comic duo are back with more songs, sketches and silliness, they tell Georgia Humphreys

Few comic partnerships are as long standing as that of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Having first performed for the BBC with the Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer, the duo are marking their 25th anniversary at the channel with a new series of Vic And Bob’s Big Night Out.

Each half-hour episode is filmed live in front of an audience in a studio theatre, and once again sees them deliver their inimitable brand of surreal slapstick humour together. Expect songs, sketches and silliness.

“We’re not scientific comedians, thinking like, ‘things have moved on, we need to do this, we need to reflect the world in this way’,” suggests Mortimer, 59.

“It’s exactly the same as we were doing 28 years ago.”

Reeves, also 59, adds: “We don’t think about what people might like.

“We just think: ‘that’s funny and that’s ridiculous so we will do that’.”

Darlington-born Reeves, whose real name is Jim Moir, was once an aeronautical engineer, while Mortimer, from Middlesbrough, used to work as a solicitor, before they entered the entertainment industry.

They first performed together with their 1986 live show, called Vic Reeves Big Night Out, and have since gone on to have many hit TV shows together, including Shooting Stars, Bang Bang, Catterick and House of Fools.

Discussing the four new episodes of Vic And Bob’s Big Night Out, which will air on BBC4, Mortimer says there is one interesting difference from when they started as a double act.

“Wedotendtodomore jokes nowadays,” he reveals. “We start off the show, six jokes with punchlines – one liners.”

“We’ve probably gone more old fashioned...” notes Reeves.

When it comes to the reason behind their loyal following, the duo wonder whether it’s partly because they’ve never become “mainstream” – they have no desire to be “popular”, as such.

“I suppose you’ve got the indie groups in music, and

0 Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves still enjoy working together

you’ve got the mainstream, and we’ve always been a little indie,” says Reeves.

“We never have been in that mainstream area. Shooting Stars and Families At War crept into it, but we pretty much do what we like doing, and we’ve got an audience who like it too.”

“I think there’s a longevity to it, because of that very fact,” Mortimer adds of their type of comedy.

“If we’re in mainstream, you’re competing with loads of other people, Americans. But we haven’t really got competitors in our little area.”

And it’s not a form of entertainment they see anyone else encroaching on any time soon either.

“It’s just traditional comedy really – pratfalls and funny faces, daft noises and all that – but the weird thing is no one seems to be bothering, so we kind of have them [fans] to ourselves really,” says Mortimer.

“We may be a bit ignorant of the youngsters... But I’m not aware of people doing this traditional stuff.”

Their original Big Night Out show came from experimenting on stage, and seeing what happens when they talk about surreal topics.

And the inspiration behind the new show comes “from the same place as it started really, which is you do something which is silly, stupid and will make someone laugh,” says Reeves.

“There’s nothing more to it than that,” he continues matter-of-factly. “It’s not like, ‘lets see how surreal we can

be’ because I think if you do something like that, it’s not going to work.”

While both Reeves and Mortimer have done a lot of different projects separately over the years, they haven’t got sick of working with each other.

“It feels more precious after all these years,” Mortimer says fondly of their partnership.

“It’s great fun,” Reeves agrees.

“I look forward to working – writing the stuff, and then doing it. If I wasn’t looking forward to it, you could tell.”

Having fun has, in fact, always been their main motivation for their sketches.

“We do it because (we think) ‘this is a great idea, I’d like to see that on screen’,” says Reeves.

“We pretty much do it for ourselves first, and hope other people like it.”

And they’ve certainly never been tempted to do stadium tours, like comics such as Michael Mcintyre.

“I think he’s got skills we don’t have,” says Mortimer.

“I’m not a fan of the standup comedy personally. But some of them are incredibly skilled.”

It’s simple really: these are clearly two very good friends who relish the chance to make people laugh together.

“We write for months, and it’s a very pleasant time, and then it’s nice because we can finish a bit early, you can get home and watch the telly,” says Mortimer.

“Neither of us have got a desire to get super famous, it’s just a pleasant way to pass the time. We both worked [before], so back of our mind we know what life could be.”

“We pretty much do it for ourselves first, and hope other people like it”

● Vic And Bob’s Big Night Out returns to BBC4 at 10pm tonight