The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer

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''The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer'' is a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Its first series appeared in 1993 following the duo's move to the

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after parting company with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. The show developed and expanded upon the absurd, anarchic comedy that the pair had first explored on Channel 4's '' Vic Reeves Big Night Out''. The major development from the previous series was that

Mortimer Mortimer () is an English surname, and occasionally a given name. Norman origins The surname Mortimer has a Norman origin, deriving from the village of Mortemer, Seine-Maritime, Normandy. A Norman castle existed at Mortemer from an early point; ...

now hosted the show alongside Reeves. As well as getting his name in the title, he and Reeves sat together behind the large prop-strewn desk. With virtually all of the '' Vic Reeves Big Night Out'' characters consigned to the past (only Greg Mitchell and the Stotts survived, the Stotts appearing in the second series), a whole range of new characters appeared. The show also featured pre-recorded sketches and a lavish studio set laden with columns and pillars, and in the centre the enormous letters R&M, from which the duo emerged at the start of each show. The show would usually close with the song "Let's Have A Little Bit More," which saw the pair enthusing about various smells, from " Pol Pot's Dungarees" to "Lulu's Hairdos."

Series one

The first series established the format of the show. Each programme began with an absurd introduction, narrated by

Patrick Allen John Keith Patrick Allen (17 March 1927 – 28 July 2006) was a British actor. Life and career Allen was born in Nyasaland (now Malawi), where his father was a tobacco farmer. After his parents returned to Britain, he was evacuated to Canada ...

("Austria, 1930, a young boy is challenged by his mischievous grandfather to attempt to throw a handbell at the local village idiot") before the studio set appeared and Allen introduced the duo ("Please welcome Libya's foremost air-conditioning engineers, Reeves & Mortimer"), after which the pair would sing a song before seating themselves at the desk to tell silly jokes, introduce their guests and endorse various Reeves & Mortimer products (such as the "Reeves & Mortimer Walk-Me-Home Cheddar" and "The Home Vibration Cowboy Unit"). A regular feature was a spoof of a then-current TV programme, such as ''

Food & Drink ''Food and Drink'' is a British television series on BBC Two. First broadcast between 1982 and 2002, it was the first national television programme in the UK to cover the subject of food and drink without cookery and recipe demonstrations. Hist ...

,'' which saw host Chris Kelly (Mortimer), whose face was a piece of toasted cheese with a box of tea bags taped to his head and whose legs gradually became ridiculously long, afterwards boiling his head in a pot to "prepare a nice pot of tea,", and ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

,'' where a termite mound containing the singer

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

was found inside a wardrobe. Perhaps the most bizarre was ''Noel's Addicts'', an insane parody of a show hosted by

Noel Edmonds Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...

in 1992 about people's hobbies. The duo would frequently promise a celebrity guest such as Burt Reynolds, who turned out to be Vic in a strange outfit yelling about his book ''Coping With Stress,'' Cuban soap star Juan Nelly The Elephant (Vic), who kept intermittently turning into an electrical salesman, and Ian Crust, the Inventor of the Bag (Bob). At the end of series one, Bob played a huge practical joke on Vic, who lapsed into a coma. After a rousing final song, Bob unplugged his life-support machine.

Characters

Uncle Peter Played by comedian

Charlie Chuck Charlie Chuck is the stage name of British comedian David Kear. Biography Kear began his career as a drummer with various bands in the late-1970s and early-1980s, including a stint with the Small Faces and the Amazing Bavarian Stompers with who ...

, Uncle Peter was a big-haired, battered-suit wearing lunatic with a bizarre gait and an unnerving habit of shouting incomprehensibly ("DONKEY!") He was in a band, which featured himself and an unidentified piano player played by

Trevor Peacock Trevor Edward Peacock (19 May 1931 – 8 March 2021) was an English actor, screenwriter and songwriter. He made his name as a theatre actor, later becoming known for his Shakespearean roles. Later in his career, he became best known for playing ...

. The band saw Peter shout random nonsense before completely destroying his drumkit. Peter was always wary of being sent back "to t'dark place" by the duo. The Bra Men - Pat Wright & Dave Arrowsmith Two aggressive, donkey-jacket wearing men from the North East town of Hartlepool (Vic and Bob), who get extremely upset at people for "lookin' at my bra". They accuse anyone, be it the postman, a traffic warden or a milkman of "inspecting our charms" and also get very angry if someone inadvertently comments that they're "flat-chested" Also, despite telling the unwitting person they're dealing with where to stick the items they have to give them, they usually just take them anyway. These two were reportedly based on men with whom Reeves worked with in a factory. Le Corbussier et Papin Vic and Bob as two extraordinarily flatulent Frenchmen, in a series of sketches that were filmed in the style of arty French comedies (titles included "L'homme, L'homme, L'femme (La fenêtre)"), accompanied only by whimsical music and the duo's deliberately dubbed on French-speaking voices (the French dialogue made virtually no sense.) They usually saw the pair riding along on their bicycles before encountering things which were deemed worthy of investigation (a kids' playground, where they got a roundabout spinning by the sheer volume of flatulence; a funfair where they attempted to fart-start a motorbike). Slade in Residence This series of spoof sketches saw the '70s glam rock group

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

in their council house. Noddy (Vic), Jim (

Paul Whitehouse Paul Julian Whitehouse (born 17 May 1958) is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He was one of the main stars of the BBC sketch comedy series '' The Fast Show'', and has also starred with Harry Enfield in the shows ''Harry & Paul'' and ''Harr ...

) and Don ( Mark Williams) were the three mischievous ones who were constantly arguing, wrecking the house and messing around with fireworks, much to the annoyance of the motherly Dave (Bob). Also featured famous Midlands musicians Ozzy Osbourne ( Neil Morrissey), UB40, Roy Wood and Simon le Bon (last two

Charlie Higson Charles Murray Higson (born 3 July 1958) is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer. He has also written and produced for television and is the author of the ''Enemy'' book series, as well as the first five novels in the ''Young Bo ...

) Mulligan & O'Hare An eccentric folk duo, possibly spoofing the style of Foster & Allen. Both wear tight polo necks. Dermot Mulligan (Vic) has breasts, presumably due to an incident with hormone replacement pills, while Dermot O'Hare (Bob) has a big beard. They sing songs such as "Frustrated By Weeds" and "My Rose Has Left Me," the latter about O'Hare's ex-wife Rose, a bald woman who went "to Kenya with the bloke from Allied Carpets." They have released ground breaking albums, such as ''The Onion Ring'', ''Moods'', ''Coffee Break'', ''Pancake Day'' and ''Tittybiscuits'' and are well known for their instrumental cover versions of popular songs. After several years away from the limelight, Mulligan and O'Hare appeared in episodes of '' Shooting Stars'' in 2010, and in 2014 they appeared on ''

The Life of Rock with Brian Pern The ''Brian Pern'' documentaries are a British comedy spoof-documentary series about a fictional ageing rock star, Brian Pern, the former frontman of the 1970s progressive rock group Thotch. The series is written by Rhys Thomas and Simon Day, ...

''. Otis Redding & Marvin Gaye Vic and Bob played the soul music legends as the show's resident "agony aunts;" two tiny puppets who were on a TV in a cupboard, "sitting on the dock of the bay watching the ships coming in and going out again." Both spoke in a Teesside accent and in blackface. Bob's Marvin became increasingly bored and unhappy as the series progressed, complaining that they never saw any ships and wanting to go "down the Grapevine to have a drink" but Otis and Marvin were always more than willing to offer expert advice on such matters as "how to deal with Guy Fawking of the leg." Barry White "The Walrus of Love"

Barry White Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...

was played by Vic in blackface as a huge puppet who had tiny little legs and spent his time seducing women with his smooth-talk, and cooking chopped liver. The women turned out to be a pineapple and a piece of copper pipe. Jack Dent & Eric Potter These two were always up-to-no-good in a series of '60s style public information film spoofs, set in the Country, the Factory and the Home. The narrator would frequently interrupt the duo in the middle of some nefarious activity ("Hey you?" "Who, us?" Yes, you... don't you know that the wallpapering of ploughs is prohibited under the country code?" "No." "Well, it is, for it can cause ploughwright distraction leading to seed misplacement, so stop it.") The narrator was revealed on each separate occasion to be a guitar-wielding spring onion, a crab, and a man called Mr Porridge, whom the duo shot. These sketches used the voice of Patrick Allen - the voice-over man for the series, and utilised his previous experience narrating public service films. The Booze For t'Baby Man A man who wandered around in a brown mac, and frequently asked the duo if they had "any booze for t'baby?" to which they would reply, "You can't give a baby BOOZE". Whisky & Brandy Bolland Two fey Scotsmen who appeared in the ''

'' spoof, investigating a wardrobe which contained "wee clothes, wee shoes... almost too wee." They eventually discovered a termite mound with

living inside it. They had their suspicions before finding him, because he'd "only painted 18 inches above sea level" Brandy (Vic) then removed the diminutive singer and booted him through a basketball hoop. Whisky (Bob) remained convinced that Brandy was in fact Dr Nemesis. Greg Mitchell & Corky One of the only survivors of '' Vic Reeves Big Night Out'' was the puppet Greg Mitchell, the "gorgeous sandy coloured labrador" who was always wasting money on ludicrous things. His fey voice would give way to a guttural

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...

bellow as he'd despairingly yell, "My wife's gonna kill me". His friend Corky was a dodgy mongrel cum

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

who stitched Greg up with a bungled bank robbery. Derek & Chester Two gruff, boozy men who appeared on the ''

'' spoof reviewing the Lovely Brown Boozes, before Derek (Vic) let slip that his girlfriend Maggie had left him. They then appeared in ''

'' wanting to get a bottle of Babycham valued, before giving it generously to the Booze For t'Baby man.

Series two

The second series appeared in 1995, and a few changes to the format of the first series had occurred. The unusual introductions followed by a song continued (an example was a history of cheese followed by an upbeat song investigating the link between

cottage cheese Cottage cheese is a curdled milk product with a mild flavor and a creamy, non-homogeneous, soupy texture. It is made from skimmed milk by draining the cheese, as opposed to pressing it to make cheese curd—retaining some of the whey and keep ...

and voodoo) and the same closing song (which originally appeared on the pilot for '' Vic Reeves Big Night Out''), but while the set was essentially the same, the desk was different - it had a slick, red surface, a metal body and a fox stretched across its entire length. While still offbeat and irreverent, the second series had a less absurd, more overtly slapstick atmosphere to it, with Vic increasingly the buffoon to Bob's disapproving figure. Any disagreement was usually the cue for the duo's now-trademark fights with increasingly large frying pans and hammers. The finale to each show would usually see a despairing Bob attempting to entertain the audience, whether singing "The Way We Were" on skis, singing "For All of Us" from within a glass bottle, playing "The British Countryside" on the flute or playing his enormous organ, which happened to contain a fully functioning pub. Vic would barge in and ruin everything for Bob before the usual, rousing "Let's Have A Little Bit More" song would close the proceedings. Reeves & Mortimer products were no longer advertised by the duo themselves, but in the form of "commercials." Products this time included the coffee-table books ''Dogs in Their Hats'' and ''Cats in Bomber Jackets'', "Webster's Savoury Edible Tights" and "Papa's Nappies For Men." Spoofs of then-current TV shows continued, including ''

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with the UK version in July 1990. The format was revived and updated for the BBC in February 2005 by executive producers Roddam and John ...

'' spoof, with Vic as

Loyd Grossman Loyd Daniel Gilman Grossman (born 16 September 1950) is an American-British author, broadcaster and cultural campaigner who has mainly worked in the United Kingdom. He is well known for presenting the BBC programme ''MasterChef'' from 1990 to 20 ...

with a huge bulbous head floating around the studio to the sound of bells, and the contestants including

Morwenna Banks Tamsin Morwenna Banks (born 20 September 1961) is a British comedy actress, writer and producer. She appeared in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show '' Absolutely'', and wrote, produced, and appeared in the British ensemble film ''The Announcemen ...

as Joan Baptiste, who presented a faceplate in the form of Jesus Christ, with her own severed ears the speciality,

Matt Lucas Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...

as the victorious Quentin Mint, who presented a human backside with a side salad, and Bob as the hapless Lucas Bon'chomme whose replica cake of a shoe ("Cake like a shoe, it's a shoe-cake") turned out to be a real shoe, as did his "cakey-phone."

Episodes

* Cheese (5 May 1995) * Haircuts (12 May 1995) * Toddlers (19 May 1995) * Clothes (26 May 1995) * Muscle Chemicals (2 June 1995) * Flight 709 (9 June 1995)

Characters

Many of the characters from series one returned. Uncle Peter was as insane as ever, tormenting the duo with his tales of upgrading to "donkey" status in British Rail carriages, leaving his family heirlooms lying around on the desk and showing off his singing German owls. The Booze For t'Baby man continued his quest to find some booze for his baby, which eventually brought him a bottle of Babycham for which he was moderately thankful. Otis and Marvin were no longer on the dock of the bay but in their own home, where a constantly closing cupboard door and Otis's wayward moustache kept causing problems. Brownface paint was not present. Le Corbussier et Papin continued to fart their way through more farcical situations.

went on a frequently disastrous camping holiday. First, Dave (Bob) got wrongly arrested for being a peeping tom, then Don's ( Mark Williams) arse caught fire, and finally Noddy (Vic), Jim (

) and Dave were constantly attacked by bees and Don pretended to be a policeman. Mulligan & O'Hare released two albums, ''Pancake Day'' (which earned them a ''

South Bank Show ''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, ...

'' profile, although presenter Melvyn Bragg appeared to be more interested in his bicycle) and ''Coffee Break.'' The Bra Men, Pat Wright & Dave Arrowsmith, got more offended than ever when they appeared on ''

Stars in Their Eyes ''Stars in Their Eyes'' is a British television talent series, based on Joop van den Ende's Dutch format ''Soundmixshow''. It featured a singing contest in which members of the public impersonate showbiz stars. The show premiered on 21 July 1 ...

'', and

Matthew Kelly Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English actor and presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as '' Game for a ...

(Bob) commented on how well supported they were. They also went to

Swiss Toni Swiss Toni is a British television comedy character played by Charlie Higson. He is a 50-something car dealer, usually depicted wearing a grey suit and with his hair styled in a platinum blond bouffant quiff; his accent is reported to be based on ...

's Used Cars to buy a car. Upon spotting a convertible, Swiss Toni's comments that "I can picture you... driving along in the summer with your top down" were taken very badly. Swiss Toni would later appear as a major character in ''

The Fast Show ''The Fast Show'', known as ''Brilliant'' in the US, is a BBC comedy sketch show that ran from 1994 to 1997, with specials in 2000 and 2014. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John T ...

.'' Some new characters joined them. Councillors Cox & Evans Two corrupt, obese, wig-wearing officials for the Aldington On Sea district council. They would try and advertise dodgy products such as "Fun Bins" and "the Service Post" before a flaw in the design would inevitably be revealed, leading to a violent fight, Evans (Bob) accusing Cox (Vic) of being a "fat bastard". Tom Fun A perpetually optimistic children's entertainer, played by Vic, who invented cheese along with his friend Mr Grapefruit Drink. He appeared in a ''

Country File ''Countryfile'' is a British television programme which airs weekly on BBC One and reports on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues in the United Kingdom. The programme is currently presented by John Craven, Adam Henson, Matt Baker, ...

'' spoof detailing his walk along the Eskdale Way and how much drink, " snouts" and snacks he would take with him. Tom Fun would enjoy much more exposure in Reeves & Mortimer's 1999 series, '' Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer.'' Chris Bell A scruffy, belligerent Cockney, played by Vic. He first appeared in the ''Noel's Addicts'' sketch in series one as a man who collected horse-drawn nuts. He later was a guest on ''

'' as Rod Stewart, and presented "Chris Bell's Fishing Report" on the ''

'' spoof, irritating a man trying to fish in a lake by knocking his tackle into the lake and then commandeering the rod before getting shot. The Stotts Returning from '' Vic Reeves Big Night Out'', Donald presented '' This Is Your Life'' to Davey, who "wrote Jingle Bells," had "recently had a Vesta Curry" and fought in the "Flalakand War" where he went on the task force and ate a number of biscuits. The pair then hosted "Chittle Chattle Chit," where they interviewed Sting, reducing him to hysterics with questions like "If you got an itchy bottom at night, would you rub it on your wife's chin, point your bottom out of the window to blow it off with the breeze, or pick at it with your finger?" This idea of interviewing a guest returned in ''Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer''.

Home release

''The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer'' DVD (Region 2, UK), which contains both series' was released by 2 Entertain/Cinema Club on 3 April 2006. When the first series of the programme first made it to video titled "Red" & "Blue", it included extended versions of the episodes the way they were supposed to go out on TV, usually 7–10 minutes of new footage. When this DVD came out many were disappointed to find the episodes featured were the BBC edit versions. Series 2 was intact on the DVD release, mainly because it never had extended versions.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smell of Reeves And Mortimer, The BBC television sketch shows 1993 British television series debuts 1995 British television series endings 1990s British television sketch shows English-language television shows