Vic Reeves

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2003

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the comedian Jim Moir, best known by the name of his alter ego Vic Reeves. Jim was born in Leeds but soon moved to Darlington with his family. He attended the local school and left with one O level in Art. He fulfilled the expectations of his school by getting a job in a factory, completing his apprenticeship and working there for four years. However, he was bored so he moved to London with three friends. After trying a few different jobs he began running club nights - with music, acts and entertainment. He would hire a venue and the bands and he would be the compere.

Jim decided to take on the persona of Vic Reeves as it gave him an excuse to act up. A comedy night came up and instead of booking three comedians, he decided to do the whole night himself. Vic Reeves' Big Night Out was born. After teaming up with Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who had been in the audience of one of his shows, the show went from strength to strength. It was a huge success and TV rights were fought over by the BBC and Channel 4. Since then, he has appeared on both channels with a variety of programmes including The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars and Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased). The programmes have won BAFTA Awards for Originality and Best Live Performance plus British Comedy Awards.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams Book: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome Luxury: Potato seeds

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2003, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is an entertainer. As the lead half of Britain's most celebrated
0:27.5	comedy double act, he can extract laughter from almost anything, plumping a cushion,
0:32.2	cooking beetroot, or the shape of a
0:34.2	dairy-lea-chee-chise slice. It's a talent which has kept him and his partner on
0:38.2	television in a variety of shows for more than 10 years now, the most recent being
0:42.2	Shooting Stars and Randall and Hopkirk deceased.
0:45.8	But it was a long climb to the top.
0:48.0	It started in the pubs and clubs of London, where he used to introduce acts and then
0:52.3	developed into being the star of the show himself.
0:55.0	He also sings he had a number one hit and he's an artist too.
0:58.0	He's recently had a one-man show of his drawings and paintings.
1:01.0	It all comes naturally.
1:03.3	Anything is achievable, he says, as long as you have a mixture of conviction
1:08.0	and complete lack of pride. He is Vic Reeves. In other words, you just don't have to mind making a fool of yourself. Is that it?
1:15.0	I don't mind if I make a fool of myself. Nobody in this profession should do because that's the whole idea of it really at the end of the day, I think.
1:22.0	Yeah, as long as people are laughing with you not at you or don't you mind?
1:26.2	Oh no I think with and at.
1:28.4	And alongside the behind and in front and wherever else you like you know as long as they're
1:31.3	laughing it doesn't really matter.
1:32.2	As long as they're being entertained. Yeah it doesn't matter where it's directed but that's
	...

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