Vic Reeves Big Night Out (1990)

Genre

comedy

Country

United Kingdom

Length

2 seasons, 14 episodes

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 13 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A cult British comedy show from the early 1990s. It parodies old-fashioned variety shows with a cluttered desk and bizarre segments. Vic Reeves hosts while Bob Mortimer appears as odd characters in the background.

surrealwhimsicalabsurdnostalgicoffbeatplayfulquirkyunpredictable

What happens

Vic Reeves Big Night Out is a cult British comedy stage show and later television series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special. Its live incarnation marked the beginnings of the collaboration between Vic Reeves (real name Jim Moir) and Bob Mortimer and started their Reeves and Mortimer (also known informally as Vic and Bob) comedy double act. The show was later acknowledged as a seminal force in British comedy throughout the 1990s, the influence of which continued long afterward. Arguably the most surreal of the pair's work, Vic Reeves Big Night Out was effectively a parody of the variety shows which dominated the early years of television, but which were, by the early 1990s, falling from grace. Vic, introduced by Patrick Allen as "Britain's Top Light Entertainer and Singer", would sit behind a cluttered desk talking nonsense and introducing the various segments and surreal guests on the show. Vic Reeves Big Night Out is notable as the only occasion in their career in which Vic took the role of sole host, while Bob was consigned to the back stage, appearing every few minutes as either himself or as a strange character. The two received equal billing in the series credits. Both series of the show and the 1990 New Year's Eve special are currently available for viewing on Channel 4's streaming service, All 4. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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