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They got fallen. 
Hello and welcome to Goompod. 

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I am joined by another podcaster
who is all about the world of 

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Vicarys and Bob Mortimer. 
He's 1/2 of the Quite a Boast 

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podcast team. 
Quite a boast, as Victoria would

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pronounce it. 
Absolutely, and he is MJ Price. 

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Hello. 
We we got in contact only very 

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recently because you discovered 
the podcast through another 

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podcast that I was a lot of 
we're just podcast whores, 

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aren't we? 
Another podcast that I was 

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guesting on, which was the Royal
Ramble podcast. 

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I think that's right, isn't it? 
Yeah, correct. 

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Yeah, and. 
Yeah, and, and you said that 

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you're a big fan of the Goons. 
So there's, there's obviously 

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the crossover there. 
And we thought it would be a 

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good idea for, for you to join 
me and trace the sort of the, 

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the lineage from the goons to 
Reeves and Mortimer. 

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And I'm a big fan. 
I, you know, I, I was there at 

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the beginning, well, more or 
less the beginning with Big 

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Night out. 
And I've watched most of their 

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stuff, I suppose, but I'm 
certainly no expert. 

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So I'm looking forward to 
discussing them with you. 

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But first of all, yeah, so I 
guess you're similar age to me, 

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Matt. 
I'm I'm in my very early 50s, 

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very early 50s. 
I'm as early as 50s in 50s as 

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you can get. 
Yeah, as I'm I'm, I'm 50 there 

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you. 
Go. 

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Oh, right, OK, OK. 
How did Someone Like You 

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discover the goons? 
Well, I mean, I'm trying to 

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think of it's someone like Spike
and Peter and Harry when I was a

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kid, as as yourself, they were 
already celebrities and for 

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doing different things if even 
if I didn't know the goons 

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existed, they were just 
omnipresent. 

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Spike Milliken was this this Mad
Cap guy on the TV and Harry 

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Secan was the guy on highway and
Peter Sellers was Clueso when 

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you were a little kid. 
And so they were always there. 

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And the goons themselves, I 
think they probably knew them 

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via Python. 
I'm going to guess. 

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I suspect I've got into Monty 
Python's Flying Flying Circus 

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first. 
You know the records as well as 

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a lot of people do with the only
discover Python And cassette and

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cassettes very important in my 
story with comedy because that 

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was I didn't grow up on vinyl. 
I was the tape the Walkman 

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generation me too. 
So and I moved into CDs quite 

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late. 
I kept going with tapes for 

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quite a while. 
So yeah, that's I've got a a 

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love of the cassette and they 
used to be the BBC collection 

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Lagoon shows. 
Now the first one, you'll 

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probably tell me what year it 
came out with like the maroon 

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cover, and I see it now. 
I know the one you mean I think 

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that had best pudding on it. 
Did it? 

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Yeah, that would have been the 
first episode I ever heard, I 

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think. 
Yeah. 

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Do I hear a Christmas one? 
There was one on Christmas Day 

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once. 
I think I might be in the first 

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I heard some reason. 
I decided it was going to 

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disappear from the family one 
Christmas lunchtime. 

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Must be late 80s to listen to 
the Was it the Robin Hood one? 

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Was it on? 
Christmas Day? 

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Yeah, that's right. 
That would have been about 8788 

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maybe somewhere. 
Yeah, God, yeah, it would have 

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been. 
So I remember listening to that.

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I'm thinking this is fantastic. 
And yeah. 

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So bought that double cassette 
in in Ledbury, which is near me.

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How can the shop is still there 
and they used to have one of 

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those displays that revolve with
all the. 

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Carousels the carousel and it 
would have had the. 

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Beyond that Ken on there around 
the horn and I think I had the 

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the not the nightlot News 1 as 
well. 

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Do you know? 
You know, you know those, those 

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cassette, those supposed double 
cassette cases that, that, that 

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are lying to you that when you 
actually open them up, there's 

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like a plastic inlay thing. 
There's only one cassette have. 

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You seen those? 
Yes. 

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Yeah, what's all that about it? 
Was there one with the Goon Sing

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or something like that And he 
had the Ying Tong song etcetera,

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etcetera, all the the releases 
on it. 

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Wasn't that one of those? 
I think that came as like a 

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single cassette in a in a devil 
pack, and I remember then being 

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cheated and Michael Benteen on 
the front cover. 

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But of course it was nothing to 
do with it by then. 

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Something's going to be some 
some gold in here. 

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I remember getting a Barry Cryer
cassette when I thought it was 

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going to be two and no no just 
the one, just the one of Barry 

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doing as a one man show. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

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Anyway, sorry I I that was out 
of. 

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Order. 
Yeah, yeah. 

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So I bought this, yeah, the 
double cassette. 

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And because we have relatives 
over there, so we should go over

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there quite a lot. 
And this one shop, I'm sure they

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sold them closer than that, but 
every time we went there to see 

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my auntie, I used to head to 
that shop and try and buy a new 

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one. 
Yes. 

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So the dreaded batter pudding 
hurler would have been the first

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one I ever heard. 
And this I still, it's like, you

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know, the songs from your youth 
when you hit, when you're in in 

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your teens, do you think it's 
the best thing ever? 

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And even now, looking back, you 
you look at them with a certain 

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glow and it's the same with that
episode of the of the Gucci 

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show. 
I think that's still one of the 

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best. 
And a lot of people would agree.

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I think that's what you probably
why they put it on the first, 

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first release. 
Yeah, yeah. 

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It really resonated with me that
that that episode, because with 

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goon show episodes, I can never 
you you reel them off. 

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I can never remember the names 
of the actual episodes. 

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I saw the one where so and so 
happened, but that one always 

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sticks in my mind. 
Yeah. 

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Well, the, the, the first one I 
ever heard was the last one, 

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which not the, not the last goon
show of all the, the last 

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Smoking Sea goon, which is the 
last episode of in 1960. 

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And that was the first one I 
heard. 

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And a lot of people think it's 
not very good and it's not very 

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good, but I love it. 
It was the first one I heard, 

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you know. 
That's the last of them. 

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Yeah, that's it. 
Yeah. 

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Because that came out quite 
early. 

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It was like volume 5 or 6 or 
something. 

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But then the. 
Yeah. 

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Was that on the? 
That was on the flip side of 

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Call of the West, I think. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

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So that's when I got into them. 
And yeah, then I got obsessed 

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and I got the script books and I
got Swipe Milligan's novels and 

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the war memoirs and etcetera, 
etcetera, and all that various 

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autobiographies they did between
them and yeah. 

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And it took hold from there, 
really. 

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And it's it's one of these where
you have dipped in and out of 

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over the years. 
You know, you not you don't fall

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out of love with the goons, but 
you just sort of take it for 

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granted and you don't listen to 
them for a while. 

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And then suddenly you think I 
must listen to a Goon show 

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episode, then you're back in it 
again. 

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And which happened when I, when 
I heard your podcast, I thought 

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I'd rather let me listen to some
of those again as Laura, every 

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dog walk I go on now, I'm taking
the taking the goons with me as 

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I did last night. 
Yeah, I kind of I, I had like 

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this white heat of obsession 
with the show from the age of 

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about 14 till about 18. 
And then other stuff got in the 

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way and then it was still always
there in the background, the 

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Goon show. 
But yeah, there's there was 

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probably a good 20 years or 
more. 

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Well, yeah, I'd say probably 25 
years that that I kind of the 

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the Goon Show was kind of latent
in my life, but it was it was 

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So, you know, I'd listened to 
the show so many times that 

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there was instant recall when I 
started listening to them again 

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for the purpose of doing this 
podcast. 

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I was always a huge comedy fan 
from, you know, from being a 

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very young child. 
I'm guessing you were too. 

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Were you? 
Yeah, Yeah. 

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You grew up in New Zealand, is 
that right? 

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Yes, I did, but we, we got a 
hell of a lot of British stuff 

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where I when I was growing up 
and a lot of it was introduced 

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to me via my dad. 
Stuff like Open All Hours, 

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Faulty Towers, Fallen Rise, 
original pair and stuff like 

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that. 
I came a little bit late to what

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we might now call the 
alternative comedy stuff. 

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I, I, I remember seeing the 
young ones for the first time. 

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I saw the episode of the Young 
Ones called Sick. 

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But it all got a cold, yeah. 
Yeah, I saw that probably when I

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was about, it was repeated when 
I was about 12 or something. 

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Everyone at school was going on 
about it and on and on and on 

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about it. 
And it was like the coolest 

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thing to watch. 
And I thought, and I was kind of

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resistant and I remember 
watching 1 episode and to this 

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day I don't like that episode. 
I don't know why, but it didn't.

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It really didn't do anything for
me. 

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But I persevered and now I got 
into it. 

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So I was a little bit late to to
that sort of thing. 

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What about you? 
Yeah, exactly. 

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The, the again in the 1980s in, 
in England, Britain. 

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Anyway, it can, it's been 
rewritten now, I think because 

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alternative comedy came along, 
wiped everyone else off the map.

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The, the, the traditional 
working men's club comedians 

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with the Freddy shirts and the 
bow ties and everyone and, and 

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they, they just disappeared. 
But it wasn't really the case 

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because yes, there was Young 
Ones and the Comic Strip 

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Presents, but they were late at 
night on BBC Two or Channel 4. 

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But everyone was watching Cannon
and Ball and Russ Ablets, Les 

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Dennis and Little and Large. 
And these were the the main. 

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Of course you had your two 
runners Still and Morton and 

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Wise in the very early 80s. 
So I grew up on those. 

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You know what? 
Those are things you can watch 

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through the family. 
So you have never been snobbish 

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about comedy. 
If it's funny, it's funny. 

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And some of those were and some 
of those weren't so much. 

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But yeah, when the. 
I remember the Young Ones coming

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along and similar to you, I 
remember people talking about 

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it. 
I can see myself in my friend's 

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car now with his mum saying are 
we going to watch The Young 

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00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:18,880
Ones? 
But you better check with your 

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mum and dad if you're allowed to
watch it first because it can be

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a bit rude. 
And I just assumed in my head it

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was going to. 
I guess I heard the Cliff 

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00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:27,600
Richard song, The Young Ones. 
It was going to be like, yeah, 

194
00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:29,760
like some holiday or Happy days 
or something. 

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00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:34,200
But it wasn't. 
Yeah, I became obsessed with 

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00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:35,440
that. 
And when, you know, I was the 

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the right age for the when the 
living Dole single came out. 

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00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:44,000
And then a bit later that 88, 
probably that series 3, the 

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comic strip started getting into
that, which is slightly 

200
00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:49,480
different, obviously more Peter 
Richardson style of comedy. 

201
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,200
But you still had you still had 
Rick and eight hitting each 

202
00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:55,440
other over the head in in Mr. 
Jolie and you had bad news. 

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00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:57,880
So there's the one that really 
stood out to me at that age. 

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And then the more subtle ones 
got into it a bit later. 

205
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:03,480
Then that's the we say about the
lineage. 

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00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:08,240
That's it To me, every 10 years 
approx. 

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You seemed perhaps not now we'll
get to to now a bit later on. 

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00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:17,080
You seem to get something 
revolutionary that would come 

209
00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:19,040
along. 
People say it changed the face 

210
00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,240
of comedy, but as I just said, 
it didn't really because you 

211
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,640
still have the traditional stuff
as well, which the masses liked 

212
00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:26,480
because this was more of an 
acquired taste. 

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00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:31,360
So the goons before the goons, I
guess it would have been the 

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00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,800
crazy gang made Monsieur Eddie 
grave. 

215
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,880
This clips of Monsieur Eddie 
grave on off on a tangent on 

216
00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:41,480
YouTube, which I think is taken 
from the last crazy gang 

217
00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,200
performance that they built it 
as, which is I think the full 

218
00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:47,640
thing is on YouTube where he's 
doing it a bit with the dog. 

219
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:49,240
I don't know if you've seen 
that. 

220
00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:54,640
And there's a guy who's supposed
to be is it this is the wife's 

221
00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,040
son, I think. 
And he's like a a doppelganger 

222
00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,520
of Eddie Gray. 
He just stands there in a sailor

223
00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:01,240
suit with an Eddie with an Eddie
Gray mustache. 

224
00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:03,920
And it's so Victoria and Bob. 
It's like something out of 

225
00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,240
Novelty Island. 
It's so weird, but hilarious. 

226
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,160
I remember seeing that saying 
wow, I wonder if Victoria and 

227
00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,920
Bob ever watched this because 
it's this is definitely in their

228
00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:17,160
in their wheelhouse. 
Now, first of all, I would like 

229
00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:18,480
to introduce you to my 
assistant. 

230
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:26,160
That is the wife's son. 
Very, very intelligent. 

231
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:28,320
Very, very intelligent. 
Speaks beautiful French. 

232
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:31,880
Regardie. 
Regardie that's foreign forever.

233
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:39,520
Butcher's oak. 
That's without thinking. 

234
00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:43,320
And what comes after Funk For 
now. 

235
00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:51,480
Excuse me, I want to cough. 
Victoria knew his comedy 

236
00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,520
history, didn't he? 
He was very respectful of, yeah,

237
00:12:54,560 --> 00:12:56,040
history. 
I mean, just look at Eric 

238
00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:57,240
Morgan. 
He was obsessed with Eric 

239
00:12:57,240 --> 00:12:58,920
Morgan. 
Yeah, yeah, big fans of Morgan 

240
00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:00,560
and Wise. 
I mean this Victoria can 

241
00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:04,680
sometimes or Jim can sometimes 
try and play that down. 

242
00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:06,880
And so I was never, never 
watched telly as a kid. 

243
00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,960
I was into art, obviously, and 
was into music and and nature 

244
00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:15,120
and we, I didn't really watch 
comedy, but I yeah, to take that

245
00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,000
with a pinch of salt because 
even other interviews he's given

246
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,600
his influences and it's obvious 
what they were. 

247
00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:25,520
But yeah, so the goons. 
And then ten years after that, I

248
00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:29,240
think of course you have to, you
know, the establishment crowd 

249
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:33,040
and Peter Cook and Dudley more 
etcetera with the the satire 

250
00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:34,720
boom. 
But I think the next sort of 

251
00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:39,240
more surreal comedy would have 
been Python. 

252
00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:41,560
Then ten years after that 
approx. 

253
00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:44,960
You know, the The Young Ones and
then Victoria and Bob, and then 

254
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,840
after that maybe Mighty Boosh, 
League of Gentlemen. 

255
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:51,000
But then of course the Internet 
comes in and we're in a whole 

256
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,200
different world from there on 
because people aren't watching 

257
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:57,120
TV together. 
Yeah, I'd include the the 

258
00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:01,680
Iannucci crowd. 
Yeah, Chris Morris Coogan, of 

259
00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:03,320
course. 
Yeah. 

260
00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:07,680
Especially into the 90s, you've 
got a real mesh, similar to to 

261
00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:10,240
the Goons era when they all seem
to work together and appear in 

262
00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:12,240
each other's films and things. 
Because you've got the fire show

263
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:17,320
crowd, the and Harry Enfield and
yeah, Steve Coogan and Chris 

264
00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:19,840
Morris, Amanda Iannucci and 
Victoria and Bob's, they all 

265
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,480
seem to appear in each other's 
shows. 

266
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:25,960
Apart from really Victoria and 
Bob themselves, they didn't do 

267
00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,200
many appearances. 
Anyone else's shows, even though

268
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:32,120
all those people seem to turn up
in theirs, they seem to be, you 

269
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:35,480
know, I don't know, in a 
different realm. 

270
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,200
Than the others, well, I mean 
getting back the goons, 

271
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:42,840
obviously they a lot of that the
comedians, the comics from that 

272
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:47,840
that era knew each other from 
the Windmill and from Jimmy 

273
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:52,680
Grafton's pub. 
And you'd get, you know, Harry 

274
00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:56,080
Secombe deputising for Hancock 
for three weeks. 

275
00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:01,600
You get Sellers turning up 
replacing Kenneth Williams one 

276
00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:04,560
week on Hancock's Half Hour. 
Alfred Marks, people of that 

277
00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,120
were coming and Graham Stark 
obviously and David Lodge were 

278
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,320
coming in out in and out of that
world as well, wouldn't they? 

279
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,840
So they'll be overlapping and 
appearing in like running, 

280
00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,160
jumping, standing still film and
things like that. 

281
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:16,880
Different. 
Yeah. 

282
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:20,960
The similarity between the the 
goons and Victoria and Bob. 

283
00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:24,280
There's a there's a few, but one
is the there wasn't really the 

284
00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,560
university background, which 
there was with the with the 

285
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:32,000
Pythons and a lot of, even 
though a lot of the comic comedy

286
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:36,680
store, alternative comedy crowd 
would like to see themselves, as

287
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:38,960
you know, from the street and 
and whatnot. 

288
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:41,680
There was a lot of university 
educated guys involved in that 

289
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,280
as well. 
You know, people like Alexi 

290
00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:49,640
Sayle who were the real thing, 
but like Ben Elton, Rick Mayo, 

291
00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:51,880
and so they went to Manchester 
University together. 

292
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:55,080
Perhaps the Oxford crowd would 
have been prize and lorries and 

293
00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,400
Emma Thompson etcetera. 
There's with the when the Young 

294
00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:03,280
Ones episode, Bambi where they 
it's University Challenge 

295
00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:07,440
episode where you've got the 
team, which is Ben Elton, who's 

296
00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,240
of course one of the writers of 
the show and Fry and Laurie and 

297
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,760
Emma Thompson as the posh team. 
And apparently Alexi Sale was 

298
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:19,000
livid with like again to Paul 
Jackson, the producer, I think, 

299
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,480
and said like, what? 
What are these lot involved? 

300
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:23,440
I thought we were again, I 
thought they were the enemy. 

301
00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:25,360
And he said, no, you thought of 
that, Alexi. 

302
00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,480
No one else said that. 
We're all big, one big happy 

303
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:30,600
family. 
But anyway. 

304
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,080
Go on. 
I mean, a little bit, I, I like 

305
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:36,240
Alexis Sayles stuff, you know, 
the, the sketch show we had. 

306
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,920
But I, I, I've always been a 
bit, always struggled a bit with

307
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,640
Alexis Sayles in general. 
And he will say I invented 

308
00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:45,080
alternative comedy. 
And he will say it quite openly.

309
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,320
Yeah, with a bit of irony to it 
because there was quite a lot of

310
00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,960
people involved. 
But he's happy to say I'm it 

311
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:52,720
would nothing. 
None of you will be here without

312
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:54,880
me. 
Well, that's exactly what Spike 

313
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:56,440
used to say, not about 
alternative comedy. 

314
00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:01,080
As he was getting older, he 
would often claim that modern 

315
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,920
comedy was invented by him. 
More or less, he was. 

316
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:05,720
He was behind it. 
Oh, you know what I mean. 

317
00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:10,960
There's something about these 
guys when they get older, when 

318
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:15,000
this bitterness or you know, 
it's similar to anyone gets a 

319
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,680
certain age when new music comes
out, you just say well it's all 

320
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,760
rubbish nowadays. 
It's not the same as it was in 

321
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:21,200
my day. 
It's mainly because you don't 

322
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,640
listen to all of it because it's
not meant for you and so why 

323
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:25,760
would you know all the good 
stuff? 

324
00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:27,440
Because there's always good 
stuff and there's always bad 

325
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,560
stuff. 
Yes, Bike. 

326
00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:33,000
When he got older, I think he 
obviously had his his issues 

327
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,960
with the BBC. 
So anyone else becoming 

328
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,840
successful through the BBC must 
have wrangled if he thought they

329
00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:41,680
were doing his act as such. 
Or you know, claiming an 

330
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:46,280
influence. 
And Victoria and Bob have said 

331
00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,280
similar things. 
Bob not so much nowadays. 

332
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:50,080
Now he started appearing in a 
lot of light and not a lot of 

333
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,080
entertainment, but a lot more 
mainstream TV with lots of other

334
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,080
comics. 
But they always used to say we 

335
00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:58,640
don't watch straight comedy. 
We're not interested in that 

336
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,000
lot. 
You know, stand ups not it's 

337
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,920
with it's not our thing. 
It's so boring. 

338
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,600
Seen it all before, but and 
there's. 

339
00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:10,920
That's, that's, that's the punk 
mentality, isn't it? 

340
00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:12,680
Yeah. 
Everything that's gone before 

341
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,040
or, or anything else is, is 
irrelevant. 

342
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:16,640
And I'm sure I've seen. 
Someone. 

343
00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:18,480
I've been trying to find it 
knowing that we're going to be 

344
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,600
talking to you. 
So on TV once and someone 

345
00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,240
mentioned Victoria and Bob to 
Spike and he just, he just 

346
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:30,600
automatically just dismissed it.
And is there is a piece with the

347
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:33,680
Pythons when they did their 
reunion shows about 10 years 

348
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,040
ago, was it? 
And they're doing a press 

349
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:40,640
conference and someone asks who 
do you think today has been 

350
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:42,400
influenced by you? 
Who's carrying your torch? 

351
00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,760
And most of them are 
automatically dismissive. 

352
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:49,040
And so rubbish. 
Don't know any of them. 

353
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,800
I think they say Eddie is old 
because that's their mate and 

354
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,520
they know his name. 
I think Eric Idle says that. 

355
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,080
I think Terry Gilliam might say 
I quite like Bill Bailey. 

356
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,120
But Michael Palin, I mean, you 
can see in his Diaries he 

357
00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:02,240
mentions going to see Victoria 
and Bob live. 

358
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:03,720
And there's a few mentions of 
Victoria and Bob. 

359
00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,880
And he did write the, he did 
write the foreword to their big 

360
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:11,320
Victoria Rees big night in book.
And he says, Oh, I think 

361
00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:14,120
Victoria and Bob and you know, 
there's someone says who, oh, 

362
00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:15,880
he's senile. 
You know, they do that thing 

363
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,200
about he's senile. 
Agreements on my mayor John 

364
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,960
Cleese will say all the time, 
what's he always going mad? 

365
00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,920
And it's like they just if they 
don't know who they are because 

366
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:25,800
they live their big Hollywood 
lifestyles or whatever, they 

367
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,200
they, they just completely 
unattached. 

368
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,520
So they didn't didn't even know 
they were like most of them, 

369
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,000
apart from Michael Palin, but 
completely dismissive over 

370
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,520
anyone who's come after them. 
Well, I I think we can both 

371
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:40,800
agree the nicest Python has 
always been and always will be 

372
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,320
Michael Palin. 
Oh yeah, he is a national 

373
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:45,480
treasure. 
Yeah. 

374
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:47,640
Just finished the latest Diaries
yesterday. 

375
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:52,240
Actually finished reading that. 
I I I've worked my way through 

376
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:57,120
the 70s and the 80s. 
Relatively recently, yeah, yeah,

377
00:19:57,680 --> 00:19:59,280
yeah. 
And you can tell from that he's 

378
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:02,160
got a big love for for Spike, 
Yes. 

379
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,160
And the goons. 
And I think Spike actually did 

380
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,080
like him. 
Oh, he did. 

381
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:13,320
He Spike loved ripping yarns 
like it was a huge fan of 

382
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,120
ripping yarns. 
Yeah, well, you can see that 

383
00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:21,160
very Spike Milligan esque and 
very Goon Jo esque with the when

384
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:25,160
they sort of parody classic 
stories that they grew up on, 

385
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:27,200
which is the same of ripping 
yarns, isn't it? 

386
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,680
But yeah, the other similarity I
can see between the beginning of

387
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:35,040
the goons and the beginning of 
Vickery's big night at is the 

388
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,360
goons. 
Obviously at Graftons, which 

389
00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:41,760
they all met up and coned not 
honed because they're honed on 

390
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,400
the radio, started the very 
early versions of their their 

391
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:47,880
act there. 
And what would become the Goons 

392
00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:53,480
and Victory's big night out had 
initially there was a wine bar 

393
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,320
called Winston's, which the 
first ever appearance of 

394
00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,120
Victoria Reeves big night out 
was or Victory's variety 

395
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:01,400
Palladium. 
I think he might have called it 

396
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:07,080
then, which then went on to the 
Goldsmiths Tavern and then 

397
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,040
eventually the Albany Empire, 
which was a big, much bigger 

398
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:12,720
venue, which is very similar to 
what the TV show became. 

399
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:16,360
So I think my main clay online 
we went camping last week. 

400
00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:20,760
Oh, and she brought the flute 
with her, and she. 

401
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,200
Didn't stop playing. 
A little monkey. 

402
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,560
You plan that anymore? 
It's going right out the door 

403
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:27,800
and in the bin. 
And you know, there's a 

404
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,600
gentleman. 
It was just jumping, flying out 

405
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,240
the door. 
In those pubs and clubs you will

406
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:38,000
have these people could be like 
Grafton's people coming in and 

407
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:39,520
joining in for a bit and then go
in. 

408
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:45,160
You'd have people like there was
the his gang who made-up the a 

409
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,600
lot of the TV show. 
Some of them came from 

410
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:53,680
Darlington where where Jim came 
from and some from the the art 

411
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,120
schools. 
So like Fred Eilwood who played 

412
00:21:56,120 --> 00:22:00,640
Les Vickreese Big Nights Out. 
He was an art student who Jim 

413
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,160
met in London. 
And then you'd have people like 

414
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,280
Paul Whitehouse and Charlie 
Higson would turn up as well and

415
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,360
other long term friends come and
watch it. 

416
00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:11,920
Like George Holland would be 
there as they say. 

417
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,440
Jonathan Ross said that they'd 
all be in the and these shows 

418
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:20,240
used to go on for like 3 hours. 
There'd be a whole evening of 

419
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,240
of. 
Victoria Reeves and sorry, my my

420
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:25,760
his, my knowledge of the his the
sort of early history of 

421
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,040
Victoria is it's patchy to say 
the least. 

422
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,040
So had had Bob got together with
Victoria by this? 

423
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,280
Bob joined yeah, in the later 
part of that period, so 

424
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,240
obviously before TV, so that 
literally a year 88 maybe I'd 

425
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,800
have to check. 
And I think when we spoke to 

426
00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:48,240
Fred Airwood for the podcast, he
plays Les, he said when Bob 

427
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,360
turned up, he said to to Jim 
that you've, you've met your 

428
00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:54,760
Earnie wise. 
And he said, what do you mean? 

429
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,640
As you 2 are obviously meant to 
be a double act together. 

430
00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:04,960
And it always amazes me that two
people from very similar parts 

431
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:11,120
of the world, the northeast, but
not not not Newcastle Northeast,

432
00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:15,360
both from Middlesbrough and Jim 
from Darlington, they both end 

433
00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:21,320
up in London at a similar time. 
They both got very similar 

434
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:25,240
interests, an outlook on life, 
slightly different. 

435
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,960
Bob's obsessed with football and
Jim's got his art, but very a 

436
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:33,520
very unique sense of humour. 
And they saw how they the chance

437
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,320
of them both bumping into each 
other in London and, and jailing

438
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:40,800
like that and, and being so 
different to everybody else, 

439
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,840
even the people other people 
they're working with who slowly 

440
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,520
a lot of them got left by the 
wayside because but they became 

441
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:48,320
a double act. 
Rather than Victoria Reeves and 

442
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,040
his gang, it was Victoria and 
Bob. 

443
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:56,400
Didn't he, Didn't Bob take some 
persuading to go to to the place

444
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,440
that Victoria was performing at?
Didn't he? 

445
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:00,760
Was he dragged along by a friend
or something? 

446
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:05,320
The. 
Story is that he was sharing. 

447
00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:07,040
I might get this slightly wrong.
It's all in. 

448
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:08,680
It was all in Bob's book. 
You've got to check. 

449
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,240
He was sharing a flat, a bedsit 
even. 

450
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:15,960
I think it was one step above a 
homeless hostel. 

451
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,880
But his girlfriend at the time 
was with him and he came home 

452
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:25,880
one day from work because he was
a solicitor, very successful, I 

453
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:30,120
believe, solicitor. 
And he came home and found his 

454
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,200
then girlfriend with another 
man, a Hells Angel apparently. 

455
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,280
Yeah. 
And they split up and he was 

456
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:43,160
depressed. 
And that night a knock on the 

457
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,480
door and it was a friend of his 
from Middlesbrough, I think it 

458
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,920
was Alan King. 
Who was involved with Big Night 

459
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,720
Out in the very early days. 
And he hadn't, he wasn't really 

460
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,360
a he was more of an acquaintance
from it as I think it was school

461
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,760
acquaintances, but not really 
friends as such. 

462
00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:03,840
And he'd contacted Bob's mum and
dad heard that Bob was now in 

463
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:05,280
London to see if he had an 
address for him. 

464
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,360
And he turned up that very night
and said do you want to come out

465
00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:10,360
with me tonight? 
And he said every other night he

466
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:11,680
would have probably said no, she
didn't really. 

467
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,040
He was quite shy, Bob and he 
didn't know this guy that well. 

468
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:16,760
He said he's going to this 
comedy night. 

469
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,560
That was crazy and he'd really 
like it. 

470
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,080
And obviously I never went to a 
comedy gig in my life. 

471
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,240
I never seen stand up. 
I didn't know anything about it.

472
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,040
So usually, again, I would have 
said not my cup of tea, But 

473
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,400
because he was in that rut of 
what had happened and he just 

474
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,400
wanted to get out, he said, 
yeah, go on then. 

475
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,360
And this was Victory's big night
out. 

476
00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:36,960
I think the Goldsmiths have. 
And that would have been. 

477
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:39,360
And. 
Yeah. 

478
00:25:39,360 --> 00:25:44,040
And it changed his life and 
started going back there week 

479
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,920
after week and hanging around 
afterwards and chatting with the

480
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,880
the crew. 
And eventually they would say, 

481
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,720
do you want to come on stage and
just play this character? 

482
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,400
Or I think he had to come and 
present a check to him or 

483
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,040
something. 
Tending from a charity, present 

484
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,320
this giant check. 
And slowly but surely he started

485
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,280
suggesting character ideas and 
they started writing together 

486
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:11,520
and the rest is history. 
So if it hadn't been for his 

487
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,480
girlfriend checking up with the 
Hells Angel, he never would have

488
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:14,760
gone. 
I was. 

489
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,760
Just going to say absolute. 
Or if he'd, if he'd arrived home

490
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:19,320
half an hour later. 
Yeah. 

491
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,000
And not caught them, yeah. 
That's. 

492
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:26,160
The story Isn't it funny how 
these things, yeah, just turn on

493
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:28,680
a dime? 
But yeah, a lot of people assume

494
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,480
they would have been childhood 
friends, grown up together, come

495
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,840
down to London together because 
they were so similar. 

496
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:38,960
So I mean, my memory, my first, 
I was trying to think about when

497
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,320
I first was aware or made aware 
of Victoria Reeves. 

498
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:46,680
I was at school in Belfast. 
I was in the lowest sixth form. 

499
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:51,400
And I remember being in the 
common room and what people used

500
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,040
to do because I was quite good 
at art. 

501
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,720
I'm quite good at art and I'm 
quite good at writing stuff. 

502
00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:01,640
And, and anyway, people used to 
used to get these blue absent 

503
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,040
slips that if you're off for any
reason, your parents or guardian

504
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,120
would have to fill in one of 
these forms. 

505
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:11,480
Yeah, someone had managed to get
a load of them, blank ones. 

506
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:19,920
And I would forge absent slips 
for a price for my school 

507
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,120
friends and whatnot. 
So I remember doing a bunch of 

508
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:25,440
these in the common room. 
And this lad, I remember his 

509
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,000
name, Paddy, he asked me to do 
him a absent slip. 

510
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,800
And while I was doing it, while 
I was writing it, he was 

511
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:35,320
telling, he was asking me about 
Because you're like the Goon 

512
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:37,880
Show. 
And he's asking me if I'd seen 

513
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,320
this thing Big Night Out. 
And I'd never heard of it 

514
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,200
before. 
So it would have been, it would 

515
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:43,080
have been. 
When did it start? 

516
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,040
Was it 1990? 
Yeah, yeah. 

517
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:46,120
TV 1990. 
Yeah. 

518
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,480
Right. 
So this would have been 91 and 

519
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:55,320
and I'd never heard of it. 
And I was, I was intrigued and I

520
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,480
did watch it. 
It didn't. 

521
00:27:58,000 --> 00:27:59,920
Here's the other thing. 
It didn't grab me straight away 

522
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,360
and it wasn't until actually, it
wasn't until a couple of years 

523
00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:07,360
later with smell of reason 
Mortimer, which I loved. 

524
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,680
That's that's my favorite 
Victoria and Bob vehicle, if you

525
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,280
like. 
It wasn't until I I watched that

526
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,280
that I went back because I think
you could get the videos and I 

527
00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,880
and I watched Big Night Out and 
really, really enjoyed it second

528
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:24,120
time round. 
I Matt Lucas, I mean, he's told 

529
00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,640
this story many times, but he's 
he's said to us on on the 

530
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,160
podcast when we spoke to him, he
saw the first episode of 

531
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,960
victories big nights out and he 
was only like a teenager at the 

532
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,440
times. 
He was really young when he side

533
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,040
with them and he was so incensed
how bad it was, how bad he 

534
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,840
thought it was because they kept
promising so and so be coming 

535
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,640
out in a minute and they didn't 
even appear. 

536
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,040
He was so incensed. 
He he rang the Channel 4 duty 

537
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,040
log to complain. 
Oh, jeez. 

538
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,800
And then the next week he 
watched it and thought, oh, I 

539
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:56,160
see. 
Thirdly, he's into it and he's 

540
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,240
obsessed. 
Obviously he's he's on The Smell

541
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,120
of Reason of Autumn. 
He's working with them like in 

542
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,240
two years time and he's probably
a biggest acolyte. 

543
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,000
But our first episode he said 
he'd never done it before and he

544
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,560
never did it since. 
But he was so incensed by this 

545
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,120
program that he complained to 
Channel 4 about it. 

546
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,280
Here we see this one's Radio 
Times. 

547
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:17,120
You'll see the FOP on the front.
Ignore it. 

548
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,360
In the future, things could be 
so different. 

549
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,000
We see a representation of Sir 
Graham Lister there and a free 

550
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,800
potato. 
That was my idea, an inside 

551
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,760
completely different scheduling 
to the sort that spewed up the 

552
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,200
FOP. 
Oh, that's interesting. 

553
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,800
Doctor at Large. 
Doctor in the House, Young 

554
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,920
Doctor Howard's Ware Moore. 
Doctor, I tell you what though, 

555
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:44,840
Alistair, I was watching Right 
to reply the other day and there

556
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:47,280
was a gentleman on there who 
looked quite similar to you and 

557
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,200
I video tape recorded. 
This is on the stereogram and 

558
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,080
I've got it on here now. 
Have a look at that. 

559
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:55,640
Now I'm here to complain about 
the so-called light 

560
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,800
entertainment show. 
Victoria Raves Big Night Out, 

561
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:00,960
hosted by the workshop of 
Victoria Raves himself. 

562
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,240
Admittedly, there is one bright 
spot on the show in the form of 

563
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,600
a Mr. Graham Lister, whom I 
believe quite rightly is soon to

564
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:11,040
be knighted coming Channel 4. 
Why not give Lister his own 

565
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,200
series? 
And whilst you're at it, why not

566
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,960
more programs such as Doctor 
Who, Doctor Kildare, Dr. in the 

567
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,840
House, Young Doctors, Flying 
Doctors and so on? 

568
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,240
Who on earth brought this pig 
into this booth? 

569
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,080
Just similar views. 
Doctor. 

570
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:26,680
Doctor. 
Similar. 

571
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:27,360
Similar. 
Valid. 

572
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,560
But, Lester, it could not have 
been you, for he had a hat and a

573
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:32,280
beard. 
No, I never wear a hat and a 

574
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:33,920
beard. 
No, I'm a mature man. 

575
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:35,120
Right. 
Couldn't have been you because 

576
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:39,440
he was a very ugly man. 
Not so very hideously ugly man. 

577
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,760
Almost deformed. 
Oh, nice. 

578
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:44,320
Nice. 
So you know it was me, Reeves, 

579
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:45,480
do you? 
It doesn't make the views any 

580
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,560
less valid, does it? 
A friend I Remember Me and my 

581
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,880
one friend were obsessed with it
and it was a third friend in our

582
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,000
little group on me. 
OK, he was probably more into 

583
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,720
more traditional comedy, but we 
kept saying you've got to watch 

584
00:30:57,720 --> 00:30:59,160
this. 
It's, it's the best thing ever. 

585
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,600
And he did. 
And he came back to the next 

586
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,000
day, said, well, it's just 
blokes running in out of doors 

587
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,480
with bags over their heads. 
And we said, yeah, it's great, 

588
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:12,040
isn't it? 
I remember my group of friends, 

589
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,640
so we would have been 17 around 
this time. 

590
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,400
We were more interested. 
We were obsessed. 

591
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,440
I would go so far as to say with
Trevor and Simon around. 

592
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,520
That time, of course. 
So Trevor and Simon made much 

593
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,960
more of an impact on me at 17 
than than Victoria and Bob, but 

594
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:33,040
whatever happened to those guys?
Yeah. 

595
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:38,040
Still see them around now and 
again, so in your pants. 

596
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,480
Absolutely don't do do those. 
Yeah, come. 

597
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:41,720
And sit down and we'll have a 
little chat. 

598
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,080
Come on, come and sit down. 
What is it you actually want 

599
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,280
done next? 
What I'd like, I would like a 

600
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:49,480
perm in reverse. 
I want it straightened out. 

601
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,680
I'm sorry, we don't do perms, we
don't do perms, we don't do 

602
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,200
nothing quite as fancy as that. 
What about? 

603
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,320
What about some highlights 
brighten up a bit? 

604
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,360
Highlights like on grandstand, 
Sir. 

605
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:04,200
What? 
What? 

606
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:07,440
What do you want me to do? 
Cut your hair in slow motion, 

607
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,120
Sir. 
No, I'm sorry for your. 

608
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,960
I think I'll come back. 
I think you have to go to 

609
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:21,640
Siegfried Sassoon Saloon. 
Yeah, it was a bit of an up 

610
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:22,840
star, wasn't he? 
Was an up star. 

611
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:28,960
Has Victoria or even Bob, has he
or Jim, has he talked about 

612
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,440
whether I know what you're 
saying that he, they kind of 

613
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,240
deny that anything was an 
influence on them, I suppose. 

614
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,680
But did he ever talk about 
Milligan or the Goons as an? 

615
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:44,240
Influence Bob has spoken about 
the Q series how how how we used

616
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,200
to that. 
He used to love that growing up.

617
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:51,440
And there's a documentary from 
97 I think called the film of 

618
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:57,840
Reeves and Mortimer, which Alan 
Yento put together narrated by 

619
00:32:57,840 --> 00:32:59,920
Sting, who has the big and Bob 
connections. 

620
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:05,600
And when Jim lived in a big 
country pile and he's out in 

621
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:10,480
this little Woodlands, just just
and aliens, I'm just following 

622
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,120
them around and they and he 
said, so if this little woodland

623
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,440
was comedy, where would in their
importance? 

624
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:17,680
Where would Morecambe and Wise 
be? 

625
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:19,400
Because oh, they'd be this tree 
here. 

626
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,080
And where would the Pythons? 
And he does mention what about 

627
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:23,360
the goons? 
Oh, they're over there 

628
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:24,880
somewhere. 
So I don't know. 

629
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,720
Then slightly I'll say they're 
older than the Pythons, So don't

630
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,480
they wouldn't have grown up with
them on the radio. 

631
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,640
But whether they had the records
or listened to repeats, I don't 

632
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:38,200
know to be honest. 
But yeah, I do. 

633
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,360
I do. 
Remember Bob mentioned in the Q 

634
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:43,080
series, as well as Python being 
something that they watched. 

635
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:47,840
Oh, he watched when he was young
just to say the smell of reason.

636
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,960
Mortimer was my real in to to 
them, if you know what I mean. 

637
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:57,440
And I think I I enjoyed most the
just the interaction between the

638
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,680
two of them at the beginning of 
each episode when they meet to 

639
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,520
sat behind the desk. 
And then what's the dog called? 

640
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:06,480
Grant Mitchell. 
Now it's EastEnders. 

641
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,000
Greg Mitchell. 
Greg Mitchell, my wife's going 

642
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:13,760
to kill. 
Me, I used to love particularly 

643
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,800
obviously when the big frying 
pan came out or Victoria would 

644
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,760
say something and Bob would just
pick up some random object and 

645
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:23,639
and play it like a musical 
instrument. 

646
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:28,040
It's very difficult to convey it
verbally. 

647
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,239
Yeah, those those little 
throwaway bits when the other 

648
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:34,560
just pick up a prop and Bob 
would just say something random 

649
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,440
was was just make me laugh as 
much as the the the the scripted

650
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,679
stuff. 
The the the lead singer of Go 

651
00:34:42,679 --> 00:34:44,360
West, who's lost his top cap 
video. 

652
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:48,000
Will play by Steve Coogan play. 
By Steve Coogan will always 

653
00:34:48,199 --> 00:34:50,159
stay. 
That's that's another similarity

654
00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:54,560
to to me is between the goons, 
obviously the goons and much to 

655
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:57,840
the producers annoyance. 
Most of the time I think you'd 

656
00:34:57,840 --> 00:34:59,880
hear them cracking up and you'd 
hear Harry laughing in the 

657
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:01,960
background or the the musicians 
laughing. 

658
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,200
And the same went up, especially
with the big night out, which 

659
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,200
was a lot rawer than the smell, 
which was a bit more a bit more 

660
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,440
higher production values. 
So it did a bit tighter. 

661
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:14,800
But especially when they played 
this characters, Donald and Davy

662
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:18,080
Stott, they would often just 
make themselves laugh and it 

663
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,720
would stay in and they do that 
right for their careers and 

664
00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:22,880
shooting stars and everything 
they did now and again, they 

665
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:24,440
just go off, they make a 
mistake. 

666
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,760
They wouldn't like cuts and 
let's start again. 

667
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:30,080
They'd go with it. 
You know, Victoria would, if Bob

668
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,560
would call Victoria Jim by 
mistake, they'd just leave it 

669
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:34,600
in. 
You know, it's I think that the 

670
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,040
big nights out shows, which were
like half hour shows, they might

671
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,160
have been like 50 minutes 
recording or something and a bit

672
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,640
of time just to move props 
around, which would have got 

673
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:45,880
edited out. 
But they pretty much tried to 

674
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:50,040
leave it as live, which as he 
went on into the sketch shows 

675
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:56,440
and lost a bit of that, that raw
energy and the sense that 

676
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,440
anything could happen. 
No, I I think another 

677
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:01,920
similarity. 
Catch phrases. 

678
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:04,960
Yeah, Big night out was full of 
catch phrases. 

679
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,600
Judge Nutmeg Terrible man. 
Terrible, terrible, terrible man

680
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,560
the. 
Wheel of Justice, What we do 

681
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:14,640
with the Wheel of justice comb 
its hair. 

682
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:20,880
The the thing with the when the 
big layout first came to TV as 

683
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:26,640
it, as it appeared to be come in
from nowhere and completely 

684
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,120
different end house on TV. 
As I said, they've been doing 

685
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,440
that in, in the pubs and clubs 
for a few years. 

686
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:35,640
And a lot of the people in that 
first TV audience were the 

687
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:37,880
people who would come and see 
them live and their mates, 

688
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:39,240
they'd bring them in to come 
watch it. 

689
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,120
So they knew they that audience 
didn't have to catch up on the 

690
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:45,840
catch phrases. 
They knew them already. 

691
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:49,080
And so because that audience had
so much enthusiasm, the studio 

692
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,840
audience, it didn't take long to
the for the general public 

693
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:53,600
watching at home to to pick up 
on it. 

694
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,280
They weren't gradual catch 
phrases like some are, you know,

695
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:01,040
like assumed the goon show ones 
where they just sort of evolved 

696
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,480
to they became like falling in 
the water, etcetera. 

697
00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:07,960
Oh, well, that and that was that
was cynically engineered to to 

698
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,000
be a catch phrase. 
Yeah, yeah. 

699
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:12,560
So, yeah, they had those catch 
phrases. 

700
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:14,640
Good to go. 
So when it came to the big night

701
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,480
at the finish, which was 91, 
they were already sick of those 

702
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:19,360
because they and some of those 
characters, they've been doing 

703
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,360
them since like, well, Victoria 
been doing something 86 when he 

704
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:24,880
started it. 
And so that's when the smell 

705
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,680
seems such a they cut a lot of 
that out and and start start a 

706
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:31,400
blank, blank slate apart and a 
couple of bits they kept in and 

707
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,800
bought back over the years. 
Yeah. 

708
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:35,760
And that's another difference 
between that the Goons. 

709
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:39,280
There's so many episodes of the 
Goons which follow that similar 

710
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:41,760
pattern. 
You know what what bits are 

711
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,000
going to happen where, you know 
when, when it's just going to 

712
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,040
start with Neddy and Grid pipe 
thin leading him into some new 

713
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,720
scheme. 
Then it's the Masky Aldridge is 

714
00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,240
going to appear and etcetera, 
etcetera. 

715
00:37:52,240 --> 00:37:54,360
You know when you know when 
Minnie and Henry are going to 

716
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,000
come on. 
Blue Bottle and Echoes would 

717
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,120
come near the end. 
You knew that the layout and 

718
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,080
there's so many episodes of 
those, whereas the big nights 

719
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:03,800
out, I don't know how many are 
there. 

720
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,080
It's just it's more than 12, 
it's probably about 15, 

721
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,560
something like that. 
And sat on the TV and then they 

722
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,320
were ready to do something new 
straight away. 

723
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,840
So obviously Victoria Reeves big
night out was, you know, he was 

724
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:22,560
the star, the star I suppose 
with with Bob as as as not 

725
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:24,320
second. 
What second banana is that? 

726
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,120
Is that unfair, do you think? 
Well, yeah, I think the on 

727
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:33,080
screen personas was that the 
original Victoria Reeves, he was

728
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:37,360
initially a character played by 
Jim Moyer and it's the Britain's

729
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,480
top light entertainer and singer
that's specifically for the 

730
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:42,640
victories, big nights out. 
And Bob Mortimer was his 

731
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:46,080
sidekick and played lots of the 
the other characters he like 

732
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,880
Graham Lister and the Man with a
stick and judging up Meg that he

733
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,400
interacted with. 
But it was always on the 

734
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:56,520
credits, much to Jim's credit, 
as in written and performed by 

735
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:57,840
Victoria Reeves and Bob 
Mortimer. 

736
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,320
So he always gave me equal 
billing and but it was just the 

737
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,920
on screen characters was the one
I see Bob Banana. 

738
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:09,320
But Bob himself, I think 
probably he had low confidence. 

739
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,920
Then he says to himself in his 
book and for the first series he

740
00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,400
was still working as a solicit. 
I think he took a break. 

741
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:16,920
He was still employed. 
So as to whether he was working 

742
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:20,160
as a different matter, he took a
break to do this TV show and he 

743
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:21,760
didn't really tell anyone he was
doing it. 

744
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:26,360
And he even uses his own 
solicitors gown and wig for for 

745
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:32,280
for Judge Nutmegs and come back 
covered in, you know, beer 

746
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,440
stains and fag stains and things
when he he was in court on the 

747
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:37,800
Monday morning. 
So I think he thought this was 

748
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:39,960
just a temporary thing. 
He didn't see himself as a as a 

749
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,440
performer. 
I think Jim need install that 

750
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:46,000
confidence in him and convince 
him, yeah, you'll you know, you 

751
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,760
can do this and you're good 
enough to do this. 

752
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,680
And so from when they moved to 
the BBC for whatever amount of 

753
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,040
money that was, I think he said,
right, I'll take this seriously 

754
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,360
now. 
And yeah, then it became on 

755
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:02,320
screen Bob probably. 
I mean, neither of them are a 

756
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,360
straight man by any stretch of 
the imagination. 

757
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,720
But with time you got the smell.
And especially with shooting 

758
00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:10,440
stars, Bob was sort of leading 
it and answering the questions, 

759
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,880
asking the question. 
Sorry, a bit fooled around a bit

760
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:17,360
next to him and yeah, the whole 
Victoria Reeves. 

761
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,640
Jim Moyer personality seemed to 
mix it because he used he 

762
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:23,680
carried on using the name 
Victoria Reeves when he wasn't 

763
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,040
playing that character, when he 
was doing acting roles or being 

764
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,120
interviewed and things, he was 
still known to everybody as 

765
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:32,320
Victoria Reeves, but privately 
with Jim Moyer and of course, in

766
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:34,840
recent years he started to say, 
right, Victoria Reeves was a 

767
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:36,480
character. 
I am the artist. 

768
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:39,000
Jim Moyer unfair play to him. 
He can call himself what he 

769
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,440
wants. 
But yeah, Bob sort of developed,

770
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:47,360
I think into an equal partner on
screen anyway. 

771
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:52,720
But because Jim has the 
confidence, I think to get up 

772
00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:54,440
there. 
And a lot of people said this we

773
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,960
spoke to on the podcast, he 
doesn't really care what the 

774
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,800
audience reaction is. 
He's going to do it anyway and 

775
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:05,320
he's enjoying himself and where 
Bob was I think a bit more where

776
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:06,920
and he tried to craft it a bit 
more. 

777
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:11,480
And you know, if someone wasn't 
getting laughs, it was just 

778
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:14,080
weird. 
He'd try and try and craft it a 

779
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:16,280
bit more into something a bit 
more palatable. 

780
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:22,360
It's I get the feeling you might
disagree here, that in recent 

781
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,040
years, you know, I hate to use 
the phrase national treasure, 

782
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,320
but it gets applied to people 
like Michael Palin, like Alan 

783
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:32,440
Bennett, etcetera. 
Victoria Wood, God bless her 

784
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:38,320
memory. 
I get the feeling that Bob is 

785
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:40,800
considered more of a national 
treasure than Jim. 

786
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:44,680
Yeah, just just like Paul 
Whitehouse, maybe more than 

787
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,600
Harry Enfield. 
Yeah, I mean, you can. 

788
00:41:47,720 --> 00:41:49,880
There's one reason for that. 
It's the fishing show, which has

789
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:54,560
just been ridiculously popular, 
which Paul Whitehouse we didn't.

790
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:56,840
I don't think anybody really 
knew what Paul Whitehouse was 

791
00:41:56,840 --> 00:41:59,800
like as a person before that 
show because he didn't do a lot 

792
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,320
as himself. 
He was always in character and 

793
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,400
he was either on the Fast Show 
with Charlie Higson or he was 

794
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:10,520
with Harry and he did stuff with
Dick and Bob, as I say about pre

795
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:12,160
TV. 
And he did a lot of lot of stuff

796
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:14,320
with them over the years, 
appearing in their sketch shows 

797
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:19,360
and sitcoms and things. 
But yeah, a lot of people who 

798
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:23,040
are fans of Gone Fishing and 
have also discovered Bob on 

799
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:26,040
Would I Lie To You? 
And this last one Laughing. 

800
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:28,960
And he's got his novels out, 
which are extremely popular 

801
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:35,120
would probably know Bob more 
than they would Victoria and Bob

802
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:41,000
and they probably think I mean 
you you can't compare the two. 

803
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,720
But the closer I'm coming for 
goon comparison is people knew 

804
00:42:45,720 --> 00:42:48,400
Harry secret from Hwy. 
They might not know him. 

805
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:51,480
The goons. 
Yes, it's a Sunday gone 

806
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:53,680
fishing's a Sunday night's show,
obviously without the religious 

807
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:58,800
elements and they're a bit you 
know, Harry didn't goon around 

808
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:02,240
as much on that show. 
We're we're Paul and Bob too on 

809
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:06,040
the fishing. 
But Bob has still got his side, 

810
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:10,160
which he, if you check out his 
podcast, Athletico Mints, that's

811
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:14,600
where he gets to unleash the 
other side of the Bob, which is 

812
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,720
the weird and wonderful and 
sometimes really profane and 

813
00:43:18,720 --> 00:43:21,560
dark stories that he does on 
there, which is hilarious. 

814
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,160
It was started as like a 
football podcast with a guy 

815
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:26,760
called Andy Dawson, but the 
football side of it sort of 

816
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:28,880
drifted off and he does all 
these weird and wonderful 

817
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:32,080
characters on there. 
So he's still got an outlet for 

818
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:36,240
that, which if people who watch 
you just known for gone fishing 

819
00:43:36,240 --> 00:43:39,520
will probably be very surprised 
at this other side of Bob. 

820
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:42,560
Just because of the nature of me
problem, I had to strip down, 

821
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:46,320
get on the examination table, 
you know, and he starts to 

822
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,440
listen to like me lungs with a 
stethoscope, right? 

823
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,360
And then suddenly I feel the 
scope being wrapped really 

824
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,600
tightly around me neck. 
Yeah. 

825
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:59,160
I look up and I'm choking and 
he's got a large box of 

826
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,080
disposable gloves in his free 
hand. 

827
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,160
I just about managed to make out
he had 500 gloves. 

828
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,080
Yeah, he says, look, bro, spread
your legs and start feeding 

829
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:11,400
these disposable gloves into 
yourself individually and at 

830
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,400
great speed. 
South African Andy. 

831
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:16,440
So what can I do? 
I'm Naked. 

832
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:17,880
I've got this thing around me 
neck. 

833
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:18,600
Yeah. 
Yeah. 

834
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:21,960
So I start removing the the 
gloves from the box. 

835
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,880
You know doing as I was told 
like it says, faster and more 

836
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:27,320
rhythmically. 
You fit prick. 

837
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:31,760
So I start to speed up. 
Now put this tiny clan hat on 

838
00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:35,800
and start chanting the words. 
Gary Monks, Apricot Army. 

839
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:40,760
So just as I start saying it, 
you know, Gary Monks, Apricot 

840
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:43,960
Army, the door opens. 
In comes Doctor Graham. 

841
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:46,920
Yeah, the bloke jumps up and 
dives out of the window. 

842
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:49,280
Yeah, I say, oh, thank God you 
came in. 

843
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,120
Doctor Graham, do you really 
think he would have made me feed

844
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:56,440
all 500 gloves inside me and 
Doctor Graham Scottish, you 

845
00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:58,920
know. 
And he says, OK, listen, if he 

846
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:02,800
can feed 500 gloves, then I can 
feed 500 more. 

847
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:05,360
Only joking Lolly. 
When you see him on these panel 

848
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:10,880
shows with other stand ups and 
you're the stand ups, some of 

849
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:12,560
that stuff, as we know is not a 
secret. 

850
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:15,240
It's scripted and they know what
you're going to say. 

851
00:45:15,240 --> 00:45:19,200
Whereas I've said this many 
times on the on the podcast when

852
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:20,680
Bob starts on. 
So there's especially some of 

853
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:24,320
what I lied to you or whenever 
they attend cats and things and 

854
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:25,680
Jim as well, when he used to do 
that. 

855
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:28,840
You can see the others sitting 
back and not trying to compete 

856
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:30,480
because obviously it's quite 
competitive. 

857
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,080
Those arenas. 
Sometimes they're not trying to 

858
00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:36,680
compete. 
They just sit back and enjoy it 

859
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,600
because they could never come up
with anything like that because 

860
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:43,080
their minds don't work on the 
same the same way to get to 

861
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,360
those points that Bob is going 
to get to. 

862
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:50,920
And so yeah, he's naturally 
hilarious, but so different to 

863
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:58,280
to anyone else in in that field.
And but since, like I can 

864
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:02,360
remember reading like a a piece 
back in prove it when big nights

865
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:03,840
out was out from the enemy or 
something. 

866
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:06,560
And someone would say, well, Bob
is the funny one, but but he 

867
00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:11,080
himself would say that Jim Pick 
is the funniest person he's ever

868
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:17,120
met and he owes it all to him. 
And the most of the especially 

869
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:22,880
early days, the more performance
art surreal stuff was was Jim's 

870
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:29,840
background because he was an art
student and and he's makes makes

871
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:32,720
no apologies for calling himself
an artist because what you can 

872
00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:37,640
do is is completely perfect 
straight art for a better word 

873
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,120
like the pictures, the birds he 
does, which. 

874
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:40,640
Are phenomenal. 
Beautiful. 

875
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,280
But he can still, he still does 
his what I call more like 

876
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:45,720
Victoria Reeves art as well, 
because he's constantly 

877
00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:48,680
releasing stuff, which is which 
is always hilarious. 

878
00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:52,160
So yeah, I mean, they're both 
great. 

879
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,120
But when they're both together, 
they're better, I think. 

880
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,560
And it's a, it's, I mean, they 
can do what the hell they like. 

881
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:01,280
I mean, they're, they're in 
their 60s now. 

882
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,920
They've been around a long time.
If they want to do something 

883
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:09,680
else together, they can. 
But if they want to stay apart, 

884
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,320
they never fell out ever. 
The press likes to make out that

885
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:15,640
they they'd fall out, but they 
never did this. 

886
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:19,800
They're still best mates, but 
it'd be great to see them do at 

887
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:21,840
least one more. 
They've been talk of a film for 

888
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,880
years called The Glove. 
It was going to be made of so 

889
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:28,320
many times over the last few 
years, but it's never seen in 

890
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,480
the light of day. 
So where there ever will, I do 

891
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:34,920
not know. 
But saying that, you'd look at 

892
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:37,200
the last Scoot show of all, 
you'd look at the Python 

893
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,600
reunion, and there's something 
about capturing that magic when 

894
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,680
they're young men and you're 
keen and you're dangerous and 

895
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:46,720
you're you're just exploding 
with ideas. 

896
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:50,240
And when you're going to try and
replicate that in later life, 

897
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,320
it's never going to be. 
No. 

898
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:55,680
Never going to be what it was. 
So perhaps it's for the best. 

899
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:59,600
We just remember that what they 
were like back in in their in 

900
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,920
their glory days. 
I I would agree. 

901
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:05,440
I absolutely would agree. 
You can imagine, like in in the 

902
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:09,000
90s, if Spike and Harry and Mike
Benteen have said we're going to

903
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,320
do a goon show, live show, we'd 
have all loved it, but it 

904
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,160
wouldn't have been the same any 
stretch. 

905
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:19,160
It's like Fawlty Towers. 
Yeah. 

906
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:22,920
For years and years and years, 
please. 

907
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:24,880
Oh, he didn't disassociate 
himself. 

908
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,400
He was proud of it, but there 
was no question that he would 

909
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,200
ever do anything. 
Faulty Tower was related again, 

910
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:33,360
you know, because he was riding 
high with fish called Wander and

911
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:37,040
stuff like that. 
And then as his career has kind 

912
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:40,760
of declined, he's more and more 
leaned into the Faulty Tower 

913
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:43,560
stuff And. 
And has, has have. 

914
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:47,200
I know there's been a stage show
not with him, but wasn't he 

915
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,280
meant to be doing a remake of 
Fault? 

916
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:51,000
Or not a remake, but a new 
series of faults? 

917
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:52,680
Yeah. 
It was going to be with him and 

918
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,800
his daughter Camilla, I think, 
and we're going to write it and 

919
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,360
he was going to be in Florida, 
maybe in the States, definitely.

920
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:02,400
And but Basil was going to be 
obviously the only character 

921
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:06,600
from the original. 
And there was talk of that. 

922
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:10,040
But I think the state show sort 
of took over because you've got 

923
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:14,000
so much Flack when he announced 
that, that perhaps he thought, 

924
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:16,560
oh, well, I can't screw you lot.
I'm not doing it there. 

925
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:19,960
I don't know. 
But yeah, I don't. 

926
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:23,360
I can't see how fair play to 
John Cleese. 

927
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,160
He always wants to be doing 
something. 

928
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,800
He never wants to rest on his 
laurels and and and retire. 

929
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:30,320
He always want to get something 
out. 

930
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,080
But, you know, he gets. 
We know how bitter John Cleese 

931
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:36,320
can get. 
But yeah, I don't think it would

932
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,360
be a good idea to bring back 
puzzle faulty. 

933
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:40,440
Why? 
That's the first question. 

934
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:42,640
Why? 
I mean, some of those, as we 

935
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:46,480
say, Michael Palin the nicest 
guy and he's grown old more 

936
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:51,000
gracefully than the others. 
Gilliam obviously got his own 

937
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:52,360
film career. 
He's he's great. 

938
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,120
But Eric Idle seems to be 
hanging on to anything Python 

939
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,320
related. 
Drags Spamalot out. 

940
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,920
He wanted to do like for Brian 
as a musical as well, but I 

941
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:04,880
think I've got vetoed. 
He's always touring and singing 

942
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,240
the old songs, singing the 
Rattle songs as well. 

943
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:09,640
Does he need the money that 
badly? 

944
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:12,960
Well, apparently they're on 
their uppers on they. 

945
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:17,360
So they keep telling us from the
John Cleese in Monte Carlo and 

946
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:21,760
Eric I'd in LA. 
Now listen, I might, I've got 

947
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,040
here, I said to you before we 
start a recording. 

948
00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:28,520
I normally prepare heavily for 
every recording, but I knew that

949
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:31,160
we were just going to have a 
general chat about Victoria and 

950
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:33,160
Bob. 
So I haven't really got a lot of

951
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:37,400
notes, but I do have written on 
my pad here the word characters.

952
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,400
So I want, I want to ask you 
first of all, just getting back 

953
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:45,320
to the goons is do you have a a 
particular favorite character 

954
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:49,200
from the goons or characters? 
I think, yeah, I was thinking 

955
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:51,560
about this earlier actually. 
I have to listening to there's a

956
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,760
period of the goons, which I'm 
only really recently discovering

957
00:50:55,960 --> 00:51:00,880
or really studying is that 
obviously there's not many 

958
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:03,280
recordings of the Ben team 
period there. 

959
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:07,080
But what there is we it's not 
what it became. 

960
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:08,520
It's not as funny as what it 
became. 

961
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,640
It's a bit of a mishmash of 
things. 

962
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:17,680
But that period after he left 
and before it's set into the the

963
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:19,720
standard shows like we discussed
earlier where you know when 

964
00:51:19,720 --> 00:51:22,120
everything's going to happen. 
When it was still a bit sketchy.

965
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:23,720
It's sort of like split into 
two. 

966
00:51:23,720 --> 00:51:26,600
There was a little sketch at the
beginning with Harry Secombe and

967
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:30,760
then he became the DC goon for 
the story, which was what the 

968
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:34,080
goons became. 
And you've got Peter playing 

969
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:39,520
Moriarty and Blue Bottle was not
quite developed yet. 

970
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:43,800
But the one I was into last 
night with Henry and Minnie, 

971
00:51:44,720 --> 00:51:47,600
just, yeah, they just clarified,
I think that they're my 

972
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:51,800
favourites. 
The, the, the, the waste of time

973
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:53,840
sketches. 
The one last night with 

974
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:58,800
knocking, Harry knocking on the 
door, he's not. 

975
00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:03,720
He's just knocking non-stop. 
And Minnie is Henry. 

976
00:52:04,720 --> 00:52:08,360
There's somebody knocking at the
door because she says about five

977
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,240
times. 
And that could be a dozen goon 

978
00:52:10,240 --> 00:52:13,200
shows, by the way. 
Yeah, but he's like, I can't 

979
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:15,440
hear. 
You mean because it's what are 

980
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:17,440
you saying? 
And this goes on for 5 minutes. 

981
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,200
You say I can't hear you because
of knocking at the door. 

982
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,640
She goes to answer the door. 
And is Neddy trying to get this 

983
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:28,000
urgent information out to them? 
Please stop knocking. 

984
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:30,280
I can't hear Miss Bannister. 
She goes to Miss Bannister. 

985
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:32,400
What did you say? 
There's someone knocking at the 

986
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,000
door, Henry. 
No, there isn't. 

987
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,760
Well, there was. 
He stopped that. 

988
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:39,600
Well, I'll go and tell him you 
can start again. 

989
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:42,800
And then it goes back. 
Henry, there's someone knocking 

990
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:45,640
on the door. 
This goes round in circles. 

991
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:48,280
I was walking the dog last night
listening to that and I had to 

992
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:52,240
stop and compose myself. 
So, Minnie and Henry, would you 

993
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:52,840
say? 
Yeah. 

994
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:56,320
I think so, yeah. 
To answer your question, yes I. 

995
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:58,000
Used to. 
I used to. 

996
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:00,120
I think men used to. 
Minnie used to be my favorite 

997
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:01,920
character at one point. 
Yeah. 

998
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:05,000
Still is to a degree. 
It's hard for me to say. 

999
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,000
I think probably it's 
predictable, but probably Blue 

1000
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:11,040
Bottle for me. 
Yeah, but yeah. 

1001
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,840
So that's the goons. 
But what about the Victoria and 

1002
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,840
Bob universe? 
What character or characters? 

1003
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:19,080
Do you? 
Yeah, OK. 

1004
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:21,480
From the early days, I mean, I 
still have Donald and Davy 

1005
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:25,080
start, which is the Davy start 
Victoria was doing on before Bob

1006
00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:28,160
came along that. 
Yeah, that stop starting. 

1007
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:31,680
That's pretty Marzipan's private
and all of that. 

1008
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:34,600
And, well, what's the ladies and
gentlemen like? 

1009
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:38,960
A little explosion. 
But later on when they did bang,

1010
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,760
bang and into Catterick, they 
had a couple of characters 

1011
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:43,800
there. 
There was Kinky John. 

1012
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:48,040
Oh, yes, yes. 
The American Compare. 

1013
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:50,960
Just going to say sort of 
Mid-Atlantic accent or was it 

1014
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:54,640
meant to be full American or? 
It's all of a New Jersey cops. 

1015
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:56,040
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1016
00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:00,920
And he becomes a policeman in 
Catterick, which is a brilliant 

1017
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:05,200
and very underrated sitcom. 
And they also had the characters

1018
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:08,120
of Chris and Carl Palmer, who 
were bouncers in the club 

1019
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:12,280
sketches on Bang Bang. 
And then they became the stars 

1020
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:17,400
of Catterick, the two brothers. 
And yeah, there's, I think 

1021
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:19,800
they're probably my favourites. 
I absolutely love them. 

1022
00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:22,240
But. 
And there's a smaller character 

1023
00:54:22,240 --> 00:54:28,080
that Jim did called Chris Bell. 
He's only in a few sketches in 

1024
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:30,880
the smelleries and Mortman, he 
talks like that. 

1025
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:34,640
You like you like looking at my 
nuts and all you got all these 

1026
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:38,920
terrible puns. 
And then And then He's There was

1027
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:43,200
a a pilot sitcom written by 
Higson and Whitehouse called The

1028
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:46,160
Honeymoon's Over, which starred 
Alex Lowe and I've become 

1029
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:48,240
Clinton Baptiste and Barry from 
Watford. 

1030
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:52,200
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 
And and say Paul Whitehouse and 

1031
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,320
Charlie's and wrote it and it's 
not very good. 

1032
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:58,680
To be fair, they it wasn't quite
their thing sitcoms, but Paul 

1033
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:01,480
plays a cameo in it, as is Mark 
Williams, who's also in the fast

1034
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:04,600
show and but Victoria plays 
Chris Belly in that as well as. 

1035
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:08,160
So yeah, he was he was a good 
early favorite, but he never 

1036
00:55:08,160 --> 00:55:10,320
really went beyond those few 
sketches. 

1037
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:15,920
But yeah, that's another 
similarity is with with the the 

1038
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:19,760
goons and the Victoria and Bob 
stuff is they had, you knew when

1039
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:22,680
these guys were coming on and 
they get a big round of applause

1040
00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:25,720
and everyone would cheer their 
catchphrases like they would 

1041
00:55:25,720 --> 00:55:27,880
with with Blue Bottle and 
Echoes. 

1042
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:31,080
Yes, yes, and some of the. 
Little theme tunes as well. 

1043
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:33,800
Yeah, I. 
I would say so. 

1044
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,120
I was thinking about my favorite
Victoria and Bob characters. 

1045
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,120
There's, there's probably three 
that immediately spring to mind.

1046
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:43,560
Graham Lister, Yes, just because
his his contempt. 

1047
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:49,840
But you smoke thought breeds. 
There's a couple of characters 

1048
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:54,680
that myself and a friend of 
mine, when it was on, when it 

1049
00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:57,200
when it was from Bang Bang, 
Yeah. 

1050
00:55:57,560 --> 00:55:59,960
What year was that? 
What 99? 

1051
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:03,160
Yeah, so it was a guy I was 
working with and we used to, God

1052
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:06,000
help us, we used to do 
impressions of these characters,

1053
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,520
these particular characters, Tom
Fun and Derek. 

1054
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:12,800
Is it gyro? 
Is it gyro? 

1055
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:16,680
Yeah, Tom, yeah. 
When is in the that? 

1056
00:56:17,720 --> 00:56:20,120
Oh, that machine with a monk 
with a monkey? 

1057
00:56:20,120 --> 00:56:24,240
That's a monkey. 
It's a tricky chick. 

1058
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:28,480
I just found that it's. 
Such a dark story behind them. 

1059
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:32,760
There's gotta be how are these 
guys related? 

1060
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:34,760
You know, what's their what's 
their story there? 

1061
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:39,920
Isn't there a sketch where where
Derek has got a cardboard 

1062
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,560
cutter, life-size cardboard 
cutter of Bryan Adams, and he's,

1063
00:56:42,600 --> 00:56:47,040
yes, dancing with him or 
something at about 5:00 in the 

1064
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,200
morning? 
Yeah, yeah. 

1065
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:52,440
Because they've been kicked out 
of their lodgings again. 

1066
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:54,360
He's. 
Going to have a look in the 

1067
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:55,680
skip. 
That could be a lot of fun. 

1068
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:59,400
Couldn't. 
Well, it's 7:30, which is a fun 

1069
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:01,680
time in the morning. 
It's rather an icy then. 

1070
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,840
We've been away for two hours 
now because we were thrown out 

1071
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:08,320
of our lodgings last night, well
early this morning due to 

1072
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:11,440
Derek's rather erratic and 
excitable behaviour, but you're 

1073
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:13,080
excited for the reason about 
your Derek. 

1074
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:18,200
A good reason it's my birthday. 
It's Derek's 50th fun birthday 

1075
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:21,400
and we've come here to the sea. 
Start to have a fun day out with

1076
00:57:21,440 --> 00:57:24,800
our trolley full of snouts and 
cakes and we're going to have a 

1077
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:28,240
lot of fun out with Derek. 
With you, Tom, it's always fun. 

1078
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:33,400
How much money have you got? 
I've saved up £1. 1 LB. 

1079
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:35,920
We can have a lot of fun with 
that. 1 LB. 

1080
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:37,400
What could we do with a pound, 
Derek? 

1081
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:39,680
I'd like to spend it on the 
machines. 

1082
00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:42,720
Oh well, what a good idea. 
Why don't we start with this? 

1083
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:44,200
The cheeky chicken? 
Look at that. 

1084
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,240
Ain't that fun? 
It really has a lot of fun that 

1085
00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:49,480
into It's yellow. 
It's got jewelry. 

1086
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:51,640
I wonder what makes it too 
cheeky talk. 

1087
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:53,360
Do you know? 
I don't know if we'll ever find 

1088
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:55,080
out. 
Perhaps it uses coarse language.

1089
00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:56,920
It passes by that'd. 
Be fun. 

1090
00:57:56,920 --> 00:58:00,120
One say that would be bad. 
OK, so with your podcast, that 

1091
00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:06,560
is yourself and Paula? 
Yeah, OK, Well, I listened, Oh, 

1092
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:12,600
I listened to a lot of podcasts,
a lot of comedy podcasts, and I 

1093
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:15,440
thought I would do something. 
I used to do a radio show for 

1094
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:17,960
years, which was a music show, 
and I used to do my own little 

1095
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:20,480
comedy skits in that. 
And I used to like an online 

1096
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:23,200
radio show. 
And that was a lot of hard work 

1097
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:26,600
because I used to put too much 
effort into everything about 

1098
00:58:26,600 --> 00:58:32,040
being really listening comedy 
bits I used to do and choosing 

1099
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:34,280
playlists when I probably should
be doing my day job. 

1100
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:39,360
So that got a bit much And the 
radio station itself, the on the

1101
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:41,560
radio station folded. 
I could have gone elsewhere, but

1102
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:44,320
I thought that's a good time for
me to do something else. 

1103
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:46,080
I've done writing as well in the
past. 

1104
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,600
Some stuff got like a few radio 
shows and kids TV and things, 

1105
00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:52,600
but nothing, nothing big. 
So I want to do something. 

1106
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:55,600
I always want to do something 
and it was a, I'm a big fan of 

1107
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:58,840
the fall, the band. 
And it's a podcast that the 

1108
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:02,680
Hanley brothers who were the 
like 1980s rhythm section for 

1109
00:59:02,680 --> 00:59:05,880
the fall, they do called Oh 
Brother, which they interviewed 

1110
00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:09,920
people who were involved in in 
the fall or they were fans or 

1111
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:11,560
producers. 
Sometimes they were band 

1112
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:14,720
members, sometimes just 
celebrity fans or say engineers,

1113
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:16,640
people like that. 
And I thought we were going to 

1114
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:18,800
do some that'd be good to 
actually speak to rather than 

1115
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:21,680
just having me talking or me and
someone else talking about 

1116
00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:25,680
comedy. 
What specific thing could I 

1117
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:29,200
think of where I could invite 
people on who were involved and 

1118
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:30,680
talk to get their stories out of
them? 

1119
00:59:30,680 --> 00:59:32,160
And Victoria and Bob just seemed
obvious. 

1120
00:59:32,320 --> 00:59:35,000
Acres are, you know, a bigger 
fan of them than anything else. 

1121
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:37,480
And there's so many, there's so 
many different shows, there's so

1122
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:39,400
many different people involved 
over to talk to. 

1123
00:59:40,200 --> 00:59:42,200
And so I thought I came up with 
that idea. 

1124
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:45,960
And Paula has her own podcast, 
which I'll plug called Divine 

1125
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:49,880
Comedians, which she speaks. 
She's a bigger, probably as big 

1126
00:59:49,880 --> 00:59:52,440
a stand up fan than I am. 
So she'll speak to comics about 

1127
00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:56,240
their lives and that's worth 
checking out as well. 

1128
00:59:56,240 --> 00:59:58,640
So I knew she knew the podcast 
world and I didn't want to do it

1129
00:59:58,640 --> 01:00:02,360
on my own. 
So got never met Paula in the 

1130
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:06,720
flesh, but found her online. 
We got talking. 

1131
01:00:06,720 --> 01:00:08,040
She's a big Victoria and Bob 
fan. 

1132
01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:11,600
So she does all the technical 
side of things like getting it 

1133
01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:15,600
all online and all that stuff. 
I do most of the finding the 

1134
01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:18,320
people and Badger and beyond 
keep poking until they say yes. 

1135
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,360
And so yes, that's how it came 
about and. 

1136
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,000
I could have done as you know 
yourself. 

1137
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:27,400
You got your Goon podcast and 
there's podcasts on the Marx 

1138
01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:30,840
Brothers I've heard and Hancock.
The difference is obviously a 

1139
01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:33,520
lot of the people who were 
involved in those shows are no 

1140
01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:36,000
longer around to talk to. 
Absolutely, I thought. 

1141
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:39,160
The people from Victoria and Bob
era, they're now in their a lot 

1142
01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:42,520
of them in their 60s. 
If I wasn't doing this in 15, 

1143
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:46,000
even 10 years time, some of them
might not be there anymore. 

1144
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,480
So if you want to get their 
stories, now is the time they 

1145
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:54,920
get their stories and, and 
obviously we've got your big 

1146
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:55,800
names. 
People have worked on them. 

1147
01:00:55,800 --> 01:00:57,920
We've been lucky enough to get 
people like Matt Lucas and 

1148
01:00:57,920 --> 01:01:00,440
Jonathan Ross and Charlie 
Higson. 

1149
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:04,080
Jackie, how did you get them? 
How did how did you get them? 

1150
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:08,040
Bare means and foul, right? 
Yeah. 

1151
01:01:08,240 --> 01:01:11,000
It's usually you'll speak to 
someone, and so we'd love to 

1152
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:13,400
speak to so and so and so. 
Oh, they'll do it. 

1153
01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:16,680
I'll get you their number. 
Which proves hopefully that 

1154
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:19,720
we're doing something OK, 
otherwise they would be 

1155
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:22,160
recommending them to other. 
People, it's funny because 

1156
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:25,520
people say to me how you've had,
you know, you've had Rory 

1157
01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:29,760
McGrath, you've had Griff, 
you've had John Lloyd, all these

1158
01:01:29,760 --> 01:01:31,360
great people. 
How have you got them? 

1159
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:33,880
But I look at, I look at some of
the people you've had on as 

1160
01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:35,360
well. 
Hey, I'm not denigrating my 

1161
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:37,240
guests, by the way, but I'm 
looking at some of your guests. 

1162
01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:42,320
I've got guest envy. 
Jack D John Thompson. 

1163
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:47,080
Yeah, it's mostly badgering 
people when when ageing get 

1164
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:48,120
involved. 
It gets tricky. 

1165
01:01:48,120 --> 01:01:50,560
If you get older than people 
themselves then it's a lot 

1166
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:53,920
easier when someone says how 
much they get and I'll say the 

1167
01:01:53,920 --> 01:01:55,760
same as I am. 
Nothing. 

1168
01:01:56,200 --> 01:01:58,080
You know we're doing it for. 
The love for the funnel don't 

1169
01:01:58,080 --> 01:02:02,960
bother, you know, then they'll 
usually buckle but the ones that

1170
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:05,680
really interest me, well, they 
all interest me. 

1171
01:02:05,680 --> 01:02:08,960
But say, Jonathan Ross, Matt 
Lucas, when I'm there talking to

1172
01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:11,160
me, I think I've heard some of 
these stories before who you 

1173
01:02:11,160 --> 01:02:13,400
tell them in slightly different 
ways elsewhere because you've 

1174
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:16,520
and you've sometimes you just 
don't need to say a word because

1175
01:02:16,520 --> 01:02:19,120
they've got their spiel and 
they'll just tell their stories.

1176
01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:21,520
And you said, yeah, you know 
what you're doing there. 

1177
01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:24,680
You've done this before. 
But people like we had the guys 

1178
01:02:24,760 --> 01:02:28,080
from the band who were on the 
victories orchestrated dress up 

1179
01:02:28,080 --> 01:02:32,160
as jockeys on the big night out.
And you've got Dan McGrath, 

1180
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:37,000
who's a composer, and various 
producers we've had like Matt 

1181
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:42,360
Lipsey and Ian Coyle, people 
like that, and people like Mike 

1182
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:44,320
Watson. 
You said you can't give a baby 

1183
01:02:44,320 --> 01:02:46,120
booze. 
Oh. 

1184
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:47,320
Brilliant. 
I do, mum. 

1185
01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:50,440
Oh, I loved him. 
Yeah, but they don't take the 

1186
01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:53,560
teller stories and they've got 
different stories to what what 

1187
01:02:53,560 --> 01:02:55,240
the others have got you haven't 
heard before. 

1188
01:02:55,280 --> 01:02:58,240
And they think, well, as they 
say in 1520 years time, they 

1189
01:02:58,240 --> 01:02:59,320
might not be around to tell 
them. 

1190
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:01,800
And those stories are gone. 
Like, you wouldn't be able to 

1191
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:05,360
if, say, if you're making a Goon
podcast, if such a thing existed

1192
01:03:05,360 --> 01:03:07,920
at the time, you could imagine 
what George Chisholm would have 

1193
01:03:07,920 --> 01:03:11,480
said, or George Hilton or one of
the Stargazers or something. 

1194
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,960
Come on. 
But they've had something to. 

1195
01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:18,000
Say, AE Matthews, he'd just 
still be around. 

1196
01:03:18,040 --> 01:03:19,560
Possibly. 
Well, Andrew? 

1197
01:03:19,560 --> 01:03:22,440
Timothy, you know. 
Yeah, I take it Charlie, Chuck's

1198
01:03:22,440 --> 01:03:24,640
no longer with us. 
No, Charlie, Chuck's still going

1199
01:03:24,680 --> 01:03:27,040
strong. 
All right, any chance of getting

1200
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:29,440
him? 
Fingers crossed he's we'll have 

1201
01:03:29,440 --> 01:03:31,480
him eventually. 
He's got an autobiography coming

1202
01:03:31,480 --> 01:03:33,920
out, hopefully before the end of
the year. 

1203
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:38,040
What about? 
OK, What about? 

1204
01:03:38,040 --> 01:03:40,280
I know, I know. 
You've had Ulrika Kaka Kaka on. 

1205
01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:42,760
Yeah, I know what you're gonna 
say. 

1206
01:03:43,200 --> 01:03:44,440
Will. 
Will Self. 

1207
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:46,440
Obviously you thought you're 
gonna say Will Self or Mark 

1208
01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:47,960
Lamar. 
Right. 

1209
01:03:48,280 --> 01:03:51,680
Now, Mark Lamar has disappeared 
off the radar completely. 

1210
01:03:51,920 --> 01:03:54,560
Yeah, I mean, he doesn't, he 
doesn't do anything anymore. 

1211
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:56,800
He's not. 
He didn't have a social media 

1212
01:03:57,080 --> 01:04:00,000
presence for a while on Twitter 
and he's just post music clips. 

1213
01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:02,440
But obviously I think he stopped
doing comedy a while back and 

1214
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:04,720
was like doing radio stuff, but 
that's stopped now. 

1215
01:04:04,720 --> 01:04:07,360
So what he does for a living, I 
don't know. 

1216
01:04:07,400 --> 01:04:11,720
The only time I've heard him on 
the radio in the last 10 years 

1217
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:15,160
is when who was Vanessa Phelps 
had him on Just Talk About Sean 

1218
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:17,920
Locke when Sean Locke died, 
because they were good friends 

1219
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:20,600
and collaborators last year and 
they did a short interview. 

1220
01:04:20,840 --> 01:04:22,480
It's just about Sean. 
They didn't say what are you up 

1221
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:25,520
to now? 
So I don't know what he's doing.

1222
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:30,120
And yeah. 
And with with Mark, a lot of 

1223
01:04:30,120 --> 01:04:33,400
people we've spoken to said 
hopefully he's probably mellowed

1224
01:04:33,400 --> 01:04:36,600
over the years, but at the time 
his on screen persona when he 

1225
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:40,840
was the the grumpy one on 
shooting stars probably wasn't 

1226
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:42,520
too far away from his actual 
persona. 

1227
01:04:42,640 --> 01:04:44,040
So I think it could be hard 
work. 

1228
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:49,680
Will self I'd love to get and I 
think yeah, because he's got 

1229
01:04:49,680 --> 01:04:53,280
similar. 
Obviously he was the antagonist 

1230
01:04:53,280 --> 01:04:57,680
when Marc Lamar left in the 
other team opposite Orica and as

1231
01:04:57,680 --> 01:05:02,920
Jack Dee replaced him. 
Now Jack Dee's comedy persona is

1232
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:05,160
quite a bit different to his his
himself. 

1233
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:09,560
He's a really nice guy that this
grumpy old man Jack with your 

1234
01:05:09,560 --> 01:05:11,680
face likes. 
An explosion on the ship farm I 

1235
01:05:11,680 --> 01:05:17,000
think was one of them said. 
Or like Scooby Doo's Xmas dump. 

1236
01:05:17,240 --> 01:05:24,600
That's what I remember. 
Jack with your face like a 

1237
01:05:24,600 --> 01:05:28,320
moth's prat. 
But we'll sell. 

1238
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:29,600
I think it was somewhere between
the two. 

1239
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:31,960
It was a stray strange person to
choose. 

1240
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:34,720
So it was honest. 
He wasn't did do any light 

1241
01:05:34,720 --> 01:05:37,000
entertainment stuff. 
He was known as an an author of 

1242
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:40,080
quite in, you know, challenging 
fiction and a. 

1243
01:05:40,560 --> 01:05:42,720
Social commentator. 
I've read some of them, yeah. 

1244
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:46,720
Yeah, but he was great. 
And especially throwing himself 

1245
01:05:46,720 --> 01:05:50,120
into the sketches, remember as 
Bernard Breslow on the carry on 

1246
01:05:50,160 --> 01:05:53,360
campus. 
And he was like, dressed as a 

1247
01:05:53,360 --> 01:05:58,440
schoolgirl in like, they did 
Britney Spears sketch Once Upon 

1248
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:00,160
a time. 
It's like he really threw 

1249
01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:02,400
himself into them. 
So, yeah, it'd be interesting to

1250
01:06:02,480 --> 01:06:07,720
to get Will's health on, to see 
how much of his true self was in

1251
01:06:07,720 --> 01:06:10,720
that persona or not be scared to
approach him. 

1252
01:06:10,720 --> 01:06:13,920
He's, yeah, quite an intimidated
presence. 

1253
01:06:14,200 --> 01:06:16,880
You've got a big brain on him. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1254
01:06:17,920 --> 01:06:20,920
What, in your opinion, is 
Victoria and Bob's biggest 

1255
01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:27,720
misstep in terms of career? 
OK, Randall Hopka. 

1256
01:06:30,440 --> 01:06:33,040
Yeah. 
I mean, I mean enjoying it more 

1257
01:06:33,040 --> 01:06:35,800
at the time than I did when I 
rewatched it recently. 

1258
01:06:35,800 --> 01:06:38,920
And then because of other sci 
since the Doctor Who revival and

1259
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:43,040
the other sci-fi shows that came
in since then, which probably up

1260
01:06:43,040 --> 01:06:45,280
the game. 
And Bob himself, when he reads 

1261
01:06:45,280 --> 01:06:47,920
his book, he said he thought he 
thought he was awful and he's 

1262
01:06:47,920 --> 01:06:49,120
not that bad. 
They're not. 

1263
01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:51,720
They're not great. 
And Jim has done better acting 

1264
01:06:51,720 --> 01:06:52,760
jobs. 
He's done quite a bit. 

1265
01:06:52,760 --> 01:06:54,720
He was great in the Eric and 
Ernie. 

1266
01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:59,240
Oh yes, as as Rory. 
Wood did, which he they play 

1267
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:02,280
Eric and Ernie. 
Sorry, Eric's mom and dad. 

1268
01:07:02,320 --> 01:07:04,800
That's right, yeah. 
And there's also a sitcom called

1269
01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:07,840
Heaven that he did. 
Oh yeah. 

1270
01:07:07,960 --> 01:07:10,360
Where where he's plays Chris 
Ramsay's dad. 

1271
01:07:10,360 --> 01:07:12,400
And he's really good in that 
he's the character. 

1272
01:07:12,400 --> 01:07:15,480
Joe has a stroke and it's really
moving and convincing. 

1273
01:07:17,040 --> 01:07:19,400
So yeah, Jim's become a good 
actor, but I think Bob himself 

1274
01:07:19,400 --> 01:07:22,080
said he's no actor. 
So to be play in the lead and a 

1275
01:07:22,080 --> 01:07:25,720
romantic lead at that against 
especially it was against people

1276
01:07:25,720 --> 01:07:28,640
like Derek Jacobi and Steven 
Berkov and people were in it. 

1277
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:31,640
I think he felt really out of 
his comfort zone there. 

1278
01:07:32,240 --> 01:07:35,640
So yeah. 
And they did Families at War, 

1279
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:40,200
which was a Saturday night quiz 
show. 

1280
01:07:40,240 --> 01:07:43,920
I think Bob especially really 
wanted this to succeed and 

1281
01:07:43,920 --> 01:07:48,000
become a more mainstream, but 
it's it's bit like when you see 

1282
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:52,360
spike on a a more mainstream 
show, he's they're so out there 

1283
01:07:52,480 --> 01:07:57,000
they can't help themselves but 
be weird and surreal and it's 

1284
01:07:57,000 --> 01:08:01,400
never going to be lot the joke 
public want to see. 

1285
01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:04,320
It's and it's I love it. 
I love families at war. 

1286
01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:06,040
There's some great stuff on 
there. 

1287
01:08:06,040 --> 01:08:09,840
But for a Saturday night, you 
know, Strictly Come Dancing, 

1288
01:08:09,840 --> 01:08:13,600
time of day, it's, it's, it's 
not really what people wanted to

1289
01:08:13,600 --> 01:08:15,800
watch. 
So it didn't last. 

1290
01:08:15,840 --> 01:08:19,439
It lasted for the one series. 
So, and they did a sketch show 

1291
01:08:19,439 --> 01:08:23,600
called Monkey Trousers with 
Steve Coogan, which was on ITV. 

1292
01:08:24,200 --> 01:08:26,800
So again, a more mainstream 
channel than one they usually 

1293
01:08:26,800 --> 01:08:30,960
are, which was the BBC 2 Channel
4 back in the in the 90s. 

1294
01:08:30,960 --> 01:08:35,600
They did this sketch show and 
they wanted it started off as 

1295
01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:38,640
the, the pilots were called the 
All Star comedy show. 

1296
01:08:39,240 --> 01:08:41,520
And there were lots of lots of 
their friends and lots of 

1297
01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:44,840
celebrities involved in it, as 
you would guess by the name. 

1298
01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:48,240
And it became monkey trousers. 
And the bits with Victoria and 

1299
01:08:48,240 --> 01:08:50,000
Bob in are great. 
Bob especially. 

1300
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:52,800
Just two of his best characters.
One is Alice in the Estate 

1301
01:08:52,800 --> 01:08:54,720
Agent. 
Have you ever seen those which 

1302
01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:57,160
are on YouTube? 
When check them out. 

1303
01:08:57,439 --> 01:09:00,760
He's showing people around 
houses and every question is met

1304
01:09:00,760 --> 01:09:05,120
with, I don't know, it's that 
doesn't sound funny, but you've 

1305
01:09:05,120 --> 01:09:06,760
really got to watch them. 
They're hilarious. 

1306
01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:10,720
And he did a a Steve Irwin 
character as well called the 

1307
01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:14,520
Crock Botherer. 
He was like, he just wanted to 

1308
01:09:14,520 --> 01:09:18,560
fight all these animals. 
I am a freaking nightmare was 

1309
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:22,000
his catch phrase. 
And that was those two of his 

1310
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:24,720
best ever characters. 
But the rest of it, they tried 

1311
01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:27,359
to make it a bit more like a 
mainstream sketch show. 

1312
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:30,840
And I've said it before many 
times when I've spent the people

1313
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:37,319
I don't know how good they are 
writing for other people or 

1314
01:09:37,319 --> 01:09:40,080
other people doing their comedy.
Let's say that other people 

1315
01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:43,040
trying to do their sketches. 
You've got to have Jim and Bob 

1316
01:09:43,040 --> 01:09:45,720
doing it. 
When other people try and play 

1317
01:09:45,720 --> 01:09:48,080
it never quite works. 
They did a special called It's 

1318
01:09:48,080 --> 01:09:54,240
Olrika, yes, Oh God, 1997, which
again, if you watch it now, it's

1319
01:09:54,800 --> 01:09:56,960
at the time it was like watching
it through your fingers because 

1320
01:09:56,960 --> 01:09:58,440
you've come off the back of 
Shooting Stars. 

1321
01:09:58,440 --> 01:10:00,160
They were out there. 
I think it was looking at Bank 

1322
01:10:00,160 --> 01:10:02,280
Holiday August. 
Bank Holiday Monday was a really

1323
01:10:02,280 --> 01:10:05,080
weird time to be on. 
I think the BBC tried to bury 

1324
01:10:05,080 --> 01:10:11,720
it, but some of it's OK. 
But Orica do it speaking as 

1325
01:10:11,720 --> 01:10:13,880
Victoria and Bob would speak. 
It's obviously their scripts. 

1326
01:10:14,120 --> 01:10:16,880
You can hear them reading it but
other people reading it. 

1327
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:19,480
It doesn't quite work. 
Well, I, I used to think that 

1328
01:10:19,480 --> 01:10:22,760
about Orica on when there was 
scripted stuff on shooting 

1329
01:10:22,760 --> 01:10:25,800
stars, when there were sketches 
and or whatever, you know, I 

1330
01:10:26,080 --> 01:10:31,400
always found it was, it was a 
bit and not uncomfortable, just 

1331
01:10:32,040 --> 01:10:33,480
jarring. 
I think that's true. 

1332
01:10:33,480 --> 01:10:34,760
Maybe. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1333
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:37,360
Yeah, I mean, she's wonderful. 
We had her on the podcast and 

1334
01:10:37,360 --> 01:10:40,880
she was absolutely fantastic. 
I've got a lot of time for 

1335
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:46,000
Arika, but yeah, but yeah. 
And she was obviously the height

1336
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:48,440
of the time with Gladiators as 
well as Shooting Stars. 

1337
01:10:48,760 --> 01:10:52,280
So I think the BBC thought let's
and Victoria and Bob were their 

1338
01:10:52,280 --> 01:10:54,320
height with Shooting Stars, so 
they could pretty much be 

1339
01:10:54,320 --> 01:10:55,800
allowed to do whatever they 
wanted. 

1340
01:10:55,800 --> 01:10:57,480
So they came with it with this 
idea. 

1341
01:10:59,200 --> 01:11:01,800
I think they they announced it 
at a press conference before 

1342
01:11:01,800 --> 01:11:04,000
they even told Orika. 
They said, Oh yeah, we're 

1343
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:05,760
writing a special and Orika's 
going to be in it. 

1344
01:11:05,760 --> 01:11:06,880
And she was like, what? 
What was that? 

1345
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:10,480
Pardon? 
And so they had to, they had to 

1346
01:11:10,480 --> 01:11:13,920
go and make it. 
But yeah, yeah. 

1347
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:16,440
So they have you missed when 
when they're one step removed 

1348
01:11:16,440 --> 01:11:17,960
from it. 
It seems to be a bit. 

1349
01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:21,200
It's not, it's something not 
quite right, whether someone 

1350
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:24,360
else is right in it, like 
Randall Hopkirk or whether 

1351
01:11:24,360 --> 01:11:25,800
they're writing for somebody 
else. 

1352
01:11:26,520 --> 01:11:29,120
It's something missing. 
They have that magic. 

1353
01:11:29,120 --> 01:11:34,200
It's got to be them doing their 
own thing, which is 

1354
01:11:34,360 --> 01:11:36,960
indescribable. 
And The thing is, you can 

1355
01:11:36,960 --> 01:11:39,360
imagine the same with Q. 
Sometimes you're a lot of 

1356
01:11:39,360 --> 01:11:44,000
straight actors on the Q series,
and sometimes that's that works.

1357
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:48,400
And sometimes it does, either 
with Spike, come on and come on 

1358
01:11:48,400 --> 01:11:50,000
and be Spike, or get Pete and 
Harry in. 

1359
01:11:52,240 --> 01:11:55,440
Yeah. 
And on that note, so the 

1360
01:11:55,440 --> 01:11:58,280
podcast. 
Quite a boast is how Victoria 

1361
01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:00,160
pronounces sort of QE green. 
Style. 

1362
01:12:00,160 --> 01:12:00,840
That's it. 
That's it. 

1363
01:12:01,160 --> 01:12:02,520
Yeah, quite a boast, ladies and 
gentlemen. 

1364
01:12:02,520 --> 01:12:04,280
That's quite a boast. 
Yeah. 

1365
01:12:04,280 --> 01:12:07,080
It's it's we've we're nowhere 
near. 

1366
01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:10,160
Well, you're not 200 odd 
episodes now in I guess we're 

1367
01:12:10,160 --> 01:12:11,720
nowhere near that. 
I think we've got a few years. 

1368
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:14,240
I think we know about 20 odd 
now. 

1369
01:12:15,880 --> 01:12:18,160
Yeah. 
It's all the usual places you 

1370
01:12:18,160 --> 01:12:23,120
can find it, Spotify and all. 
Got anything of the name of 

1371
01:12:23,120 --> 01:12:23,920
that? 
Other ones? 

1372
01:12:24,040 --> 01:12:26,240
It's on YouTube as well. 
Just search for it, you know to 

1373
01:12:26,240 --> 01:12:27,840
do it. 
And I've got a Facebook page as 

1374
01:12:27,840 --> 01:12:32,000
well, which is the Victories and
Bob Mortimer depository of 

1375
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:35,640
curious stuff where I try and 
post anything that's Vic and Bob

1376
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:38,160
related. 
So if people want to join that 

1377
01:12:38,160 --> 01:12:41,400
group, they more than welcome. 
Very good. 

1378
01:12:41,760 --> 01:12:43,800
Well, Matt, thank you. 
Thank you very much for joining 

1379
01:12:43,800 --> 01:12:45,800
me. 
It's been an interesting, a 

1380
01:12:45,920 --> 01:12:47,640
really interesting chat. 
It's nice to talk about 

1381
01:12:47,640 --> 01:12:51,280
something we have touched on the
goons of course and Spike and 

1382
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:55,120
whatnot, but we've we've focused
much more on Victoria and Bob 

1383
01:12:55,120 --> 01:12:56,880
and it's been nice, a nice 
change and I enjoy. 

1384
01:12:56,880 --> 01:12:58,800
It's nice to talk with something
with a protagonist is still 

1385
01:12:58,800 --> 01:13:00,480
alive. 
Yeah, yes. 

1386
01:13:03,080 --> 01:13:04,320
Absolutely. 
All right, mate. 

1387
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,440
Well, I'm sure that we will 
speak again at some point in the

1388
01:13:06,440 --> 01:13:07,840
future. 
Yeah, look forward to it. 

1389
01:13:07,840 --> 01:13:09,880
Thanks so much for having me. 
Do you know what, Bob? 

1390
01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:12,080
What? 
I like aliens. 

1391
01:13:12,080 --> 01:13:15,640
I thought it was aggregate. 
I like more than one thing, 

1392
01:13:15,640 --> 01:13:16,560
Anna. 
All right, then. 

1393
01:13:16,600 --> 01:13:17,720
All right then. 
You like aliens? 

1394
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:18,880
An eggnog. 
Yes, I do. 

1395
01:13:18,880 --> 01:13:23,960
Fancy pants. 
All right then, Bob, I'm in the 

1396
01:13:23,960 --> 01:13:27,240
stationer's shop and I'm going 
to buy quite a hard piece of 

1397
01:13:27,240 --> 01:13:28,920
stationery. 
What is it? 

1398
01:13:29,160 --> 01:13:31,040
Stationer's hard item. 
Hard item? 

1399
01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:32,520
That's easy. 
That's a franking machine. 

1400
01:13:33,400 --> 01:13:35,200
Climb you. 
I don't know how you do it. 

1401
01:13:35,880 --> 01:13:38,720
Do you want to come in for an 
eggnog? 

1402
01:13:38,960 --> 01:13:40,720
I don't like eggnog, but yes, 
I'll come in. 

1403
01:13:43,560 --> 01:13:45,440
Jim, what are these two foxes 
doing in here? 

1404
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:51,680
It worked. 
Auntie and Hunter her back. 

1405
01:13:51,760 --> 01:13:54,440
It's them. 
I can't believe it.

