picture from Den of Geek

Comedy and music have always been the two most important things to me, and when I was at school I had my finger firmly on the pulse when it came to television comedy. This was mainly due to not being particularly sociable in my early teens so I would watch the telly in my room when I should really have been doing homework. I felt like I had landed in a comedy boom with the likes of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Paul Merton: The Series, The Mary Whitehouse Experience (which I had previously discovered on Radio 1) and others. Chanel Four also had the rights to high quality American sitcoms of the era too so I watched Cheers, Rosanne, The Golden Girls and Moonlighting. Bilko was either on early in the morning in the holidays and late at night when they needed to fill a gap in the schedules. 

On of the freshest shows around this time was Vic Reeves Big Night Out. As something of a comedy buff I recognised the Morecambe and Wise element and also the surrealist influences of Python and Spike Milligan. Nobody at school knew what I was talking about and when I mentioned it and to those who hadn't seen it you couldn't explain it and you couldn't repeat from it because there wasn't any jokes. Despite this, it was hilarious and clever at the same time and it wasn't long before everyone else cottoned on to it. The double act progressed to the BBC and eventually mainstream acceptance was granted to them without any major compromise to their style. 

Along with The League of Gentlemen (which I haven't yet seen so I can't comment on it as yet), the Big Night Out format was revived over Christmas and it was being billed as one of the biggest deals in comedy. On the BBC instead of its original home on Channel Four, I didn't hate it but sadly I didn't love it either. This show wasn't packaged as a reunion, because although Vic and Bob never officially split up but they have done some solo work, their names have always been associated with each other. Neither was it packaged as a comeback because they haven't been away. Vic and Bob's Big Night Out was a sadly cobbled together greatest hits idea with some new stuff thrown in, and we all know how we react when a band performs new songs. Novelty Island seemed like an afterthought, and I think the audience only cheered for Graham Lister because they wanted to be back in 1990. We didn't have the return of Les, The Man With The Stick, Judge Nutmeg or Morrissey the Consumer Monkey to fondly remember. At the end of this slow moving and slightly phoned in show, they didn't even sing 'Oh Mr Songwriter'. 

There is talk of a new series this year, I really hope they up the ante and return to the glory days.

===

Please make a donation using the PayPal button at the top of this blog. It all goes towards making films, comedy sketches, podcasts, documentaries and more. In return for your generosity I will make everything I create available for free online so that everybody can enjoy it.

My Twitter bio contains the word 'underfollowed', let's try and get rid of it by following me here.