User reviews

I love Reeves And Mortimer in a way that can only be described via dance. However since you cannot see my dance, I will review it.

Reeves And Mortimer are geniuses. Who else could make farting Frenchman, pan fights and a pub in an organ so monumentally hilarious? Shooting Stars is the one everyone remembers but this is so good I'd like to cover it in fudge.

For those that are not initiated, the show was divided between many bizarre sketches (70's glam band Slade on holiday, Men In Bras, numerous TV mickey takes) and the pair's rather bizarre attempts to host a show, usually interrupted by Uncle Peter and a man demanding "booze for'baby".

In short buy it, treasure it and praise the lemonade for this fine pair!

i'm only voting on this because precious few have and it's only currently sitting at 6.8 which is criminal for such an amazing show.

to be honest it is difficult to write a review on a show that is so surreal but if you like the idea of cats in bomber jackets and the like then you will love this show.

come on and give this show a go and enter the crazy world of the crazy minds of vic and bob... look out for the adverts for random fruit and veg products! The smell of Reeves and Mortimer... better than Shooting Stars or Vics Big Night Out!!

by the way if you like this, try The Paul Merton Show.

A great DVD release from the BBC, though sadly lacking in the extras department, and, strangely, missing a few scenes that were present in the original VHS release. Oh well, if thats the price we have to pay for finally getting this hilariously surreal show on DVD then so be it. It was worth the wait. Both series were fantastic, and though series two has its standout moments (the Masterchef sketch being one of many highlights) its really the first series that contains the best material. Watching it again now after 13 years, and it still feels fresh, and is funnier than pretty much every comedy churned out over the last decade! Inspired characters (the bra men, Uncle Peter, Otis and Marvin) - great parodies of British TV standards of the time (Food and Drink, Masterchef, Antiques Roadshow) - and lets not forget the music - fantastic - surreal - in short this show is nothing less than genius!

Bob: "Yeah Vic, but how does it work?"

Vic: "I don't know, but it DOES!"

Vic and Bob are the greatest 'surrealist' comedians since the Monty Python team.

And 'The Smell Of...' is their greatest achievement to date. Never have I laughed as much as when I first saw this on TV back in the early 90's.

*The schizophrenic folk singers Mulligan and 'O' Hare.

*Otis Reading and Marvin Gaye in a wardrobe.

*Film noir style vegetable adverts.

*Silent French flatulence shorts.

*The paranoid bra-men.

*Frying-pan fights.

*And of course, Uncle 'DONKEY' Peter.

This really is a show that cannot be adequately described on paper, so watch it for yourself and witness the genius that is Vic and Bob.

"Come on, let's have a look at it..."

The greatest light entertainer in living memory at his creative best Oh what a joy to glimpse into the mind of Viv & Bob's gargantuan minds When this was first aired I remember driving around Folkestone & Hythe to see where the Aldington-on-Sea sets where filmed Why this duo isn't on prime time Saturday evening telly is criminal instead we get the pale imitators Ant&Dec.

A recent reminder of how funny Shooting Stars was saw he digging out this DVD copy of season 1 of "Smell of...." since I had fond memories of loving that show. I was at the age where I got the humour and loved quoting the lines and characters with school friends and, when I moved to England I remember seeing them live within a few months of arriving in the Midlands. However, with all that I was also wary that I was viewing the show through the eyes of a much younger person at a completely different time from now – meaning that what might have been classic at the time may not still be that way to the me in my thirties.

This wariness was partially justified because it is hard to ignore how out and out silly the whole Reeves & Mortimer sense of humour is and I would be lying to myself if I said that I found the whole thing hilarious. It is not even that at times I found it bemusing, it was more that some of the silliness just seemed to be being done for the sake of it and that it didn't have any effect on me but to feel a bit daft. I recognise that part of this is me getting older but from my memory I didn't find much hilarious about the extremes of the show, such as people carrying signs with the word "nightie" on it, or the presentation of the two men arguing on the frozen cat urine (why they had stuff in their pants is beyond me). However, all this negativity covers up my main feeling, which was that the show is still very funny and worth seeing – no childhood memories were shattered here as is often the case when watching stuff that I remember as being brilliant to the 10 year old me etc.

The thing is that, as surrealist comedians, they don't really have an equal although they certainly have been inspirations to others coming after them. This show is endlessly creative, from the straight-laced "historical" opening through the weird and wonderful characters and scenarios. The opening songs are an indication of what to expect and, aside from one or two, they are generally very funny, putting you in the right frame of mind to get into the rest of the show. The rough structure includes characters of entirely their own creation (such as Uncle Peter, Pat & Dave), real characters put through the imagination cycle (see Otis Reading & Marvin Gaye, Slade, various BBC shows such as Antiques Roadshow) or those inspired by real people (such as Mulligan & O'Hare). Some of them don't work for me personally but this is to be expected – the Frenchmen are too basic to carry the genre joke they are making and, looking at those bit now I feel more embarrassment than amusement.

Otherwise though it is endlessly creative and, even when their madness isn't funny all the time, it is still quite captivating by way of the energy the two of them bring to it and the pleasure that can be had by being taken by surprise by some of the things they say and do. Both Bob and Vic are excellent in all their characters, while the rambling madness of Charlie Chuck's Uncle Peter is always enjoyable as well as support from famous faces such as Whitehouse, Higson, Lucas and others in small roles. Everyone buys into the silliness and it is this that helps sell it to the audience.

The show is highly considered by those that were fans at the time and mostly this is deserved. I don't think it helps the show to ignore how daft it is at times, or how some of the material fails to draws laughs but this is minor problems that come as the cost of doing business with Vic and Bob – and it is a small cost in exchange for the creative madness that they deliver.