It’s a lovely thought: Bob Mortimer says he wants to work with Vic Reeves again

Bob Mortimer has said he wants to perform with Vic Reeves again (Ian West/PA) - (PA Archive)

Gone Fishing star Bob Mortimer has said he wants to work with comedy partner Vic Reeves again, describing the idea as “a lovely thought”.

The 65-year-old first worked with Reeves, whose real name is Jim Moir, in the late 1980s, going on to create shows such as Vic Reeves Big Night Out, The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer and Shooting Stars, and said it would be “quite nice” if the pair finished their careers together.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mortimer said: “It’s a lovely thought – I don’t know whether we’re up to it any more, I would be up for it, of course I would, he said he is.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer last worked together in 2019 (John Stillwell/PA) (PA Archive)

“Jim’s up for anything, I’m a bit more difficult to persuade, but yeah, that would be nice, it would be fun.

“You know, we started together, so it’d be quite nice if we finished together.”

Mortimer was then told by presenters that he was “not that old”, to which he added: “I feel it, you know, I feel it.

“I had shingles last year, and it knocked me for six, I got it really (bad). Kind of lost the … I’d say one of my legs is gone, and one of my knees has gone because of this shingles.

“And once your mobility goes, I think that’s when you start to feel old.”

The Middlesbrough-born comic went on to explain that he was an “apathetic” person and said he felt his career had happened by chance.

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse have had a huge success with Gone Fishing (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Archive)

He explained: “I seem to have fallen into all of these things, Paul (Whitehouse) took me fishing to get me off my sofa after my heart operation, and then suddenly my most successful television programme (Gone Fishing) comes from it.

“And back in the day with Jim, with Vic Reeves, I was just on his coattails, as it were, he was doing the show, and I somehow crept into it.

“A bit like the hash browns crept into the English breakfast, nobody asked for it.”

As a comedy duo Reeves and Mortimer were known for their absurd humour, a mix of slapstick, rapid-fire jokes and silly banter.

On their best known programme, game show Shooting Stars, the pair regularly embarrassed team captains Ulrika Jonsson and Jack Dee, and performed sketches mocking the likes of Roxy Music, Peter Kay and The Who.

The pair last worked together on TV with Vic And Bob’s Big Night Out for the BBC in 2019.