The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer

The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
Cover of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
Genre	Sketch comedy Slapstick Surreal humour
Created by	Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer
Starring	Vic Reeves Bob Mortimer Charlie Chuck Patrick Allen Steve Coogan Mark Williams Paul Whitehouse Charlie Higson Matt Lucas
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Producer(s)	Channel X
Running time	30 minutes (Series 2 on VHS and Series 1-2 on DVD) 40 minutes (Series 1 on VHS)
Production company(s)	Channel X
Release
Original network	BBC
Original release	21 September 1993 – 9 June 1995
Chronology
Related shows	Vic Reeves Big Night Out Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer

The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer is a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Its first series appeared in 1993 following the duo's move to the BBC after parting company with Channel 4. The show marked a continuation of Reeves & Mortimer's bizarre, anarchic and frequently silly comedy that they had first explored on Channel 4's Vic Reeves Big Night Out.

Firstly, Mortimer was now Reeves's partner as opposed to his assistant on the previous programme. As well as getting his name in the title, he shared the trademark prop-strewn desk with Reeves.

With virtually all of the Vic Reeves Big Night Out characters consigned to the past (only Greg Mitchell and the Stotts survived, the Stotts appearing in the second series), a whole range of new characters appeared. The show also featured pre-recorded sketches and a lavish studio set, laden with columns and pillars and in the centre the enormous letters R&M, from which the duo emerged at the start of each show.

The show would usually close with the song "Let's Have A Little Bit More," which saw the duo enthusing about the smells of things, from "Pol Pot's Dungarees" to "Lulu's Hairdos."

Series one of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer established the format of the show. Each programme began with a bizarre introduction, narrated by Patrick Allen ("Austria, 1930, a young boy is challenged by his mischievous grandfather to attempt to throw a handbell at the local village idiot") before the studio set appeared and Allen introduced the duo ("Please welcome Libya's foremost air-conditioning engineers, Reeves & Mortimer"), after which the pair would sing a song before seating themselves at the desk to tell silly jokes, introduce the bizarre guests and endorse various Reeves & Mortimer products (such as the "Reeves & Mortimer Walk-Me-Home Cheddar" and "The Home Vibration Cowboy Unit").

A regular feature was a bizarre spoof of a then-current TV programme, such as Food & Drink, which saw host Chris Kelly (Mortimer), whose face was a piece of toasted cheese with a box of tea bags taped to his head and whose legs gradually became ridiculously long, afterwards boiling his head in a pot to "prepare a nice pot of tea,", and Antiques Roadshow, where a termite mound containing the singer Prince was found inside a wardrobe. Perhaps the most bizarre was Noel's Addicts, an insane parody of a show hosted by Noel Edmonds in 1992 about people's hobbies.