Vic Reeves Big Night Out

Vic Reeves Big Night Out
DVD Cover of Vic Reeves Big Night Out, released Sept 2005. Left to right: Bob Mortimer, Vic Reeves and Fred Aylward
Genre	Sketch comedy Surreal humour
Created by	Vic Reeves
Starring	Vic Reeves Bob Mortimer Fred Aylward
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	15
Production
Producer(s)	Channel X
Running time	25 minutes (and one 40 minute special)
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Original release	25 May 1990 – 17 April 1991

Vic Reeves Big Night Out was a cult British comedy stage show and later TV series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special. It marked the beginnings of the collaboration between Vic Reeves (real name Jim Moir) and Bob Mortimer and started their Vic and Bob comedy double act.

The show was later acknowledged as a seminal force in British comedy throughout the 1990s and which continues to the present day.

Arguably the most surreal of the pair's work, Vic Reeves Big Night Out was effectively a parody of the variety shows which dominated the early years of television, but which were, by the early 1990s, falling from grace. Vic, introduced by Patrick Allen as "Britain's Top Light Entertainer and Singer", would sit behind a cluttered desk talking nonsense and introducing the various segments and surreal guests on the show. Vic Reeves Big Night Out is notable as the only time in their career where Vic solely took the role of host, while Bob was consigned to the back stage, appearing every few minutes as either himself or as a strange character. The two received equal billing in the series credits.

On 3 October 2007, the first episode was re-broadcast on More4 as part of Channel 4 at 25, a season of classic Channel 4 programmes shown to celebrate the channel's 25th birthday.

On 25 October 2009, repeats of Big Night Out began running on TV channel Gold.

Both series of the show and the New Year's Special are currently available for viewing on Channel 4's streaming service, All 4.

In the mid-1980s, a friend of Jim Moir's gave him the job of running a comedy club in London. Not knowing how to book acts, he decided to put on a show of his own, changing his name every night, but eventually sticking with Vic Reeves and calling the show Vic Reeves' Variety Palladium. In 1986, he moved the show to the Goldsmiths Tavern (now the New Cross House), New Cross and renamed it Vic Reeves' Big Night Out.