‘We put a stink bomb in Stephen Fry’s shoe’: Vic and Bob talk about the inspiring foolishness of Shooting Stars | culture

Bob Mortimer, Writer, host

The first time I saw what would become Shooting Stars was Vic Reeves – aka Jim Moir – doing The Big Quiz during a live broadcast of Vic Reeves Big Night Out. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was full of meaningless questions and had an attitude. I remember thinking: “There has to be something we can do about this.”

We got lucky. We were doing a Vic and Bob Christmas TV special and thought we might be able to get away with doing this ‘big test’. There must have been something on it when the BBC called us and said: ‘We think you could make this as a show.’

It was the most intense writing we’d ever done. We would sit for hours trying to think of right or wrong questions, but because we loved it, we were happy to give him the time he needed.

Jim put George Dawes, played by Matt Lucas, in a romper suit, but then, anything you see him wearing was Matt’s choice. We didn’t know what he would wear or say. He would come up to me before filming and say, “Sometime, can you ask me if I like going to the movies?” I never let him tell me what was being set up. Then we were really in hysterics at the show because we’d never heard of it before.

Team captain Mark Lamar was a gift. Being rigid is in his nature. He is not easily impressed. In fact, Ulrika Jonsson, the other team captain, even gave a look at the show, which was unexpected. She wanted to win.

A lot had happened and the guests couldn’t prepare for it. We were vandalizing their seats. A large portion of them would say, “My kids love it. I had to keep going.” Others were on publicity tours and I think their agents chose the wrong show. Larry Hagman, who played J.R. in Dallas, seemed unsure about what was going on but agreed. People always say they’re glad they did it. Maybe they were lying.

The challenges were great. I remember dropping cheese on the guests. We pretended to put people in a cage with a monkey and they were terrified. We once wanted to bring a horse into the studio but were told we couldn’t in case it broke down. I don’t know where the dove from above came from. We just thought it would be funny.

There’s a before and after of Shooting Stars. It has changed the standards of pleasure to be had and imagination to be used in panel shows. It was one of the few places where you could catch a glimpse of what a celebrity actually looks like.

Jim Muir also known as Vic Reeves, Writer, host

We wanted Shooting Stars to be a one-off game but it worked well so we kept going. When we shot Big Night Out, we wouldn’t show the scripts to the crew, which they hated because they didn’t know where to put the cameras. We did the same thing with Shooting Stars. We’d say, “Something’s going to happen here but we’re not telling you what.”

No one knew about things until we did them. She placed a stink bomb in Stephen Fry’s shoe that completely upset the studio. I had a stuffed hawk with a cross around its neck, and the Christians complained, “Birds can’t be Christians.” It’s the most complaints we’ve ever received.

I invented the name George Dawes so we could say his mother was Marjorie Dawes, the appalling nutritionist in Little Britain. We did not hear his songs until the night. Peanuts are my favorite. There’s nothing other than saying “peanuts.” We were wrinkled.

Bob had seen Ulrika showing the weather forecast and laughing. We thought she looked like she had gravitas. Mark left the floor. I said: Can you start filming next week? He said: “Yes.” It was that easy. I have a feeling he didn’t think any of it was funny. Calling him a 1950s throwback was a comment that stuck. “Ulrika-ka-ka” Bob was trying to imitate the echo of the song. We told them to turn to us: they would give back the best they got.

There were very few guests in the green room because they knew that they might be in some kind of misfortune. Bee Gee Robin Gibb wouldn’t show up unless we promoted his new single, so we paused everything during the show, listened to him, and then said, “Okay, let’s get on with it.” “Rub My Knees” came from a children’s Christmas record where you can hear an old man rubbing his legs as he sings. I thought it was really funny. It has become a normal thing. Same thing with holding up handbags and saying “oooh!” People still do it but I don’t think they know where it comes from.

We needed some sound or word to end the rounds, so I said “Eranu” and “Uvavu” and Bob said, “That will do.” I saw Paul Sheen at Pebble Mill in One performing “I’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”. He was like the old club singers, so I started writing songs in that style. Mark always guessed them right, no matter how broken up they were.

Sometimes I make the trophies myself. The art department will say, “I can make this look better.” But I say: “No.” Same thing with makeup. I loved drawing lines on my face. They said, “You make us look so bad.”

The show was an antidote to comedy. It was a formula that people could get behind – and then we deviated from it.