Bob Mortimer

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Actor, comedian, composer, musician, podcaster, presenter, screenwriter, writer

Biography

Robert Renwick Mortimer (born on 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, podcast presenter, and actor.

In 1986 he went to the Goldsmith’s Tavern in New Cross, London, to see a show by a comedian called Vic Reeves. Mortimer approached Reeves after the show, and the two began writing material for the next week’s show together. He began to perform on the show, which was christened Vic Reeves Big Night Out.

Reeves and Mortimer made their television debut on the 1989 comedy chat show One Hour with Jonathan Ross. Later that year, the duo made their first television pilot together, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, which remained true to the nightclub act’s variety show format.

In 1993 the two created the sketch show The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and a comedy panel show Shooting Stars, which subsequently ran for five series between 1995 and 2002, and a further three series between 2009 and 2011.

In 1999 Reeves and Mortimer appeared in a second sketch show called Bang Bang, It’s Reeves and Mortimer. A year later, he played the part of Jeff Randall in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), opposite Reeves as Marty.

In 2002 he defeated Les Dennis in the BBC’s first Celebrity Boxing match, as part of Sport Relief 2002. He produced and presented the second match, The Fight, a year later, which saw Grant Bovey versus Ricky Gervais. He also presented the Channel 4 list show The 100 Greatest World Cup Moments of All Time!.

In 2005 he hosted his first major TV series without Reeves, a comedy panel game for BBC One called 29 Minutes of Fame.

He co-wrote the BBC Three sketch comedy Tittybangbang with Jill Parker, which ran for three series between 2006 and 2007.

In 2007 he appeared as Reeves’ hairdresser, Carl, in the weekly radio sketch show on BBC Radio 2 entitled Vic Reeves’ House Arrest.

In 2010 he appeared on the Sky1 panel show A League of Their Own.

He has been a regular guest panellist on the BBC1 quiz show Would I Lie to You? since 2012.

In 2013 Reeves and Mortimer filmed episodes of a new BBC sitcom, House of Fools. The same year, Mortimer appeared on an episode of Ross Noble Freewheeling, and played Frank in the E4 sitcom Drifters.

In 2014 he appeared on an episode of the Dave show Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled.

In 2015 Reeves and Mortimer cancelled the first leg of their live tour, 25 Year of Reeves and Mortimer: The Poignant Moments, after Mortimer underwent an emergency triple heart bypass. The same year, he appeared in Let’s Play Darts, losing to Roisin Conaty, and also appeared in an episode of Celebrity Squares alongside Vic Reeves.

Since 2016 he has co-hosted a regular podcast, Athletico Mince, alongside Andy Dawson.

In 2017 he competed in and won series 5 of Taskmaster, and then in the Taskmaster: Champion of Champions specials against the winners of the previous four seasons. Also in 2017, Mortimer and Reeves starred in a relaunch and new singular episode of their comedy Big Night Out for the BBC, subsequently renamed to Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out. A full series of this show began on BBC Four in 2018.

In 2018 he teamed up with fellow comedian, Paul Whitehouse, in a BBC2 six part comedy series, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The two friends, who have both suffered from heart conditions, shared their thoughts and experiences while fishing at a variety of locations around the UK. Three series of the programme have aired to date, with a fourth commissioned in October 2020.

In 2019 he appeared on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs, and also on an episode of Channel 4’s Travel Man with Richard Ayoade.

He has appeared on BBC Two’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks on four occasions, and has also appeared on numerous episodes of the Sky1 comedy panel game Duck Quacks Don’t Echo.

[Source: Wikipedia, 03/03/2021.]