Vic Reeves

Last Night's TV: Shooting Stars

When my mother was in her early twenties, a boyfriend took her to watch a Peter Sellers film. She sat there, sombre and straight-faced, as beside her, and all around her, an entire cinema of men were laughing so hard that they were choking in their 1960s mod collars.

Thirty years on, I spent my undergraduate years being placed in front of Shooting Stars - the must-see new comedy show of the 1990s - suffering from the same affliction. In some communal TV room of a student house boys were laughing so hard that they were dribbling on to their Pixies T-shirts and, occasionally, their transfixion to Vic and Bob and the "Dove from Above" would be broken for a moment to shoot a pitying glance at me, a leaden, lumpen blob who could not even crack a smile at the funniest thing in the universe as it existed in 1995. I think maybe it's genetic.

Little did we know back in 1993 that the bald-headed baby would end up being the most famous person in the room. It's a tribute to Matt Lucas's affection for this surreal platform for Reeves and Mortimer that he is game to play the sideshow. We've had Little Britain since but that hasn't exactly shifted the country's comedic goalposts, so Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson are still able to bring misery and sunshine respectively, with relative ease, now being joined by new comic creation Angelos Epithemiou, a burger-van owner with a gelled fringe (played by the once-Perrier-nominated comedian Dan Skinner). The One Show's Christine Bleakley got the trouser-rubbing treatment from Reeves; if he does this for another five years it'll become the equivalent of Brucey's bodybuilder pose. And why not?

So, Shooting Stars returned to our screens last night and for me, there was a lot riding on it. The show had been one of my favourite things in the history of telly and revisiting it could have been suicide for the show. However, Vic and Bob still have a penchant for the ridiculous, so there wasn't too much to worry about... right? After watching the latest offering, back after a so-so Christmas special, last night proved to be more of the same.

Kicking off with the good, the New Shooting Stars felt comfortingly familiar. The Dove From Above, Vic perving over the Pretty Guest, the oddball contraptions, George Dawes' song and the pisstake homage to something from the world of pop culture... it was all there and for the most part, pretty decent. Not uniformly brilliant, but decent all the same.

The biggest laugh (personally) came with a puerile, gross-out joke, which saw Vic unveiling his skiddy underpants to The One Show's Christine Bleakley, who clearly didn't know what the hell to do. Nor did the rest of the studio, which has always been the calling card of Shooting Stars. Everything falls apart and you feel a bit drunk whilst it is all going off around your ears.

However... some parts of the show dragged a bit. Like a snake wearing a nappy filled with boiled cabbage. Vic looked a little tired, leaving Bob to provide the octane. One joke made me grimace (not in a good way). Yep. The one about "Enid Brighton" That was followed up with Ray Kay Rowring and, to be honest, I've always expected more from this pairing. For a duo that could pluck a joke from absolutely nowhere, to lean on Foreign People Talk Funny Don't They? jokes is a let-down. You wouldn't like it if Jim Davidson told it.

However, at times, it was typically brilliant from Vic and Bob. Bob's "loooving you, is easy coz your boobs are new" at Ulrika was great fun and the endgame was pleasantly odd. Yet at other times, it felt like Elvis in Vegas, with people gamely clapping along to the old hits whilst a slightly tubby man didn't quite nail it like he used to.

With any luck, they're finding their stride again and as the new series continues, it'll hit vintage form again. I hope so at any rate.

Last night's TV

Why, I wondered, has Shooting Stars returned? And then I watched it - and laughed non-stop.

Stellar comeback for Shooting Stars

Vic and Bob were back on BBC2 with a bang last night as revived panel show Shooting Stars grabbed an impressive 2.7m (13.7% share) at 10pm.

After a seven-year hiatus - aside from last year's so-so Christmas special - the madcap quiz show returns for a sixth series. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are once again at the helm, while Little Britain's Matt Lucas returns as the ever-excitable George Dawes, the man with the scores. Joining team captains Jack Dee - who replaces Will Self from the last series in 2002 - and Ulrika Jonsson this week are The One Show's Christine Bleakley, 21-year-old pop star DJ Ironik and comedians Paddy McGuinness and Dan Skinner, the latter of whom appears in the guise of a Greek burger van owner called Angelos Epithemiou.

The show, which first aired in 1993, has always divided opinion: many have found it refreshingly quirky, while others believe it to be just annoyingly bizarre.

Certainly, the aficionados will be pleased to hear that its basic format is staying true to its roots. Sadly, though, the surreal, frenetic humour which characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday now feels a little stale - and perhaps slightly forced. Nevertheless, the show still has its moments. Reeves's shameless leering and harassment of a game Bleakley, in particular, will draw a smile. The highlight of tonight's series opener, however, is the appearance of comic newcomer Epithemiou, whose lugubrious style is such that it makes the cranky and deadpan Jack Dee seem comparatively sprightly.

After a one-off Christmas special, someone had the bright idea of bringing back Shooting Stars for a new series. It was an odd decision, as this surreal, not-a-panel-game feels threadbare and tired. Sadly, time has not been kind. Team captains Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson do their best, but they don't have much to work with. The guests, particularly The One Show's Christine Bleakley, are game and do their best but it's a slog. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer still have their moments, of course; Reeves's impressions of an unintelligible club singer are still funny; and it's good to see Matt Lucas again as the excitable big baby George Dawes. At least he looks like he's having fun. But generally the humour is too scatological and the madness that characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday and which made the show feel fresh and unlike anything else, now feels forced.

Back in 1993, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer cornered the market in surreal self-indulgence with their infectious take on the celebrity panel show. After a one-off special last December to mark its 15th anniversary, Shooting Stars is back again with a full series and a mix of old and new faces.

In the special, Jack Dee took over the mantle of grumpy team captain as first patented by Mark Lamarr and he returns once more opposite Ulrika Jonsson. Surprisingly perhaps, given that his own star has now eclipsed the hosts, Matt Lucas is back behind his drum kit as George Dawes with the scores.

The new, regular addition to this series is a character called Angelos Epithemiou, who's introduced as an ordinary member of the public and burger-van owner but, in reality, is comedian Dan Skinner.

Otherwise, the familiar catchphrases are dusted off, the Dove From Above flies again and The One Show's Christine Bleakley draws the short straw this week as the object of Vic Reeves' disturbing attentions.

Like any right-thinking person, tvBite loved Shooting Stars in its mid-1990s pomp. Does the world need a return? We're prepared to err on the generous side and welcome back The Dove From Above, George Dawes et al, but you do have your worries. Must be a strange life, that of the 50-year-old comedian: how do you stay funny once you are rich and successful? Is it harder to be an edgy outsider when you're guzzling champagne with lapdancers? Whatever. We will be watching, for old time's sake.

I'll admit it. There was a point when I didn't quite 'get' ­Shooting Stars. There were so many questions. Why was a man who looks like a pickled walnut dressed as a baby? And why was he playing the drums? Why were they asking: "True or false: Bill Cosby is the world's first black man?" And why was the answer false, but only because the correct answer was "Sidney Poitier"? Why did the hosts - Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer - occasionally hit each other with comedy homemade ­objects, and make noises ­resembling a llama giving birth, as if they were talking? Just what was Mark Lamarr?

Then I saw an episode where they made Ulrika Jonsson stand in the centre of the stage and swung a stuffed bear at her. On a rope. From the ceiling. Shooting Stars made no sense but once you mentally tuned in, it was brilliant - a panel show that took surrealist comedy mainstream for the first time since Monty Python. And now, 12 years after disappearing from terrestrial TV, it's ba-ba-back. With Ulrika-ka-ka... you get the point. So, is it as good as ever?

Well, yes, because beyond the bizarre rounds (tonight: who's disguised as Hitler?), surreal questions ("name someone with a face") and off-beat skits (what Care Home: The Musical would be like), you remember the real ­reason for Shooting Stars has always been satirical. The clue's in the double-edged ­title, for the hard of thinking.

Hence, Ulrika - the kind of person who'd make love to herself and sell the kiss-and-tell to a tabloid - remains as target practice as a team captain ("You're writing a book, aren't you?" says Bob Mortimer. "The first thing you need is a pen. And some ideas. Could come together.").

But far better than the celeb guests who "got" Shooting Stars, were the ones that really didn't. Step ­forward ­tonight's guest, DJ Ironic. He dresses all in black, wears shades in the studio, has a small fluffy toy on the desk he calls his mini-me, and is called DJ Ironic. I mean, could he be any more of a tosser? Oh wait, yes. Because he spells his name DJ Ironik. THAT'S how ironic he is: incorrect, phonetic spelling. He may as well add a question mark at the end and be done with it

But here is the thing: celebrity satire, especially with people like DJ Impossibly Massive Dickhead, is all too obvious. Slugging them with surrealism they aren't smart enough to get or quick enough to parry is the sucker-punch they never saw ­coming, and is very funny indeed.

Of course, there is a slight hitch to all this celeb-baiting fun. Namely, Vic Reeves's appearance on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, which could have made this the equivalent of Angus Deayton on Have I Got News for You trying to be all ­clever-clever about the excess of celebrity after a night with call-girls and Colombian bam-bam.

But somehow it doesn't - because Shooting Stars never took itself seriously in the first place. Looking silly was ­always the point.