Vic And Bob's Lucky Sexy Winners

One and done: Vic and Bob's Lucky Sexy Winners

Being a huge fan of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer meant that before watching this 2012 pilot from the duo I presumed by the end of it I'd be shaking my fist at the injustice of it not being given a full series, and indeed that was the case. It's not as if Vic and Bob are exactly newcomers to tv either, presumably Channel 4 knew exactly what they'd be getting from the deranged duo and so it feels odd that it wasn't picked up.

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Another show in Channel 4's Funny Fortnight, Lucky Sexy Winners appears to be an attempt by both the channel and surreal double-act Reeves and Mortimer to replicate the success of Shooting Stars.

In this show the contestants, stand-up Eddie Izzard, This is England actor Thomas Turgoose and Waterloo Road actress Chelsee Healey, have to answer a series of "questions" based on a series of Vic's bizarre drawings. There is no "Dove from Above Round", or indeed rounds at all. It is just answering questions before the time runs out. The time and "The Kingdom of Prize" are guarded by the scorer, another character created by Dan Renton Skinner, who came to fame as Angelos Epithemiou. This time he's John Meringue, a proud yet somewhat mundane Viking warrior.

There were several moments of mirth, such as one of prizes being Katie Price's memory foam mattress and the duo performing martial arts on a kid. However, when I watched the show all I could think of is, "I've seen it all before." The panel show mocking has become stale now. There were also moments that I recognise from earlier Vic and Bob vehicles. At one point Bob falls over pathetically, which goes way all the way back to Big Night Out.

Overall, a bit of a disappointment. It's probably time for Vic and Bob to try something new.

Lucky Sexy Winners pilot review

It's not that Lucky Sexy Winners is a bad show. Far from it. It's just that TV is swamped with a dozen indentikit comedy panel shows currently.

Lucky Sexy Winners review

Lucky Sexy Winners (what a great title) is a good replacement for Shooting Stars.

C4's Funny Fortnight continues with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer gleefully churning out... yes, a reworking of Shooting Stars. Which means more exuberant, absurd chaos from its batty quizmasters, guests ranging from the classy to the inane (Eddie Izzard to Chelsee Healey, with This Is England's Thomas Turgoose gamely occupying the middle ground), and Dan 'Angelos Epithemiou' Skinner keeping score in a new guise: as a middle-class Viking. Hell, why not.

There was general and justifiable outrage when BBC2 pulled the plug on Shooting Stars. But how did Vic and Bob react? By the looks of this new show, they shrugged their shoulders and went off to C4 to do something incredibly similar. Is that enough? Well, there's no Jack Dee to have his face compared to things. No Ulrika. And Dan Skinner has reconstituted himself as John Meringue, a sort of Viking real ale enthusiast. There are skits, absurd live performances, non-sequiteurial questions and baffled guests (tonight; Eddie Izzard, Chelsee Healey and Thomas Turgoose). The resulting show will have you sniggering along, even as you contemplate the duo's bare-faced cheek. Vic and Bob truly couldn't be boring if they tried but, assuming it gets a series, this could go either way.

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Vic and Bob returned to our screens, with another one-off show for the birthday celebrations. Vic & Bob's Lucky Sexy Winners - a quiz show, at least technically - opened with our trouserless hosts sporting platform heels and dancing as ever, although this time literally, to the beat of their own drums. Then a cardboard cutout of Simon Cowell as drawn by Reeves atop a pair of human legs kicked a lever to activate the clock and guests Chelsee Healey, Thomas Turgoose and Eddie Izzard ("Occupation?" "Spinster") competed to answer questions such as "Where is Antony Worrall Thompson - the moistest of the TV chefs - housed when not on TV?" and win prizes that included an energy drink and some talcum powder in a jar ("In a jar, in a jar, in a jar!"). It occurred to me that, unless I blinked and missed it, Reeves and Mortimer were the only things missing (Harry Hill's TV Burp titles got a brief look-in) from the festival of bonkers Britishness that was the Olympics opening ceremony. Danny Boyle probably couldn't find a frame of their work from the moment The Smell Of ... kicked off that wouldn't have finally tipped the whole fabulous, precariously balanced thing over into outright frothing madness incomprehensible across the globe.

Like Hill, you either find them funny or you don't and the paltry resources of the written word cannot hope to transport you from the latter to the former camp. Even the news that AWT is housed in Glasgow University Hospital when not on TV may not sway you. But I laughed till I cried and begged whatever god is in charge of these things for a whole Lucky Sexy winning series. I type till then with fingers crossed.

Reeves and Mortimer make their first foray into post-Shooting Stars territory with a new quiz show. All their trademark ingredients are there: off-the-wall challenges, strange questions and contestants, such as Eddie Izzard, who aren't afraid of getting involved. When they're not quizzing, Vic and Bob will find time for some new comedy sketches and bizarre impressions of celebrities. There's also a healthy dose of magic, fire and hotpants - and they still wear them well.