The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer - Series Two

Series Two

The second series appeared in 1995, and a few changes to the format of the first series had occurred. The unusual introductions followed by a song continued (a memorable example was a history of cheese followed by an upbeat song investigating the link between cottage cheese and voodoo) and the same closing song (which originally appeared on the pilot for Vic Reeves Big Night Out), but while the set was essentially the same, the desk was different (it had a slick, red surface, a metal body and a fox stretched across its entire length.)

While still fundamentally an offbeat programme (a party was deemed no good unless "two owls" attended) the second series had a less bizarre, more overtly slapstick atmosphere to it, with Vic increasingly the buffoon to Bob's disapproving figure. Any disagreement was usually the cue for the duo's now-trademark fights with increasingly large frying pans and hammers.

The finale to each show would usually see a despairing Bob attempting to entertain the audience, whether singing "The Way We Were" on skis, singing "For All of Us" from within a glass bottle, playing "The British Countryside" on the flute or playing his enormous organ, which happened to contain a fully functioning pub. Vic would constantly barge in and ruin everything for Bob before the usual, rousing "Let's Have A Little Bit More" song would close the proceedings.

Reeves & Mortimer products were no longer advertised by the duo themselves, but in the form of "commercials." Products this time included the coffee-table books Dogs In Their Hats and Cats In Bomber Jackets, "Webster's Savoury Edible Tights" and "Papa's Nappies For Men."

Spoofs of then-current TV shows continued, including MasterChef spoof, with Vic as Lloyd Grossman with a huge bulbous head floating around the studio to the sound of bells, and the contestants including Morwenna Banks as Joan Baptiste, who presented a faceplate in the form of Jesus Christ, with her own severed ears the speciality, Matt Lucas as the victorious Quentin Mint, who presented a human backside with a side salad, and Bob as the hapless Lucas Bon'chomme whose replica cake of a shoe ("Cake like a shoe, it's a shoe-cake") turned out to be a real shoe, as did his "cakey-phone"