Jim Moir
James Roderick Moir, commonly known by his stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian and artist. He has a double act with Bob Mortimer as Reeves & Mortimer. He is known for his surreal sense of humour.
In 2003, Reeves and Mortimer were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find the Comedians' Comedian, Reeves and Mortimer were voted the ninth-greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Early life
Moir was born in Leeds, the son of Audrey and James Neill Moir. At the age of five, he moved to Darlington, County Durham, with his parents and younger sister Lois. He attended Heathfield Infants and Junior School and went on to the nearby secondary school, Eastbourne Comprehensive in Darlington. After leaving school, Moir undertook an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering at a factory in Newton Aycliffe. Eventually he moved to London, where he attended the Polytechnic of North London and Middlesex Polytechnic.Early career
Moir formed the Fashionable Five, a group of five friends who would follow bands like the Enid and Free onto stage, and perform pranks. Moir had an early breakthrough with the help of comedian Malcolm Hardee.Before finding fame with his comedy, Moir was a member of several bands with many different names and musical styles, in which he usually played lead guitar or sang. He sold tapes of his early material in the back pages of NME magazine under the name International Cod. Mark Lamarr, later to become a team captain on Shooting Stars, was sent a tape of Moir's band Fan Tan Tiddly Span. When Moir appeared, as Vic Reeves, on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 1998, Lamarr repeatedly played a sample from the song "Fantasia " in an attempt to embarrass him.
In 1983, Moir began a part-time course at a local art college, developed his love of painting and eventually persuaded a local art gallery to stage an exhibition of his work. His drawings and paintings have been used in his television shows and form a major part of his 1999 book, Sun Boiled Onions.
As Vic Reeves
Television and radio
As well as working and performing in bands in London, including being an original member of the Industrial/Experimental band Test Dept and performing onstage with them at their debut gig, Moir also joined the alternative comedy circuit under many different guises. These included a loudmouthed American called Jim Bell, a beat poet called Mister Mystery and eventually, "The North-East's Top Light Entertainer"- Vic Reeves, whose name is derived from two of his favourite singers, Vic Damone and Jim Reeves. His stage show Vic Reeves Big Night Out began life as a regular Thursday night gig at Goldsmiths Tavern, New Cross. Here, he met Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who attended the show and enjoyed it so much that he soon began to participate.Moir's television début came in December 1986 on Channel 4 Television's The Tube in a comedy game show segment called "Square Celebrities", suspended by a wire to ask the "celebrities" questions. His next appearance was on the short-lived chat/comedy show One Hour with Jonathan Ross in a game show segment known as Knock Down Ginger. Reeves' growing TV profile led to Big Night Out being given a slot on Channel 4 the following year. It was about this time that Reeves and Bob Mortimer rented a back room at Jools Holland's office/recording studio in Westcombe Park, Greenwich where they would spend hours writing material.
Moir continued to work alongside Mortimer as a comedy duo in a series of 1990s programmes, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars, and Bang, Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer, some of which also featured future cast members of The Fast Show and Little Britain. A 1994 pilot written by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson entitled The Honeymoon's Over was due to feature Chris Bell, a character from The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer; however, the series was never commissioned. The same year, Reeves made a guest appearance on the Radio 1 series Shuttleworth's Showtime, hosted by John Shuttleworth. Between August 1998 and May 1999, Reeves and Mortimer presented the Channel X produced BBC Saturday game show Families at War with Alice Beer.
Moir played Marty Hopkirk in the BBC's 2000–2001 thriller series Randall and Hopkirk , a revival of the original 1960s series, with Mortimer as Randall, Emilia Fox as Jeannie Hearst, and Tom Baker as Wyvern. In 2000, Moir presented a series entitled Vic Reeves Examines on UK Play, featuring celebrities such as Ricky Gervais, Johnny Vegas, Lauren Laverne and Emma Kennedy discussing a topic of their choice. The same year, Moir presented a one-off radio show on BBC Radio 1, entitled Cock of the Wood.
He appeared as a celebrity guest alongside his wife Nancy Sorrell on Living TV's Most Haunted in 2003, investigating famous Belgrave Hall with the crew.
In 2004 Moir and his wife, Nancy Sorrell were both contestants in the fourth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He also appeared in the series Catterick with Mortimer appearing as several characters. In September 2005, Moir hosted a show for Virgin Radio called Vic Reeves Big Night In produced by Mark Augustyn, for a short period on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7.00pm.
Moir presented a historical ten-part series, entitled Rogues Gallery, which was shown on the Discovery Channel in 2005, where he investigated, and portrayed Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Captain Kidd, Claude Duval, Jonathan Wild, Rob Roy, Colonel Blood, George Ransley, Deacon Brodie, Blackbeard and Dick Turpin. Sorrell also appeared in some episodes. Continuing in this vein, Vic Reeves' Pirates was shown on ITV West and, subsequently, on the History Channel in 2007. In May 2006, Moir presented a programme on ITV Tyne Tees about Northeast comedy culture called It's Funny Up North with... Vic Reeves.
In 2007, Moir hosted a show called Vic Reeves Investigates: Jack the Ripper. Moir, with the help of historians and leading experts, tried to discover who Jack the Ripper was. At the end of the show, he came to the conclusion that Jack the Ripper was Francis Tumblety. On 8 May 2007, Moir was the main presenter of Brainiac: Science Abuse during the fifth and sixth series, replacing Richard Hammond. Beginning in June 2007, Reeves presented a BBC Radio 2 panel game called Does the Team Think?. On 17 November 2007, Moir appeared in a weekly sketch show on BBC Radio 2, entitled Vic Reeves' House Arrest. The show's premise was that Reeves had been put under house arrest for "a crime he didn't commit", and each episode consists of the various events that take place in and around his house on a particular day. Mortimer plays his housecall-making hairdresser, Carl, while other performers include The Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding as a local vagrant who comes to Reeves' door on a weekly basis looking for work, as well as Nancy Sorrell in multiple roles.
On 27 February 2008, Moir announced that he and Mortimer were working together on a new sitcom about superheroes who get their powers through a malfunctioning telegraph pole. He also reiterated his desire to bring back Shooting Stars for a 6th series. Along with his son, Moir is also featured in one edition of a factual series for Five, Dangerous Adventures for Boys, based on the best-selling book written by Conn and Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book for Boys.
In February 2009, Moir appeared as presenter of the first episode of My Brilliant Britain, one of the new television shows commissioned for UKTV People channel's relaunch as Blighty. On 25 August 2009, Moir appeared as a guest on BBC One's The One Show with Mortimer. Series 6 of Shooting Stars began airing on 26 August 2009 with Reeves and Mortimer, along with Ulrika Jonsson and Jack Dee as team captains. Moir appeared as one of the guests in Reece Shearsmith's Haunted House, a light-hearted radio discussion show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in two parts on either side of Halloween on 29 October 2009 and 5 November 2009.
In July 2011, Reeves and Mortimer released a selection of YouTube improvised comedy sketches, in association with Foster's. They released their "Afternoon Delight" clips every weekday afternoon in July.
In 2020, Moir co-hosted the Netflix original, reality series The Big Flower Fight alongside Natasia Demetriou.