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OVER AND OUT

British comedy legend reveals he’s given up alter-ego for good and NEVER speaks to his famous sidekick

TV’s Jim Moir has said he is done with comedy alter-ego Vic Reeves.

The funnyman-turned-artist said he and sidekick Bob Mortimer, now 63, bat back all offers to work together.

Funnyman Jim Moir says he is giving up comedy alter ego Vic Reeves
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Funnyman Jim Moir says he is giving up comedy alter ego Vic ReevesCredit: Sarah Cresswell - The Times
Jim added he and sidekick Bob Mortimer bat back all offers to work together
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Jim added he and sidekick Bob Mortimer bat back all offers to work togetherCredit: Pett TV

They have not been on TV together for a decade and have drifted apart off-screen, too

Jim, 64, told Radio Times: “We’ve had offers from everywhere. But I’m not doing any more. I’ve given up. I’ve done that.

“We never really speak much. Bob and I have never been ones for talking on the phone.

“We’ll see him now and then and have a chat about things. It’s not a conscious thing, we haven’t discussed it.”

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The pair began working together in the 1980s and hit TV gold with their Big Night Out and Shooting Stars.

Jim continued: “Viewers do tend to think, I offer, that the lives of on-screen couples are entwined.

“People have always thought that with me and Bob. Do you go out in the evening? We always said no, we don’t.

“We see each other in the daytime, we film.

“We used to, when we were in our 20s, go out to the boozer, but we don’t really do that any more.”

Jim will be in a Sky Arts series on painting birds from April 19.

He conceded: “I said I’ll do this one if it’s about painting and bird-watching and I’ll do it with Nancy. And they said yeah.”

Jim revealed on The Adam Buxton Podcast in September 2021 that he has an inoperable acoustic neuroma, a form of tumour that has taken the hearing in his left ear.

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