Robert "Bob" Renwick Mortimer (born May 23, 1959 in Middlesbrough, England), is an English comedian and actor who is best known for his double act with Vic Reeves (see Vic and Bob). May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This is the article on the town, for the article on the football club see Middlesbrough F.C. Statistics Population: 142,691 (2001 urban sub-area) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: NZ495201 Administration District: Middlesbrough Region: North East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: North... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... Vic Reeves Big Night Out was a cult British comedy stage show and later TV series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special. ... The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer was a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer. ... Shooting Stars is a UK television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two. ... Bang Bang, Its Reeves and Mortimer was comedy double act Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimers third television sketch show, which aired in January 1999 on BBC2 in the United Kingdom. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was a late-1960s British TV show about two private detectives. ... Catterick, aka Vic and Bob in Catterick, is a surreal 2004 BBC situation comedy in 6 episodes, written by and starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, with Reece Shearsmith, Matt Lucas, Morwenna Banks, Tim Healy, Mark Benton and Charlie Higson. ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This is the article on the town, for the article on the football club see Middlesbrough F.C. Statistics Population: 142,691 (2001 urban sub-area) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: NZ495201 Administration District: Middlesbrough Region: North East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: North... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ... Laurel and Hardy are one of the worlds most popular double acts A double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic device in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin, and profession, but drastically... James Jim Roderick Moir, more commonly known by the pseudonym Vic Reeves, (born January 24, 1959) is an English comedian, best known through his double act with Bob Mortimer (see Vic and Bob). ... Vic Reeves (born 24 January 1959, real name Jim Moir) and Bob Mortimer (born 23 May 1959), more commonly known simply as Vic and Bob or Reeves and Mortimer, are a British comedy double act. ...

Early life

Mortimer's father died when he was very young, and as a result, he and his three brothers were brought up by their mother, Eunice. He trialed for the Middlesbrough F.C. youth team (but could not take this up professionally due to his arthritis), later leaving school with three A-levels and going on to study law at the Universities of Sussex and Leicester. There Mortimer became involved in political causes and the punk movement, starting a band called Dog Dirt. After leaving University, he moved to London and became a solicitor. Middlesbrough Football Club are an English football club, commonly known as The Boro, currently in the FA Premier League. ... The University of Sussex is an English campus university located near the East Sussex village of Falmer, near Brighton and Hove. ... University of Leicester seen from Victoria Park - Left to right: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough tower, the Charles Wilson building. ... Punk ideologies are a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the punk subculture that began in the late 1970s. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... A solicitor is a type of lawyer in many common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Australia New Zealand and Canada, but not the United States (in the United States the word has a quite different meaning—see below). ...

Partnership with Vic Reeves

In 1986, in an attempt to drown his sorrows after finding his girlfriend in bed with a Hells Angel, Mortimer met up with an old friend who persuaded him to go to the Goldsmith's Tavern to see a new show by someone called Vic Reeves. Mortimer was impressed by the performance, particularly the character Tappy Lappy, which was Reeves attempting to tap dance whilst wearing a Bryan Ferry mask and planks on his feet. Mortimer approached Reeves after the show, and the two began writing material for the next week's show together. They also became good friends, even forming a band called The Potter's Wheel. Mortimer began to perform on the show, which was christened Vic Reeves Big Night Out, creating such characters as the Singing Lawyer, Graham Lister, Judge Nutmeg, and the Man With the Stick. Hells Angels New York City The Hells Angels is a motorcycle club formed in 1948 in Fontana, California, where the local chapter remains active. ... Bryan Ferry (born 26 September 1945 in Washington, Tyne and Wear) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, famed for his suave visual and vocal style, who came to public prominence in the 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with Roxy Music. ... Vic Reeves Big Night Out was a cult British comedy stage show and later TV series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special. ...

The show became very successful in south London and eventually outgrew Goldsmith's Tavern, moving in 1988 to the Albany Empire in Deptford. Mortimer soon became an integral part of the performance, providing him with a weekly break from the legal work which had begun to disillusion him. Deptford is an area of the London Borough of Lewisham, on the south bank of the River Thames in south-east London. ...

Mortimer and Reeves made their television debut on the short lived 1989 comedy/chat show One hour with Jonathan Ross, in the game show segment known as knock down ginger. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Later that year they made their first television pilot together, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, in late 1989. The television show remained true to the nightclub act's variety show format. Bob took a 10-week break from his legal job to film the series and never returned. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 2000, Mortimer played the part of Randall in the remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), opposite Reeves as Hopkirk. This article is about the year 2000. ... Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was a late-1960s British TV show about two private detectives. ...

In 2003, Mortimer and Reeves were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, they were voted the 9th greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Solo career

In July 2002, Mortimer fought and defeated Les Dennis in the BBC's first Celebrity Boxing match. He produced and presented the second match, The Fight, a year later, which saw Grant Bovey face Ricky Gervais. Les Dennis (born Leslie Dennis Heseltine on October 12, 1954 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an English television presenter and actor. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... Ricky Dene Gervais (pronounced IPA: ), born June 25, 1961, is an Emmy, Golden Globe and three-time BAFTA winning English comic writer and performer from Reading, Berkshire, England. ...

In 2005, he hosted his first major TV series without Vic Reeves, a comedy panel game for BBC One, called 29 Minutes of Fame. James Jim Roderick Moir, more commonly known by the pseudonym Vic Reeves, (born January 24, 1959) is an English comedian, best known through his double act with Bob Mortimer (see Vic and Bob). ... A game show is a radio or television program, involving members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

Mortimer is now penning his first novel, provisionally titled "Have Her Over My Hedge (You've Never Trimmed It)", with Charles Higson. He lives in Kent, in a partially sunken house (ground floor, first floor, basement, sub-basement and bunker), which he purchased from the estate of Frankie Howerd in 2001.

Trivia

• Mortimer sang on Middlesbrough F.C.'s F.A. Cup song in 1997, a cover of Chris Rea's "Let's Dance". Rea is a fellow Middlesbrough fan.
• Mortimer suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which gives him great pain when he is stressed, especially before making a TV series or embarking on a tour. On those occasions, he controls the illness with steroids.

• He is a keen amateur birdwatcher.

• He is a fan of the band Radiohead.

• Mortimer represented Jarvis Cocker at the police station following the Pulp singer's arrest at the Brit Awards in 1997 (after Cocker had pretended to flash his bottom in protest at Michael Jackson's performance at the ceremony).