There are dirty cops, a barista named Wayne who wears tight t-shirts to best show off his biceps and an eccentric neighbour Grace, and her dog Lassoo. Herring, Richard. "Episode 64 – Bob Mortimer". British Comedy Guide. Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast . Retrieved 17 June 2015. It’s not all hilarious though, as he spoke candidly about how’s he really struggled with shyness all his life and with depression at uni. It was really quite sad at times, especially when revealed how hard he found it making and keeping friends. It was just written so incredibly well that I haven't stopped reading it. It is now 4am on the second day of reading and I've just finished and I will hate myself for this later but I fell down the rabbit hole. While meeting a work colleague for a drink one night, his attention is taken by an attractive young woman who is sitting alone reading a copy of The Satsuma Complex. His friend suddenly leaves citing a work call and he strikes up a conversation with the girl, a conversation that carries on for hours. He’s smitten, but through all of their chatting, he never found out her name. Next thing he knows, she’s gone and he’s come to the realisation he’s fallen for her.

Gary likes to look around and really pay attention to stuff on his work “commute”. He’s definitely a people watcher, and he has no time to have his face in a mobile phone like most others around him. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer webchat – as it happened". The Guardian. 16 June 2015 . Retrieved 13 November 2020. The 10 most surprising truths we've learnt from the guests on Would I Lie to You?". Radio Times. Immediate Media Company Ltd . Retrieved 13 August 2019.Bob drops in goofy stuff in an almost flattish sounding narrative. Sample ".. have never bothered with social media and the like.I don't see the point of it; I've got enough strangers in my life as it is". In serious parts - a cynical remark (like that of Marvin the robot) has you grinning. And yet, it was a plausible story that had it's highs. Also, the self deprecating meta was hilarious and not too overdone where different characters call the book in the novel "The Satsuma Complex" shit and boring. Before listening to this the only thing I really knew about Bob Mortimer was his comedy career with Vic Reeves and more recently his Gone Fishing TV series with Paul Whitehouse. I’d listened to their audiobook last year and discovered he’d had a heart bypass and also that he’d been a solicitor before he became a comedian. Other than that I really didn’t know much about him, or where his comedy roots had come from. And so begins Gary’s quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to finally bring some love and excitement into his unremarkable life…

The conversations that Gary has with a squirrel in the park amused no end. The two lads supporting each other through the highs and not so highs of being a bloke today. Mortimer has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, which gives him great pain when he is stressed, especially before making a television series or embarking on a tour. On those occasions, he controls it with steroids. [32] This is a really slow burn, and I found the ending to be terrifically satisfying. So much so that I’d enjoy a Gary Thorn Part II. Or Gary and Emily. Or what Gary did next. The two later created a one-off pilot for a sitcom called The Weekenders in 1992, followed by the sketch show The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer in 1993, and Shooting Stars, a comedy panel show that first aired in December 1993. After being commissioned, Shooting Stars ran for five series between 1995 and 2002, with a special anniversary edition broadcast in December 2008. A sixth series was broadcast in late 2009, followed by a seventh series in mid-2010, and an eighth in 2011. On 27 February 2008, Reeves announced that he and Mortimer were working together on a new sitcom about superheroes who get their powers through a malfunctioning telegraph pole. [14]Dent, Karen (27 February 2008). "Reeves enjoys a Big Day Out with apprentices". The Journal. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009 . Retrieved 28 February 2008. On 29 December 2017, Mortimer and Reeves starred in a relaunch and new singular episode of their comedy Big Night Out for the BBC. The show has been remade and subsequently renamed to Vic and Bob's Big Night Out. The episode remained true to the classic Big Night Out formula and was composed of various comedy songs, skits, characters and sketches. This was the first time the Big Night Out series had featured Mortimer's name in the title. A full series of Vic and Bob's Big Night Out began on BBC Four in November 2018. Main character Gary, a man with a job that Mortimer used to have, in the same location where Mortimer used to work. He also has the exact same cadence, vocabulary and thought processes as Mortimer, as seen in his long digressions about pies. That said, Gary is described as having a slightly larger nose than Mortimer, so they are definitely different people. The show became 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 his legal work, which had begun to disillusion him. [ citation needed] [10] Writing style Love Untold has a plot, but its real joy is in how Jones digs her fingernails into decades of complicated family history. The risk here would be to boil down at least one of the generations to stereotype, but Jones fiercely resists this. These are four complicated, singular women on their own paths and the story comes entirely from watching them rub against each other. It is stridently confident when it comes to hitting you around the head with sentiment until you relent and start crying, too. Jones could write books like this for the rest of her life and they’d all be brilliant.

In 2002, Mortimer presented the Channel 4 list show The 100 Greatest World Cup Moments of All Time! An updated show, again hosted by Mortimer, was broadcast by the channel in 2010, to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Nelson, Alex (28 March 2018). "Podcast of the week: Athletico Mince's surreal look at football". inews.co.uk . Retrieved 23 April 2023. Bob was born in 1959 in Middlesbrough, the youngest of four boys. His father died in a car crash when he was seven and Bob says he became his mother’s little helper – although he also set fire to their house after playing with fireworks. As a teenager he dreamed of a career as a footballer, but he ended up studying law at university, and worked as a solicitor in south London. Main character The story is told from the perspective of all four characters, although the main one is Grace, a woman approaching her 90th birthday with the same energy that most approach their 30th. We meet her on a beach, snapping at a patronising do-gooder, and things progress from there.

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Celebrities and good fiction books don’t always go hand in hand. Because celebrities don’t always need to write quality to sell a lot of books. Usually, their name value alone is enough to make a profit. And I wouldn’t necessarily say this book is the exception, but there are some things that do make this book worth reading. Bob Mortimer is a good storyteller. The premise of the story is definitely quite strong. The beginning of the story immediately grabbed me. And in terms of plot, it’s pretty good. But he’s just not a professional novel writer, and this can definitely be noticeable. Because somewhere in the middle of the story, I started losing interest a little bit. The story did a good job of trying to grab me again before I got to the end though. Bob Mortimer is also a good comedian. And there are definitely some snippets of comedy gold to be found in here. Like the brilliant addition of the talking squirrel. But, quite often, the comedy doesn’t hit home like it should.