‘Vic and Bob cut my best gags’

Former Shooting Stars captain Will Self says Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer cut his best lines on the hit comedy quiz show.

Self recently appeared at this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival and, when asked whether he hated his time on the BBC panel show, replied: “No, I didn’t hate it to begin with, gradually I came to hate it.”

Self went on to say: “[Vic and Bob] are typical comedians. Comedians will do anything for a laugh.

“You would record the show as live but they would put maybe an hour or an hour-and-a-half in the can and then you’d look at the broadcast and they would cut every single one of your best gags, so that’s why I always looked so pissed off.

“Because I know it’s almost pointless saying anything funny because the bigger laugh it gets, the more likely it is to be cut and that actually got quite frustrating in a way and kind of annoying.

“But they paid me shitloads of money. I did it as a sort of paternity leave because my youngest child was born that year and it meant that I could basically spend time with my kid rather than working.”

Shooting Stars was first seen as a pilot in 1993 and then ran on and off from 1995 until 2011. Self was a team captain in 2002.