It's hard to hate a show with the following recurring characters:
The Man With The Stick
"The Man With The Stick" is a man (played by Mortimer) dressed in a large paper helmet which covers his face. He also wields a long stick, the end of which holds an object obscured by a bag. In response to this, the audience would cry the catchphrase: "What's on the end of the stick, Vic?".
The man would come out each week to a fanfare, and then proceed to talk casually with Vic about a number of line drawings spaced around his paper helmet. The helmet "graffiti" would act as a pictorial guide to what he'd been investigating during that week. The item on the end of the stick was usually revealed at the very end of each programme.
Over the course of the second series it is revealed that The Man With The Stick has sold his children to Vic, and, since they are still under contract, he is unable to get them back. Vic uses them as a means to various ends, such as trading them for a car, signing them up to the territorial army and selling their souls to the devil. This gradually plunges the Man With The Stick into a terrible depression.
Morrissey, The Consumer Monkey
A monkey puppet with the face of Morrissey, operated by Vic and voiced by Bob. Morrissey the Consumer Monkey would often come on to give advice on shoddy or unsafe consumer goods. Usually these items were manufactured and sold by Reeves & Mortimer Products, and the pair would be forced to try a hasty cover-up.
Morrissey had a theme song, sung in duet with Vic, which began with Morrissey claiming "I like watches, I like woods" and Vic countering with "He likes various consumer goods."
Les
Played by Fred Aylward, Les was Vic's bald headed, dribbling, mute, lab coat wearing assistant. During each show, Vic would reveal a new fact about Les - most notably, that he cannot help but raise a smile whenever he sees a spirit level and that he has a terrible fear of chives. Les also had a fixation with mangoes and was later accompanied by a sycophantic little robot called Dylan.
VIDS:
YouTube :: Reeves and Mortimer - The Two Of Us (In A Bottle)
YouTube :: Reeves & Mortimer - Frustrating monkeys
(Thank you, thank you, Lex10 at GlyphJockey for completely making my day. I salute you.)
