h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After the success of "Smell" Reeves and Mortimer were trusted with an evening of entertainment around Christmas 1995. It ran for around three hours and featured various favourite shows - including the much respected "Meercats United" documentary about Meercat culture in their harsh desert environs. Towards the end of the special the pilot version of "Shooting Stars" appeared, including Vic and Bob rushing on with shotguns, Noddy Holder amongst the guests and a somewhat different set. The structure was very similar, but there was an adlib feel to the show and it was far more raw than the later series.

The evening itself was filled with amusing interludes, including uncanny events in the shed round the back, thing moving around in the snow, freezing urinations, Vic's Egg Nog addiction (which first appeared in the second half of "The Meat Festival") and lots of amusingly forced impressions of those proper Christmas all-evening shows that some countries/decades seemed to think were actually quite entertaining.

I think I've got a video recording of this somewhere too (naughty, naughty... slapped wrists).

The Christmas Special - called "At Home with Reeves & Mortimer" - appeared on BBC2 in 1993. As well as "Meercats United" it also features a Dad's Army Christmas Special, the comedy play "Nuts in May" and featured the men with no much up top, Pat Wright and Dave Arrowsmith.

Heck, I was working from memory with all the original posts. How was I to know someone was going to post on my specialist subject and not consult with me first!