Vic and Bob’s House of Fools is a new sitcom coming to BBC2 in 2014, and I was lucky enough to be at the filming of the pilot episode. Rumour has it that whilst the BBC were delighted by the outcome of the recording, this episode won’t actually feature as part of the broadcast run.

So for prosperities sake (and because I wrote it up the moment I got home and it’s been languishing on my hard drive ever since) I thought I’d post it here, so that you have some idea of the tone and feel to it.

Without going in to too much detail, it’s filmed as a standard studio comedy, with the set divided in to three parts – Vic and Bob’s living room, the neighbour’s living room, and then her bedroom. This of course may change in the finished product of course.

The episode begins with Vic casually messing around with a gauntlet, before getting it stuck in a large photo of Bob graduating from University on the wall. Bob’s furious about this and wants Vic to move out (something he’s wanted for a while now), but Vic begs him to be allowed to stay. Matt Berry arrives (doing his standard lothario thing) and promises to set Bob up on a blind date, and Bob decides to have her over to the flat so that they can watch Conan The Barbarian together (“it’s on one of those channels pretty far down…but not as far as the Welsh channels”). Bob wants Vic out of the flat by 2.30pm, which Vic promises to do, but inevitably everything starts to go wrong from the get go, with Vic accidentally destroying the tv with the aforementioned gauntlet.

This leads to the main part of the plot which centres around Bob trying to find a way to replace the tv. He makes Vic go next door to neighbour Morgana, and ask to borrow her tv, but she attempts to seduce him instead Announcing she has to leave in 10 minutes (“But we could do 10 sexings during that time”) Vic’s not interested in the slightest, and when he asks if he can borrow her tv, she refuses to let him.

With Vic returning to the flat empty handed, Matt Berry promises to replace the tv, but instead he brings over a microwave (thinking it’s a tv that can also cook food) – and soon destroys it. Bob goes up to chat to his son briefly who wants nothing to do with him and only mocks him (there’s also a gag where after knocking on his son’s door, we hear the sounds of chains being unlocked, the door being unbolted, etc for about 20 seconds).

Vic’s Brother Bosch than arrives (there’s a terrible Black and Decker tools related joke about his name), he’s fresh out of prison and needs somewhere to stay for the night. Bob’s reluctant, but he promises he’s only going to stay for one night. There’s then much stress about how Bob’s going to watch Conan with his date, only for Bosch to suggest cutting a hole in the wall and watching it via Morgana’s tv. They need the remote though, and whilst Vic manages to climb through the hole okay, he gets stuck on the way back.

Morgana is seen returning, so Bob dresses up as a Gasman and stops her from entering her flat. She goes to Bob’s, with Vic still stuck in the hole, but with fake legs sitting on a table (a scene explaining that was definitely missing here). Morgana drinks some of Vics home made wine (supposedly a fresh Chardonally, but red in colour) and passes out, whilst Bob devises a plan to free Vic from the hole – by getting hold of Vic’s testicles, stretching them across the room (by about four foot) and pinging them back. It’s quite a grotesquely funny scene, and an effective one at that which leads to Vic flying through the hole and back in to Bob’s flat.

The episode ends with Vic, Berry and Bosch performing their own terrible version of Conan The Barbarian in bizarre costumes, whilst Bob sits on the couch with his date. Then they all sing a song and have a dance, as Bob’s son looks on through the stair bannisters, showing obvious dismay.

Ultimately what we have here is an incredibly fun and daft show. Vic and Bob were clearly enjoying the filming (which hasn’t been the case with certain actors at other tv recordings I’ve attended) and the rest of the cast bounced off of each other effectively. It’s not a show you’ll ever think of in detail, and isn’t as wonderously bizarre as their previous sitcom, Catterick, and definitely a far more mainstream attempt at the genre. Yet this is still Vic and Bob we’re talking about here, so it’s also bloody funny throughout.

Random notes:

Whenever a character enters for the first time they sing a song about themselves, bar Daniel Simonsen.

There’s a few cutaways that are animated in a beautifully odd Grim Tales-esque way.

There was a definite sense that a few scenes that needed to be pre-recorded hadn’t yet been filmed.

At one point they enter the kitchen, though the doorway is clogged up with Vic’s rubbish, and Bob has to use a trampoline to jump through a gap at the top.

Bob: “I’m supposed to be going on a hot date and my house is filled with unwelcome men, one of which is having a shhhhiiiiit in the kitchen!”

Vic and Bob do their trademark banter thing throughout, with Bob calling Vic “Mr Dirty Feathers” and talking about escaping floating sausage dinners in one scene).

Vic swallows a marrow whole at one point (though alas we didn’t get to see it, as it was prerecorded and then sped up).