The New Year Show

V&B -New Year Show (87)

Hogmanay, aka New Year's Eve, is a huge deal in Scotland and so is the TV show that rings in the bells each year.

In 1987, Victor and Barry took part in the Scottish Television spectacular.  It was pretty terrifying.  We had never done live television before and there was a lot to go wrong, as well as an audience of drunken Glaswegians to entertain.

Actually looking back on it now, that was the strangest part of the whole thing:  finishing the show at about 1.30am on New Year's Day and everyone being so drunk and Forbes and I being totally sober.

We performed a few skits and sang a song medley that included a duet, or rather a quartet, with Moray Hunter and Jack Docherty as Don and George.

Take the High Road ‘87

I got the call to return to Glendarroch and do another stint on Take The High Road, but this time...yikes...I was to be killed off.  It was actually a very great honour as I was the first character ever to be murdered in Take The High Road.

I was burned alive in Mr Blair's peat shed. Natch.  They didn't even get me to play my own charred body. They used some old prop from an episode of Taggart. Seriously.

This is Teri Lally who played Carol. She thought she was pregnant so I chopped a tree down on top of her and then tried to strangle her. Duh.

Victor and Barry's Scottish Review of the Year!

Victor and Barry - Scottish Review of the Year - V&B Clips Only (87-88)

Victor and Barry's Scottish Review of the Year part 1

Victor and Barry's Scottish Review of the Year Part 2

Victor and Barry Scottish Review of the Year Part 3

At the end of the glorious and triumphant year for Victor and Barry, they hosted a show cataloguing the highlights of Scottish culture.

Terry Neason

Terry Neason is an amazing singer/actress who had worked extensively with 7:84 and Wildcat theatre companies in Scotland and was now given her own show by Scottish television.

Forbes and I were brought on to be script editors and to appear each week as Victor and Barry, bringing a bit of light relief to the proceedings. We had a bit of shtick with Terry about her not letting us sing and so on the last episode of the series the three of us did a rather surreal version of It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish!!

There were some amazing musical guests on the show including the bands Hue and Cry, Deacon Blue and Horse. The lovely Susie Maguire also appeared as her alter-ego Marina.

Victor and Barry: Are We Too Loud?

Forbes Masson and I took our latest Victor and Barry show to the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh for the duration of the festival. We had previously performed it at Glasgow's Mayfest and Cumbernauld Theatre.

Above you can see our appearance we made on STV's Acropolis Now and BBC’s Combing The Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. We also released a cassette album, also entitled Are We Too Loud?

Let's See

In 1987 and 1988 I was the co-presenter, with my former wife Hilary Lyon, of several of these BBC educational programmes.  I can't remember exactly how many I did but I know the first one we ever did was about the Sixties and that was really fun - I got to play a dalek from Dr. Who.

There was another when I had to go up in a helicopter with two little girls from Glasgow, and one of them freaked out and wouldn't go. And then there was one about autumn. I'm sorry I can't remember anymore. I am too old.

Above is a segment of the Sixties show, followed by one called Colours and Reflections that was shot at the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988. 

Oh hooray, I found the official blurb and TX dates of them all on the BBC archive website…

22 sept 88 Colours and reflections

ALAN CUMMING and HILARY LYON find reflections of themselves in surprising places and discover that seeing the world through different colours can change the way things look. Stories by FIONA MCGARRY Producer ISHBEL MACLEAN 

13 Oct 88 The Sixties

ALAN CUMMING and HILARY LYON are transported back to the 60s to a world of space travel, old money, Beatles music, miniskirts, cars, black-and-white television and Celtic winning the European Cup. Written by MARY KALEMKERIAN Producer ISHBEL MACLEAN 

3 Oct 1989 Autumn

Alan Cumming goes in search of the season, and finds evidence of the way landscape, animals and people adjust to the arrival of autumn.

15th Sept 90

Living In A Tenement

Where do you live? Living in a Tenement. Stephanie Davidson (aged 7) shows what it is like to live in a Glasgow tenement flat.

Presented by Alan Cumming

Victor and Barry's Guide to Mayfest

Victor and Barry were darlings of the Scottish cabaret scene, but now television domination beckoned.  Forbes and I were asked to wrte and host short magazine programmes about Mayfest, Glasgow's annual arts' festival.  We jumped at the chance, and, as Victor and Barry would say, suddenly the sluice gates of television stardom opened.

Looking back at it, this was an incredible experience because we were having to write material on the hoof, and change it according to which guests were available at the last minute, all the while trying to convey the characteristics and world of Victor and Barry to an unsuspecting nation.  Also at one point during the three weeks of the shows, I had to go away to Shetland to do some performances of It's Not The End of the World and so that is why Forbes is suddenly interviewing the artist George Wylie on his own!