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June 29, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 8:00pm

Press Conference With…VIC REEVES

By Press Gazette

I show Vic Reeves a back issue of Press Gazette, so he knows what this interview is about, and he looks surprised. "Why am I on the cover?" he asks.

Quickly taking a closer look, he adds: "Er, no. He's got a wider face, but he's a dead ringer. Who is it?"

"Andy Coulson," I reply.

"Oh, right. Who's he then?"

I've clearly been suckered by Reeves's press because I naturally assumed he would be in the media loop. As one of the country's most popular comic performers (notwithstanding that excruciating appearance in I'm A Celebrity…), he has certainly gathered enough column inches and, seemingly, ligged at enough showbiz parties to be on nodding terms with newspaper figures. Alas, no.

Reeves has had his share of scandal publicity, principally when his ex-wife, Sarah, dumped him for their builder, then came back, only to leave him again — for a woman.

Cue ménage à trois headlines. Ooh là là. And only last year, he got a barrel load of bad press when he got busted for drink-driving.

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I take Reeves for lunch at The Heights panoramic restaurant at London's Saint Georges Hotel. He's talked out from promoting his autobiography and has a stinking cold, caught from one of his twin girls, who arrived last month, thanks to IVF with second wife, Nancy Sorrell. Reeves, 47, has two other children from his first marriage.

His real name is Jim Moir and Vic is Jim to everyone he knows well.

He says I can call him Jim, but then I have to constantly correct myself.

It should be easy because you don't get wacky Vic in an interview, you get Darlington-lad Jim, who doesn't play for laughs and says things straight, without protracted exchanges or showbiz fakery.

Read the full interview with Vic Reeves in this week's Press Gazette or at robmcgibbon.com.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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