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Bob Mortimer's Damon Hill story on Would I Lie To You

Started by Risil , Feb 04 2021 13:27

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31 replies to this topic

#1 Risil

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:27

Stand by for a tangent.

Funny TV guy Bob Mortimer was on the BBC game show Would I Lie To You last week telling a story about how he inspired Damon Hill to achieve a great result at some Grand Prix or other. Because I can't simply enjoy anything I got distracted halfway through about which Grand Prix Bob met Damon at, because Damon had very limited success at Silverstone and Mortimer's career only really took off in 1996 or so. On the other hand Damon undoubtedly had his finger on the pulse in those years and may have invited Bob Mortimer along before everyone wanted him.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Anything else about his story strike you as weird or inexplicable?

#2 Clatter

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:39

Stand by for a tangent.

Funny TV guy Bob Mortimer was on the BBC game show Would I Lie To You last week telling a story about how he inspired Damon Hill to achieve a great result at some Grand Prix or other. Because I can't simply enjoy anything I got distracted halfway through about which Grand Prix Bob met Damon at, because Damon had very limited success at Silverstone and Mortimer's career only really took off in 1996 or so. On the other hand Damon undoubtedly had his finger on the pulse in those years and may have invited Bob Mortimer along before everyone wanted him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64WeztqleQY

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Anything else about his story strike you as weird or inexplicable?

Scotch egg seems an unlikely snack for a driver, but maybe diet wasn't quite a big a thing back then. Mortimer had been around a while by then, partnered with Vic Reeves, so wouldn't surprise me if they wangled an invite.

He also did a skit with Harry Enfield.

#3 Imperial

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:40

Bob was well known back in 1990 onwards, as the sidekick on Vic Reeves Big Night Out.

Interestingly Bob says he isn't an F1 fan, yet Damon appeared on a show with the two of them (Bang Bang It's Reeves and Mortimer in the late 1990s). They were on in the guise of their characters The Stotts, and I remember one of them asking Damon about when he goes to bed on a night, how long is it before he slips his hand down inside his pyjama pants :rotfl:

No idea if Damon was on simply as a random celebrity guest picked as whoever they could get, or if Vic might be a fan (or Bob is lying!

As a further aside, in the late 1990s I worked with someone who had lived next door to Vic as a kid, and his mother while watching TV once seen him on it and ranted "Well he wasn't bloody funny when he lived next door and he isn't bloody funny now" !!!!!

#4 Burtros

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:41

You are the person that watches that show then! Nice to meet you!

On a more serious note, I take it you know Bob was telling a true story?

#5 ensign14

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:46

Damon Hill was also on Shooting Stars, so I assume Damon is a fan, there's certainly something of the punk ethic in the Reeves and Mortimer oeuvre. Or maybe it was because Patsy Kensit was also on that episode.

#6 pitlanepalpatine

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 13:58

but was he lying when he said he wasn't lying? Nobody is in to soil science :rotfl:

#7 BRG

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 14:23

Anything else about his story strike you as weird or inexplicable?

Nearly everything Bob Mortimer says strikes me as weird.

#8 Imperial

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Posted 04 February 2021 - 14:49

On the other hand Damon undoubtedly had his finger on the pulse in those years and may have invited Bob Mortimer along before everyone wanted him.

Although I wonder how many celebs drivers really invite personally - i.e. speaking of Damon, I remember some documentary or other when he was at Jordan (possibly the one where you see Eddie at home a lot?) and there is some bit where Damon is trying to have a serious discussion with his engineers and gets really irritated because the team PR interrupts to say such and such (some celebrity or other) is around now and they want him to go and meet with them now, and Damon says with some irritation to the engineers something to the effect of he'd like to stay and actually do his job and discuss the car, but obviously has far more important places the team need him to be right now.

#9 TennisUK

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 13:23

Vic and Bob were definitely well known before 1996 - though Shooting Stars pushed them into the mainstream.

I don't think I knew of anything funnier than Vic and Bob in my early teens.

#10 Risil

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 13:39

Well-known enough to get shoved into Damon Hill's motorhome? Well, maybe!

Given that Bob said Hill subsequently did well in the race, do we think it has to be the 1994 British Grand Prix then? I assume that it would've had to have happened at Silverstone and Damon only had two good results at home -- 1994 and 1997.

#11 Sndr

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 13:59

bob mortimer's bits on would i lie to you are pretty much all hysterical. this one's no different. will rewatch theft and shrubbery now, good start to the weekend.

#12 Imperial

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 14:43

Well-known enough to get shoved into Damon Hill's motorhome? Well, maybe!

Given that Bob said Hill subsequently did well in the race, do we think it has to be the 1994 British Grand Prix then? I assume that it would've had to have happened at Silverstone and Damon only had two good results at home -- 1994 and 1997.

I suppose the question is whether any of the team's Damon drove for would have paid to fly Bob Mortimer to an overseas race, put him up in a hotel, and feed him for the weekend, and the answer is....

Yeah it was probably Silverstone !!!!

#13 PlatenGlass

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 15:19

Bob Mortimer can break an apple in two with his bare hands.

#14 Ross Stonefeld

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 17:25

I suppose the question is whether any of the team's Damon drove for would have paid to fly Bob Mortimer to an overseas race, put him up in a hotel, and feed him for the weekend, and the answer is....

Yeah it was probably Silverstone !!!!

I dunno, you look at some of the British celebs you get in Bahrain in past years and you wonder.

#15 Myrvold

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 17:51

Bob Mortimer can break an apple in two with his bare hands.

But it didn't give him 5 points in Taskmaster as Lord Greg had seen it before!

#16 FirstnameLastname

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 18:10

Damon has referred to this on Twitter in recent days....

#17 Risil

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 18:12

Damon has referred to this on Twitter in recent days....

What did he say?

#18 PayasYouRace

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 18:59

What did he say?

https://twitter.com/...700788496740352

Good guess about the soil science. Actually that's Jody

@Laverstoke

https://youtu.be/S17tE60Vot8 #f1

#19 Fastcake

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 21:09

It's certainly less weird than the fact Bob Mortimer can do his own dentistry.

#20 DS27

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 23:02

It's certainly less weird than the fact Bob Mortimer can do his own dentistry.

Not at the moment as apparently Fuji 9 is in short supply.

Bob should be knighted - he's a national treasure.

Edited by DS27, 05 February 2021 - 23:03.

#21 DS27

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Posted 05 February 2021 - 23:04

bob mortimer's bits on would i lie to you are pretty much all hysterical. this one's no different. will rewatch theft and shrubbery now, good start to the weekend.

I do beg your pardon......

#22 BRG

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Posted 06 February 2021 - 12:52

It's certainly less weird than the fact Bob Mortimer can do his own dentistry.

All of us CAN do our own dentistry. It's just that nearly all of us WON'T do it.

#23 Alan Lewis

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Posted 06 February 2021 - 15:24

Twenty-ish posts in and no-one's mentioned Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing?

One of the finest things to happen to British television this millenium.

#24 Currahee

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Posted 06 February 2021 - 21:59

Bob Mortimer also said he had various pocket meats at the GP. Who doesn't?

Edited by Currahee, 06 February 2021 - 21:59.

#25 Risil

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Posted 06 February 2021 - 22:01

Beyond Arie Luyendyk's iconic Provimi Veal car I'm not sure I can think of too many meat-based racing sponsorship deals.

#26 PayasYouRace

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Posted 06 February 2021 - 22:21

Beyond Arie Luyendyk's iconic Provimi Veal car I'm not sure I can think of too many meat-based racing sponsorship deals.

How could you forget?

#27 FirstnameLastname

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Posted 07 February 2021 - 13:16

I would have had this story from Damon down as a Lie but it’s true :lol:

He turned down Jackie for a seat at Stewart in 1997 and went with Arrows instead because he thought footworks 1pt in 96 was a better prospect than a Ford backed team from Jackie Stewart :lol:

https://www.motorspo...paign=widget-22

#28 PayasYouRace

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Posted 07 February 2021 - 13:20

Yes I just read that on Autosport. https://www.autospor...-broke-my-heart

I don't see what is so funny about that. Stewart were starting their team from scratch, and Ford support or not, it was a risky move. Meanwhile, Arrows now had TWR running things (after being a big part of Benetton's success in the mid-90s) and a works Yamaha engine and were at least an established team. 1 point in 1996 is still better than not actually being there at all.

Neither was the ideal choice, but you can see why Arrows was the less risky option, and going by how they did in 1997, wasn't a bad move from Damon either.

#29 Myrvold

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Posted 07 February 2021 - 14:58

Neither was the ideal choice, but you can see why Arrows was the less risky option, and going by how they did in 1997, wasn't a bad move from Damon either.

Then looking at 98, it also shows that it wasn't an awful move.

#30 Risil

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Posted 07 February 2021 - 16:13

Arrows were also Bridgestone's main test team going into 1997, if I remember things correctly. And besides, who came closer to winning races that year, Stewart or Arrows?