The Bob Downe Special (ITV, 1996)

You might remember a while ago when I was looking at some songs that made the Australian chart in the 80s, when I came across a duo called Globos, who had some success, including appearing on Countdown, and one of their members looked rather familiar. This turned out to be the comedian Mark Trevorrow. After having a hit, he decided to concentrate on performing as his comedy alias.

Bob Downe was a rather camp character, who liked to wear brightly coloured shellsuits, he would tell rather daft jokes, and he would often sing as well. In the early-90s, he started to appear on various TV shows in this country. It would appear that someone at ITV liked his style, because after Bob Downe Under (which I think was only shown in the LWT region), he was given a starring show of his own.

Maybe this was shown rather late on New Year’s Eve (when ratings would presumably be lower because people would be off having a party), but either way he had a hour all to himself to entertain us, and he definitely got the studio audience going (they were making such a racket that I thought this was another showbiz piece typical of LWT, but this was actually a Yorkshire production).

He would accompanied by some additional famous faces to help him out with the songs and sketches. And what faces they were! And well, first of all there was the one and only chart-topping crooner Anthony Newley. Also taking part were Ant and Dec, and Martine McCutcheon off EastEnders. It might seem something of an unlikely combination, but they all were pleased to joined in.

It looks like this was an intentional one-off, and he definitely made the most of his starring moment. After this he would appear on a few other comedy shows, including Bob Downe All Over Britain, a UK Play show where he toured the country, and he definitely gave good value. But he hasn’t been seen too much since this, I think he does continue to perform around the world though.