About Shooting Stars

The basic format of the show is that of a conventional panel game. The hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, and the two teams of three - Team A and Team B, sit behind desks. Each team has a regular team captain - originally Mark Lamarr and Ulrika Jonsson - and two celebrity guests on each team. Reeves will almost always perform a gesture of rubbing both his thighs in front of a beautiful female guest seated directly to his right, to indicate his attraction to her.

The hosts ask questions of the two teams, and points are awarded for 'correct' answers. The scoring is largely arbitrary and simply a device to give a structure to the proceedings.

The score was kept by George Dawes, a bizarre, overgrown, ranting, drumming baby played by comedian Matt Lucas. Occasionally George's 'mother' Marjorie Dawes, also played by Lucas appears instead. His arrival at the start of the show would be accompanied by the words "He's a baby!" sung to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog". He would also provide a sound effect to signal the end of timed rounds, in earlier series this was a simple scream, but later became random phrases, sometimes in regional accents. In the later series he would also perform "George's Song," on which subject questions would follow.

Sometimes the number of questions asked to each team is different, or certain contestants are never asked a question at all. Props also occasionally appear on contestant's podiums for no reason, including an M-Audio Keyboard which appears regularly in front of Bob but which he never plays.

Rounds include "true or false", the filmclip round, the impressions round and "The Dove from Above" (later briefly replaced by "The Crow From Below", "The Vest From the West", "George Dawes from the Upper Floors," "Donald Cox - The Sweaty Fox," "The Fly From Upon High" and "The Beast From The East" using the head of Ron Atkinson as well as various other one-off ideas). "The Dove from Above" is a large and shoddy prop animal made from cardboard and coloured paper, while being suspended above the contestants merely for the purpose of bearing six key words for further questions. Guests would be prompted to "coo" down the dove, referred to by Vic as "The gift of the coo".

In the "Dove From Above" round, and subsequent versions of the same round, if a contestant answers incorrectly, Vic shouts "UVAVU" and pulls a silly face. If the contestant chooses a certain, prize-winning option, Vic will pull another silly face and yell "ERANU". The prize is invariably a bizarre and practically useless device.

The impressions round saw a "random light" pick a contestant at random, and then they had to do an impression of a celebrity. Other series saw contestants have to guess what song Vic Reeves is singing "in the club style" so stylised (or perhaps drunkenly slurred) as to be incomprehensible.

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