Victor and Barry

Victor Ignatius MacIlvaney and Barry Primrose McLeish were the creations of Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming.

Victor and Barry are the slightly camp, Scottish founder members of the Kelvinside Young People's Amateur Dramatic Art Society, of which they would share their reminiscences with audiences far and wide, interspersing their dialogue with song. Cumming and Masson entertained the crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe before touring Australian cities in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[1]

Their repertoire of songs included "Kelvinside Men", a tribute to the area in the west end of Glasgow where the characters were based;[2] "Marks & Spencers", a song about their favourite shop; and "We Knew Her So Well", a bitchy tribute to the biggest star that ever shone in the Kelvinside sky, Renie Roberts. They also performed tributes to Andrew Lloyd Webber, West Side Story and The Proclaimers.

During the late 1980s Victor and Barry presented several Scottish television programmes:[3]

These early characters formed the basis for Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken in their 1990s sitcom, The High Life.

References

  1. ↑ Jones, Sarah (9 February 2003). "Looking at the bigger picture". Scotland on Sunday  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Gibb, Eddie (9 November 2000). "Caledonian camping". The Scotsman  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  3. ↑

External links