Trevor and Simon

Trevor Neal (né Williams) and Simon Hickson are a British comedy duo who appeared on BBC1 children's television series Going Live! and Live & Kicking during the late 1980s and throughout much of the 1990s. When they were first signed up for Going Live, the duo were instructed simply to be clean and funny but not to worry about specifically tailoring their material to children.

Overview

Although much of Trevor and Simon's work for the programmes took the form of one-off sketches, it is their repertoire of regular characters for which they are best remembered. These included The Singing Corner, a 1960s-style folk duo whose catchphrase was "swing your pants!"; Ken and Eddie Kennedy, the Barbers whose insanitary salon would usually be visited by the programme's star guest each week; World of the Strange, two cloaked characters who believed that everything – even the most banal, everyday occurrences – was due to mysterious supernatural forces; and the Sister Brothers, market traders of questionable character who would introduce a competition each week.

Trevor and Simon were absent from the 1991–1992 series of Going Live, their role as comic relief being filled by Nick Ball and James Hickish. However, Trevor and Simon returned for the final series of Going Live in 1992–1993, and continued when it was replaced by Live And Kicking, in the 1993–1994 season. Although their comeback was arguably not as successful, it did include some memorable skits including Sofa For Two With Three in which Trevor and Simon would sit at the two ends of a two-seater settee, with a celebrity guest in the middle. The sofa had been specially weakened in the middle so that the guest would sink into it, and finding themselves unable to get up would have no choice but to sit there while Trevor and Simon made fun of them. For their final series with Live & Kicking (1996–1997), Trevor and Simon's sketches were separated from the main show in a special show-within-a-show, Transmission Impossible, which was also repeated separately later in the week. This section was not so well received, though it did introduce the "Art For'em" sketch featuring pretentious artists-cum-critics Dominic Bel Geddes and Daniel Cakebread, and concluding each week with the memorable catchphrase "let's roll on the floor!". Other memorable sketches were the X-Files-inspired Eggs Files, featuring Lincoln Eggs And His Close Friend, Pickling Time with Pickling Jeff (And Jobe's Here As Well!), and one set in The Draper Brothers' dry cleaning shop with the catchphrase "we don't do duvets!".

Later career

Between 1999 and 2000 Trevor and Simon hosted an Egyptian-themed video game based quiz show, called Games Republic, on the now defunct television station .tv.

In 2001, Trevor and Simon performed their first live show in over three years, unleashing demonic rituals and some of history's most vile characters on audiences with "Trevor and Simon's Circus of Evil". The new material played to sell-out audiences and earned a 4 star review from flagship paper 'The Scotsman' who saw the return as 'a ludicrous delight'.

Trevor was a musician at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival on the Sunday, playing with his band in the John Peel Tent. Simon appeared on maracas for a song.

Trevor and Simon wrote an episode for the sixth series of My Parents Are Aliens called "Dan's the Man" in 2006. They also visited the set during the filming of the episode but did not guest on the show.

In December 2006 they appeared in the BBC Two programme It Started With Swap Shop, a retrospective of BBC Saturday morning television, featuring in a filmed sequence with Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene, then in a studio sketch as the dry cleaners.

Trevor and Simon have also written scripts for the BBC's children's channel CBeebies' art programme, Doodle Do, and Dani's House for CBBC They also notably opened BBC Radio 5 when it launched at 9 am on 27 August 1990.

Trevor and Simon gave their opinions on Big Brother Celebrity Hijack Big Mouth in January 2008.

On 5 September 2008, they co-presented the breakfast show for the radio station Marcher Sound, as part of the station's 25th anniversary celebrations.^[1] On 8 April 2009 they appeared on Celebrity Juice on ITV2.

In 2009 the pair began a podcast, with 13 episodes being released sporadically over the next 2 years. While never officially cancelled no episodes have been released since November 2010.

Trevor and Simon were guests on 'Big Brother's Bit on Side' in September 2011.

On 24 February 2011 they took part in an event called Comedy Rush (hosted by comedian Rufus Hound) at London's Shaftesbury Theatre. They were one of 60 acts who were given 60 seconds of stage time in front of a paying audience. They performed a sketch in which Trevor was dressed in a yellow bodystocking.

In December 2012, they appeared together in a charity edition of the BBC daytime quiz Pointless, known as Pointless Celebrities.

On 22 September 2013 Trevor and Simon appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the 80s hosted by Jimmy Carr, they had a short appearance asking one of the round questions.

In August 2015, they released the first episode of their crowdfunded comedy drama podcast, Strangeness in Space.^[2] The podcast stars Trevor, Simon, and Sophie Aldred, with guest stars including Doon Mackichan and Rufus Hound. As of January 2016, two episodes have been released, with funding being sought for a further two episodes.

Merchandise

Two compilation videos were released – "Trev And Simon's Stupid Video" and "Trev and Simon's Other Video" – as was a book, "Trevor and Simon's Stupid Book". In 1990 the pair also collaborated with singer Donovan on a novelty single release of his 1968 hit Jennifer Juniper; adopting their roles as 1960s-style folk duo The Singing Corner, the pair made spoken interjections throughout Donovan's performance, concluding with Trevor having to explain to Simon that the singer was not in fact Jason Donovan.

There was also a video released of their 1993 tour "The Blimey That's Good! Tour" which has sketches from their characters MC Mick McMax and Moon Monkey (brought to you by Pot Fish), Blimey That's Good!, The Rogers Brothers and their game show 'It's A Shame' where you could win no prizes. The pieces were linked together by appearances from Ken and Eddie Kennedy The Barbers. It was recorded at the Ambassador's Theatre in August 1993.

References

2. "Episode List". Strangeness in Space. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

External links

• Official site
• BBC Guide to Comedy – Simon Hickson
• BBC Guide to Comedy – Trevor Neal
• Simon Hickson at the Internet Movie Database
• Trevor Neal at the Internet Movie Database