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

Forbes Masson

Forbes Masson is a Scottish actor and writer. He is best known for his classical theatre roles and comedy partnership with Alan Cumming...

 and Alan Cumming

Alan Cumming

Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...

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Victor and Barry are the slightly camp, Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 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 festival

Edinburgh Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

 before touring Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n cities in the late 80s and early 90s.

Their repertoire of songs included "Kelvinside Men", a tribute to the area in the west end of Glasgow where the characters were based; "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

Kelvinside

Kelvinside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is bounded by Dowanhill, Hyndland and Broomhill to the South with Kelvindale and the River Kelvin to the North...

 sky, Renie Roberts. They also performed tributes to Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

, West Side Story and The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid . They are probably best known for the songs "Letter from America", "I'm On My Way" and "I'm Gonna Be ". The band tours extensively throughout Europe and other continents...

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During the late 1980s Victor and Barry presented several Scottish television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

 programmes:

These early characters formed the basis for Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken in their 90s sitcom, The High Life

The High Life (TV series)

The High Life was a Scottish situation comedy written by and starring Forbes Masson as Steve McCracken and Alan Cumming as Sebastian Flight. Cumming and Masson met at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and united after several solo projects, to create the theatrical BBC sitcom, The High...

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