Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson reunite to celebrate 40 years of Victor and Barry

They became one of Scotland's most celebrated comedy double acts of all-time – despite being slated in The Scotsman when they made their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut.

Now 40 years after shooting to fame at the event, Victor and Barry are set to make a comeback.

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson have revealed plans to publish a 40th-anniversary book celebrating the comedy cabaret act they formed while studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow and which become a mainstay of the Fringe for years.

Their “Kelvinside Compendium” will be launched by Edinburgh-based publisher 404 Ink just before the 2024 festival. The award-winning publishers say it will be "a moving, inspirational insight into what it takes to cut your teeth in theatre that seasoned actors and budding students will enjoy alike".

Scripts, interviews, memorabilia and unseen material charting the evolution of Victor and Barry will be recalled in the book, which will feature contributions from former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, broadcaster Kirsty Wark and actor David Morrissey.

Cumming and Masson would go on to star together in The High Life, an STV series about a cabin crew at a Scottish airline, with the two leads playing characters similar to their Victor and Barry alter-egos, before the actors and performers decided to pursue separate careers.

Cumming became a West End and Broadway star thanks to starring roles in Hamlet and Cabaret, while his screen career blossomed with roles in Circle of Friends, Goldeneye, Emma, The Anniversary Party, The L Word and The Good Wife.

Masson's screen roles have included The Crown, EastEnders, Shetland, Red Dwarf, Hamish Hacbeth, Catastrophe, Crime and The Road Dance.

An official announcement about the book – Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium: A Meander Down Memory Close – describes it as a celebration of “a cornerstone of Scottish cultural history”.

Laura Jones, co-founder of 404 Ink, said: “It goes without saying that it’s a privilege to be publishing an equally nostalgic and hilarious reflective on Alan and Forbes’s early career duo, who offered a genteel, harmonious parodying of amateur dramatics and Glasgow’s aspirational gentrification in the 1980s before their careers took them to prolific new heights in writing and performance.

"Quite unlike anything 404 Ink has published before, this Kelvinside Compendium marks an experimental turning point for our list that we hope readers will enjoy as much as we have.”

Cumming and Masson said: “Victor and Barry have had such a huge effect on both our lives. What we learned as writers and performers has influenced and stayed with us all through our careers, so looking back and celebrating the incredible experiences and the huge amount of laughs Victor and Barry gave us and our audiences has been a joy and we can’t wait to share it with everyone.”

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Writing on his website about Victor and Barry, Cumming recalled how the characters were initially formed just to entertain their fellow final year drama students at the RSAMD.

He said: “The act went down a storm and we began to do it outside college, mostly in small venues in Glasgow like Hallibees Cafe Cabaret, just off Byres Road. Then in 1984, we took Victor and Barry to the Fringe. We played in a tiny venue called the Harry Younger Hall, which the RSAMD had taken over for official college shows and other plays and cabarets students and former students were mounting.

"Forbes and I did that thing that I see kids doing now and really feel for them – we handed out flyers (in character) on the Royal Mile trying to trick tourists into coming to see us.”

Cumming also recalled how they turned the barbs of a Fringe reviewer, who would go on to make a name for himself as a leading broadcaster, into new material for Victor and Barry.

Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming as Victor and Barry.

He said: “The big thing at the Fringe is to get a good review in The Scotsman newspaper. Our review wasn't particularly good, and so when we were invited to the Fringe Club to be part of a ‘Best of the Fest’ night, we decided to get our revenge.

“We made up new words about the bad review to the song 'Lucky Star' and the chorus was 'we can thank you, Andrew Marr, that you're not as smart as you'd like to think you are'. Rather hilariously, Andrew Marr is now one of Britain's foremost political journalists in print and on TV.”

Interviewed two years ago about Victor and Barry, Masson said: “The first time I saw Alan I thought ‘God, that guy is really interesting’. There’s something special about him.

“We quickly realised we had an almost telepathic way of writing and performing together. The ideas were always equal and improvised, but he was the first person I ever knew with a Filofax, and was much more in control of getting us gigs.

In 1984 we took the act to Edinburgh – we’d stand on the Royal Mile in our dressing gowns handing out flyers. One night our venue was empty apart from a cat, but we performed anyway.

“The pressure of fame never affected mine and Alan’s relationship, even after The High Life. We’d always been very supportive and would see each other’s shows.

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

"But we had to go our separate ways. When it’s a double act, there’s only so much you can do in the long run. You could re-emerge as sitcom characters, but then what? Do you become Ant and Dec? There was nowhere for us to go. The end of Victor and Barry allowed us to do other things, which we’d never have done as a unit.”