Bob Mortimer has revealed an early flair for showing off – even if it ended with him being sent home from school for taking his pants down.

The comic says he was only trying to impress the other children in his infants’ class, but the incident became ‘a big deal’.

Speaking to Caitlin Moran and Adam Frost, on their new podcast Outsiding, he said: ‘I took my pants down at school when I was in infant school. Because I think I had some Wacky Races underpants or something I was proud of. 

‘But the teacher saw that, and I got a letter sent home to the family. It doesn't sound great, does it? [But] It was incredibly innocent. Hey, look at me undies.

‘That was a big deal… that was kind of the TikTok of the day. Taking your pants down.’

He also told of some rebellious rock-and-roll behaviour while on tour with Vic Reeves – real name Jim Moir – at the height of their fame. While they didn’t go as far as throwing TVs out of hotel windows, as the wildest rock stars reportedly would, they did cause some problems for the staff at the places they stayed.

‘Our thing was… we'd find the nearest kebab house, get two doners – but we'd get one of the towels from the bathroom, put it on the bed, and just pour the kebab on it and tuck in, leaving a dirty towel,’ he confessed.

Mortimer said that looking back at old memories helped bring some joy to combat the negative feelings he got about ageing.

The 67-year-old told the podcast: ‘You're in this, this battle as you get older. There's a little drive within you that wants to say the world is awful and I'll be glad when I'm gone, just to ease that journey…  it's a real battle against that. 

‘So, you do start finding joy just in old memories, not so much happening in your life, but you know, old memories just to keep a bit of joy in your brain, to stop you just saying, "Oh, I hate this place, everything's gone to shit, I wish I was dead."

‘But there's a lot of it, you are fighting against it a lot of the time.’

One thing he misses is hanging out with friends in pubs, saying: ‘I love a pub, and I spent my childhood and beyond in pubs. It's hard to put a figure on the amount of time I've spent in pubs.

‘But I don't really go [any more] You lose your friends, you have kids and so on, and it was knocked out of me. So, it's such a treat now. Something really resonates me with the pub. Happy times.’

He also spoke of his love of gardening – the subject of the podcast – as another way of occupying his time as he gets older.

‘Your life does shrink. It just does,’ he said. ‘You know, you try your best, but, you know, life just shrinks. You don't go see so many people, but you've got that lovely escape just the other side of the window and it's something to do. It's a very practical way of filling a day.

‘And it is an unfolding story. When you've retired or you're getting older, there's not much of a story left to involve yourself in, really. You know, your ambitions have gone and so on, so there's a nice little story on the back door to start off. 

‘And it is amazing. I've just had, just as I was arriving here, got a photograph from the wife showing me our first tomato. And yeah, it's a big day.’

Outsiding is available on all podcast providers and YouTube.