If I'd gone to the BBC in 2018 and said I'd like to make a TV series with my friend where each week we'd go and catch fish in a different scenic location I'd have probably been told to sling my hook. But then I'm not Bob Mortimer or Paul Whitehouse. The BBC said yes to them and Mortimer And Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is now back for its seventh series on Sunday with an eighth run already planned.
It is easy to see the appeal, and not just to men in hats of a certain age. The fish, tench and carp in the first week, are almost incidental. The locations are absolutely stunning — it's Rockland Mere in Norfolk in episode one. The cast, rod-based pun intended, even boasts the best dog on TV outside Aussie comedy Colin From Accounts, in scruffy Patterdale terrier Ted, who has built up such a devoted following he even has his own spin-off "Pawtobiography" being published later this year.
But it's the relationship between Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse that makes the series the true catch of the day. Now in their mid-sixties, they've been friends for a long time and it shows in their easy banter. In the first episode of the latest series when, for example, they trade bass player faces and funny voices like a couple of overgrown kids you can see the rapport in action. There is no competitiveness, no attempts to outdo each other's gags. The humour flows as gently as the rivers they visit. This is more Slow Show than Fast Show. Perfect for a Sunday night wind down.
