Welsh comedian and actor Paul Whitehouse has said the success behind the hit series Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer is because of its origins being based “100% out of real life”.
The BBC Two series Whitehouse And Mortimer: Gone Fishing follows the comedians and friends as they share anecdotes about their life on fishing adventures around the UK and Ireland.
Whitehouse, known for his work on The Fast Show, also revealed on the Bedside Manners health podcast with Dr Oscar Duke that the idea for the programme began when he took Mortimer out fishing while he was recovering from triple heart bypass surgery in 2015.
Whitehouse said: “I lured him out. I took him to a place in Hampshire and this idyllic chalk stream. It wasn’t just the natural environment. Strangely, I think it was a bit of picture-postcard, old England that also appealed to him.
“We started going out a few more times and it was one day in particular, I think it was a really beautiful day in May, and the river was idyllic and the flies were hatching, and the reed warblers were warbling.
“We just made each other laugh. Had a daft laugh as Bob would say, and I thought, oh this might be a good idea for a programme.
“It worked with the BBC and they let us do a little trial and they seemed to go for it and the reason it’s been successful is exactly as I outlined there, because it came 100% out of real life.”
Whitehouse had also undergone heart surgery, before Mortimer, and was semi-conscious during the operation, adding that he was worried about making “inappropriate” jokes to the doctors during the operation.
The BBC Two series began in 2018 and has been nominated six times for a Bafta TV award.
The programme has since aired seven seasons, with episodes shot across the UK and Ireland including Norfolk, Donegal, the River Dee in North Wales, and Dumfries and Galloway.
It has also recently been announced that Whitehouse will play the magic-less Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry caretaker Argus Filch in the new Harry Potter TV series.
