Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing began as one friend helping another and has gone on to explore issues many older men might find hard to discuss
A couple of years ago, early in his time as controller of BBC Two, Patrick Holland got a call asking if he’d have a meeting with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse, who wanted to pitch an idea. Of course, he was a massive fan: they were comedy heroes of his in the 90s. But then the meeting happened and Holland’s heart sank, because the project turned out to be one about … fishing.
“I thought: I’m new on the job, the first thing on my to-do list was not going to be a show about two old guys going fishing together,” says Holland, before changing “old guys” to “older gentlemen” and then settling on “middle-aged” (Mortimer and Whitehouse are now 61 and 62).
