Paul Whitehouse has opened up about ageing while filming the latest series of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, telling Bob Mortimer he feels "less steady these days" after a fall while salmon fishing.
The comedian spoke about getting older as the pair travelled to Shetland to fish for trout and pollock, where they faced ferociously windy conditions.
'I'm getting older and more infirm'
Whitehouse said having a wading stick helped him feel more secure in the conditions. "It is tough, but I feel much better now I have got this stick with me," he admitted.
"I'm getting older and more infirm, and last time I went salmon fishing, I fell in. I think I'm just a little bit less steady these days, you know? I mean, they always say don't go into water you don't know without a wading stick, so."
Mortimer responded: "Sometimes you have got to have a sense of adventure, haven't you? But not at our age. Everything goes downhill after a fall, doesn't it? It's a fall that does it for so many people." Whitehouse agreed, saying: "I think it takes your confidence away, doesn't it?"
Hat lost to the wind
The windy weather also saw Whitehouse lose his hat to the water on more than one occasion. "Oh! Turning around looking at you, you see!" he said, blaming Mortimer as his hat flew off into the sea. "The hat monster has got it, because I can't see it. That was a really quick hat monster, Bob," he joked.
As the pair laughed, Whitehouse added: "This is a tricky old wind, this, isn't it? I haven't even had a touch yet, Bob." Fortunately, Mortimer managed to find the lost hat.
School days and tribute to Ted
Later in the episode, the friends reflected on their younger years, with Whitehouse revealing he had been banned from school trips. While they boiled water for a cuppa, Whitehouse asked Mortimer: "Did you set fire to much when you were a kid?" Mortimer recalled deliberately placing a candle in a cupboard during a school science lesson and leaving it there.
"Were you ever threatened with expulsion?" Mortimer asked Whitehouse, who replied: "Yeah, I was banned from school trips." Pressed to explain, Whitehouse said: "You don't need to know." "I think you did something dirty," Mortimer speculated. "No, I didn't really, I just got very drunk," Whitehouse corrected. "How old were you?" Mortimer asked, but Whitehouse replied: "It doesn't matter."
Whitehouse joked that one of the excursions he had missed was "a trip to the metal box factory".
The duo have also reflected on mortality throughout the latest series, recently paying tribute to their much-loved canine companion Ted. During a trip to Norfolk, they raised a glass to the pooch. "Good company, he was," Mortimer reflected. "He was great, because he certainly didn't fawn over us, did he?"
Mortimer added: "He were grumpy... he had a very generous heart." "And that's why we loved him, poor old Teddy," Whitehouse said as melancholy music played.
The Patterdale terrier mix died in April 2026 at the age of 13. He was rescued from a dogs' home in Surrey in spring 2013, when he was about six months old, and first appeared on the BBC Two show in series three.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is available on BBC iPlayer, with episodes also airing weekly on Sundays.
