Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer have returned for another episode of Gone Fishing, and in the latest instalment, the pair, who have been very open about personal losses, ventured to Shetland to fish the lochs and the seas for trout and pollock. The weather was extremely blustery, and Paul lost his hat in the water several times.
"Oh! Turning around looking at you, you see!" Paul blamed Bob 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.
A 'tough' day on the water
As the pair went on to laugh about the incident, Paul observed: "This is a tricky old wind, this, isn't it? I haven't even had a touch yet, Bob." The breezy conditions continued to pose challenges for the pair, who admitted it was a "tough" day. "It is tough, but I feel much better now I have got this stick with me," Paul 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."
Bob chimed in: "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."
Paul agreed, adding: "I think it takes your confidence away, doesn't it?" Thankfully, things started to look up from there as Bob managed to locate Paul's missing hat.
School day memories
Later in the episode, the pair opened up about their youth, with Paul admitting he had been "banned" from going on school trips. The friends were heating up some water to make a cup of tea as Paul asked Bob: "Did you set fire to much when you were a kid?" Bob went on to recall how he once deliberately put a candle in one of the cupboards during a science lesson at school and left it there.
"Were you ever threatened with expulsion?" Bob asked Paul, to which he replied: "Yeah, I was banned from school trips." When asked to elaborate, he coyly said: "You don't need to know."
"I think you did something dirty," Bob speculated. "No, I didn't really, I just got very drunk," Paul corrected. "How old were you?" Bob continued to press, but Paul refused to answer at first, saying: "It doesn't matter."
Luckily, he didn't miss out on much, saying that one of the only trips he didn't get to take was "a trip to the metal box factory".
Tribute to Ted
The friends have been open about mortality throughout the new season and recently paid tribute to a beloved co-star who died - their companion Ted. During a trip to Norfolk, they raised a glass to the dog. "Good company, he was," Bob reflected. "He was great, because he certainly didn't fawn over us, did he?"
The conversation then grew more poignant as Bob shared heartfelt words about Ted. "He were grumpy... he had a very generous heart," Bob said. "And that's why we loved him, poor old Teddy," Paul added as the sombre music continued to play. The Patterdale Terrier mix died in April 2026 at the age of 13.
He was rescued from a dog's home in Surrey in the Spring of 2013 when he was about six months old and made his first appearance on the popular BBC Two show in season three. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is on BBC iPlayer, with episodes also airing weekly on Sundays.
