IAN HYLAND
On last night’s telly
AMortimer And Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, BBC2 ★★★★★ s Christmas is a time for overindulgence I decided to get into the spirit last night by treating myself to a second helping of this festive special from Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.
If you’d have told me at the start of this year that my TV heroes would be three of the comedy world’s elder statesmen, I’d probably have laughed. However, I would argue that Bob, Paul and Bill Bailey did more for blokes of a certain age in 2020 than any charity or public health initiative you might care to mention.
In this extended episode – which, for the purposes of scheduling, had a Christmas angle – Bob and Paul again proved that it’s good to talk.
Paul was the Grinch and Bob was
on a mission to convince his pal he had Christmas all wrong.
I would call Bob the Ghost of Christmas Cast, but I realise I was probably already pushing my fishy pun luck in the previous paragraph with “Christmas angle”.
It won’t surprise you to learn Bob succeeded in his mission.
How he got there, though, was another story. It was an emotional rollercoaster ride which took in childhood tragedy, his recent acceptance of mortality (“I’ve probably got 15 Christmasses left”), Del Boy, Chris Rea’s health scares (he’s lucky he’s driving anywhere these days), and a sauna that removes your blackheads.
If you want to know more about any of those things take an hour for yourself over the next few days and head to the BBC iPlayer.
Oh, and I hope you have a Merry Fishmas!
I would argue Bob, Paul and Bill Bailey did more for blokes of a certain age in 2020 than any charity or public health initiative you care to mention