I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, woke a day later and thought: ‘Great ...I no longer fear death’
I’ve worked with Paul since 1989, people enjoy watching our genuine friendship BOB MORTIMER ON CHEMISTRY WITH HIS CO-STAR WHITEHOUSE
By his own admission, last year was Bob Mortimer’s “worst ever year” for his health, after he had shingles, on top of his struggles with rheumatoid arthritis and heart troubles… but he knows there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
And not metaphorically. During his triple bypass surgery in 2015, when his heart was stopped for 32 minutes, Bob says he had an experience that made him believe in life after death.
He said: “I did see the light at the end of the tunnel. I experienced going towards the light and feeling happier than I have ever felt, ever.
“It was quite extraordinary, and then I woke up a day later and I was OK. I thought, ‘This is great. I no longer fear death and everything’.”
But he says that after mentioning his near-death experience on a podcast with Kathy Burke, “loads of people wrote to me and said, ‘It’s because your body gives out loads of PCT, some chemical to get you through that and it gives you these hallucinations’. I was a bit sad about that.”
Comedian Bob, 64, had surgery after doctors discovered 95% of his arteries were blocked, and told him he risked having a heart attack on stage. So bad was his prognosis, he married his girlfriend of 22 years Lisa Matthews, with whom he has two sons, on the day of his hospital admission. But he has admitted that last year’s health problems were “worse than my heart period”. Already dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, which was in remission for 30 years before flaring up in 2022, he got shingles, an infection that causes painful rashes. This combination caused his muscles to wither and he says he can no longer exercise like he once did. He estimates
as much as 80% of the muscles in his legs have been lost due to his illness, and fears he may never run again.
Gone Fishing was born after Paul Whitehouse invited him to get out of the house after his heart surgery.
But in September last year, an attack of shingles meant Bob had to drop out temporarily, with comedian Lee Mack stepping in.
The change led to a backlash from viewers after Lee chose to fish with a magnet instead of a hook, as he is a vegan, while others complained about the lack of on-screen chemistry.
Speaking at the recording in London’s Leicester Square Theatre of a podcast with Richard Herring, due out in June, Bob said: “Lee was going to be on the show anyway. But I felt a bit rotten as some people didn’t like it.
“But there you go, that is the world we are living in, isn’t it?”
The hugely popular BBC2 show, on its eighth series, follows Bob and Paul as they go fishing around the UK while sharing hilarious tales from their lives. Bob, who has known comedian Paul for 30 years, thinks it works because they are genuine lifelong friends.
He said: “I’ve worked with Paul since 1989, it is something you can’t do as a pretence. I think people enjoy watching our genuine friendship.
“Nothing happens but it is nice to have it on in your front room. We make the UK look beautiful and we fish for six hours, so the crew can take shots. The success is the friendship.”
He admits his health problems still need hospital treatment. “I am not very well. I am not very healthy at the moment,” he told Richard Herring.
“I did a show last week, a fishing show, and there was only two and a half days’ filming. I did it Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday and was in hospital on the Saturday.
“I am sorry I should not have said that, should I? It’s a real downer.”
Middlesbrough-born Bob’s rise to fame has been more than a little unconventional. He studied law at Sussex University before starting a punk bank, Dog Dirt, and becoming a solicitor for Southwark Council in South London.
After moving to a private practice in Peckham, South East London, his work helping council tenants who had cockroach infestations led to him being dubbed The Cockroach King.
In 1986, he went to see a show by comic Vic Reeves – real name Jim Moir – and the two formed a band. Bob began to perform on Vic’s show, then the pair formed a double act. The
duo made their TV debut in 1989 on One Hour with Jonathan Ross, before their own shows, Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting Stars. A 2005 poll to find the Comedians’ Comedian named the duo as the 9th greatest comedy act of all time.
Bob, a regular on shows such as Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster, insisted he will never take a live show around the country again without Vic, but says the two have drifted apart.
He said: “Jim used to take me to museums on tour, or we used to go to the cinema with Matt Lucas. “When I was on stage all I could think about was getting off stage. I had no memory of it and I hoped it went OK. Would I like to do it? I don’t know. A lot of people tell me it is not fun touring on your own.
“I get on well with Jim. As you get older you think of all the lovely people I have known and I don’t see them any more. It just seems to happen. We had a right laugh.”
And he said he isn’t impressed with today’s comedians. “Stand-up isn’t great, is it? It is quite hard to be funny for 50 minutes. I was brought up with people like Tommy Cooper, who was incredibly funny for 20 minutes. The greatest live show I ever saw was Harry Enfield, but it was no surprise, it was 25 minutes long.
“I’ve a bee in my bonnet about the Oxbridge comedians. I can’t believe the funniest people went to Oxbridge.”
Bob and his strange humour have remained in demand and work has never dried up. He was the voice of the bulldog in Churchill Insurance adverts, appeared in E4’s Drifters, and wrote a novel, The Satsuma Complex and a memoir.
What he didn’t expect was to be chosen to interview Paul McCartney for the release of the former Beatle’s new book, The Lyrics, a few years ago.
He said: “I wanted to turn it down. When I said that to the wife she said, ‘What?’ and brought it home to me.
“Paul was amazing. He must put in so much effort to make this little oik make him think he is all right and that is a lovely thing he still bothers to do.”
Tommy Cooper was incredibly funny for twenty minutes
BOB MORTIMER ON THE STATE OF TODAY’S COMEDY