They’re back!

oortimer and Whitehouse return to our screens

ONE of the nation’s favourite fishing programmes is set to return to living rooms across the country, we can reveal.

Filming has started for the third series of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, which won TV Show of the Year in Angling Times’ 2018 National Angling Awards for its opening series and went on to become a national success in summer 2019 with 2.2 million viewers watching series two.

Now, the BBC has revealed that a third series is in the pipeline with six brand new episodes to be aired in 2020.

Talking to Angling Times while out on the bank, an excited Paul Whitehouse said: “It was a real surprise as following the feedback from the second series, the BBC was quickly on to us to begin the third – so it was a very quick turnaround.

“I can confirm that filming has already begun, and we plan to showcase fishing throughout all four seasons.”

Once again, the successful format stays the same, with the comedy duo exploring venues across the UK (and possibly abroad), with each episode focusing on a particular species of fish.

However, Paul also revealed that he and co-star Bob Mortimer are keen to bring a new element to the show.

“We want to bring anglers together and highlight some of the issues that affect our sport, while still keeping with the feelgood factor of the show,” he said.

“I think that the angling community will be in a much stronger place if we can show a unified front on conservation issues and we have the audience to highlight some of those.”

At the same time, humour will remain an important aspect of series three.

“Bob loves to use a float and hopefully we can capture that magic of watching one, while probably behaving like a couple of kids at the same time!” he said.