DID YOU KNOW? Paul Whitehouse

Currently touring Britain’s most scenic landscapes in Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (10pm, BBC2), Paul Whitehouse, 60, is one of Britain’s best-loved comedians…

Born in 1958 in the Rhondda Valley, Wales, Paul credits the family’s move to north London when he was four with unlocking his talent for mimicry. ‘At school, I didn’t say a word for the first four weeks,’ he says. ‘I think because everyone was speaking so differently

[than in Wales], I became very conscious of speech and the effects it can have.’

He was in a jazz band with Charlie Higson, whom he met at university. Later, they began working as tradesmen – Paul as a plasterer, and Charlie as a decorator.

He and Charlie started writing for Harry Enfield after meeting him in a pub; Paul came up with his

Saturday Live characters Stavros and Loadsamoney. When Harry got his own BBC show in 1990, Paul joined him, playing the likes of DJ Mike Smash; the pair further exploited their comic chemistry in Harry & Paul (2007-12). Paul and Charlie then created The Fast

Show (1994-97), which joined the pantheon of comedy greats, and the spoof Radio 4 phonein Down The Line (2006-13); at first, many listeners thought the callers were genuine. Not only has he been awarded five Baftas, but Johnny Depp called him

‘the greatest actor of all time’.

His love of fishing has taken him to Cuba, the Seychelles, Costa Rica and Arctic Russia. ‘There’s more to it than catching fish,’ he says. ‘It’s being lost in a timeless world.’