INTERVIEW
The comedian on the secrets behind his hit TV show about “two old blokes fishing”
1 Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has run for six series on BBC2. So where did it all start for you?
I began fishing with my dad when I was five. We’d recently moved from the Rhondda Valley to Enfield in north London. My dad had fished since he was a kid. In Wales, he’d catch fish to eat, but in Enfield, we fished on a canal and put back whatever we caught. He set me up with a little rod and a piece of bread as bait.
2What was your first catch?
Dad said to me, “If that float goes under, shout.” Just as he handed me the rod, the float went under. I started to shout and so did my mum and my sister. I’d caught a little roach, which is the most beautiful creature. It’s a bright silver-blue fish with orange eyes and red fins. It looks like something from an aquarium. I remember it so vividly. It was stunning.
3So fishing was always in the family?
Fishing gave me a very strong bond with my dad. Even if there were certain things we didn’t talk about, we always had that. As we got older, we spent a lot of time together we probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for fishing.
4Any favourite rivers?
There’s something majestic about the salmon rivers in Scotland like the River Tay. The River Wye is also very beautiful with extraordinary variety along its route through Wales and England. I fished on it as a kid with my dad and have returned to it a lot in recent years. But it’s the Test [in Hampshire] that is particularly special to me. It was the first place I took Bob [Mortimer] fishing and it’s where I scattered my dad’s ashes. It’s also a chalk stream.
5What makes chalk streams so special?
I think of them as a “uniquecosystem”, a word I might trademark. These rivers are important environmentally. They’re formed from water that has risen from below the ground and filtered through chalk, so are pristine. They are often described as “gin clear”. Ahuge range of aquatic plants can grow there. England is home to 85 per cent of all the chalk streams in the world.
6What’s the fishing like at this time of year?
It’s extraordinary to be on the river with mayflies hatching, from the end of May into June. They grub around the bottom of a river for two years, then emerge from the water and turn into adults as they hit the surface. Their wings fill in the sun and they transform into these pretty yellow-white flies. They have two days to find a mate and lay their eggs, then they die. It’s like a tragic opera. In that time, they dance around in their millions. Trout go crazy for them. Mayfly on the wing is an incredible sight.
7You’ve been vocal about water pollution. What are fishermen doing to protect our rivers?
Closed seasons for fishing help to preserve fragi
