Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing commissioned for fourth series
ANGLERS and non-anglers alike will this week be celebrating the news that the incredibly popular Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has been commissioned for a fourth series by the BBC.
With an impressive average audience of 1.8 million during the most recent run of programmes, which ended last Sunday, it’s little surprise that the pair have been given the green light to film another set of six episodes covering their fishing adventures around the British Isles. It’s hoped to air in autumn 2021.
The format will remain unchanged, and the show will follow the two lifelong friends as they endeavour to catch new species of fish from a host of stunning new venues.
A delighted Bob told Angling Times:
“I love doing this show and am over the moon to get the chance to go fishing with Paul again. I am already working on heart healthy recipes to cook and new ways to irritate him.”
Paul added:
“The fish of the UK needn’t worry too much as Bob and I return for another series. I love Bob and he needs me more than ever, so we’re back on the bank for more high jinks and another series basking in the timeless wonder of the glorious British countryside.”
“The fish of the UK needn’t worry too much as Bob and I return for another series,” says Paul Whitehouse
It’s a golden age of fishing on tv! - Rob Hughes
IT’S GREAT that angling is getting so much extra media coverage at the moment.
Over the past month I’ve seen loads of high-profile stars supporting fishing. I even saw a hero of mine, Linford Christie, getting out on the bank. I didn’t even know he was an angler, but he absolutely loves it! Sports stars. Film stars. Celebrities. Loads of them want to be seen, and photographed, with a rod in their hands.
The awareness of angling and the angling environment is being seen more in newspapers, on TV and as part of online newsfeeds. This is not only good for the image of our sport, but also beneficial for tackling the issues that affect it, such as pollution and litter.
Speaking of the telly, the big cheeses at the top of the main channels are reaping the benefit of broadcasting more angling. My weekly programme On The Bank is being shown more often on BT Sport and is getting some great figures. Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse are back on the Beeb very soon and are incredibly popular among anglers and non-anglers alike. Ali, Spoons and Dovey are back on ITV4 with another series of Monster Carp too.
S4C is bringing out a Welsh angling programme with Julian Lewis Jones at the helm, and I’ve also heard BBC Scotland is planning a show. There’s never been so much angling on the telly, and with such a diverse mix on offer there’s something for everyone, whatever their level or the species they fish for. Long may it continue.
Mortimer and Whitehouse are popular with anglers and non-anglers alike.
1970s series restored for love of outdoors
THE celebrated Out of Town series by renowned nature broadcaster Jack Hargreaves has been remastered and refreshed to create a new series Further Out of Town.
Compiled from restored footage from the original series, which originally aired back in the 1970s. The new series includes filmed interlinks with Jacks’ stepson, Simon Baddeley, creating six new episodes.
Simon was keen to continue his stepfather's legacy, inspire viewers to appreciate the countryside and engross themselves in the natural world.
The new episodes take place at various locations, such as the New Forest, Brownsea Island, off the coast of Brighton and Andalusia in Spain.
All outdoor activities are covered - including fishing!
The series is available to purchase on DVD or stream via Amazon Prime
For over twenty years Jack Hargreaves presented the series Out of Town, which saw him exploring rural life in Britain
A link to all six episodes, which include various segments of Jack's fishing trips can be found below.
Episode 1 - Garden Pests/Red Squirrels/Country Flowers
Episode 2 - Planting a Vine/Sheep Fair
Episode 3 - Southall Market/Fishing in the Hebrides/Peeler crabs
Episode 4 - Andalusian Horses with Brassy Searle and son
Episode 5 - Mr Cuckoo/Sea Bream/Stocking a lake
Episode 6 - Butterflies/North wind fishing/John Bass lake
Click here to purchase the DVD.
The first-ever carp broadcast, 1953 - Keith Arthur
These days, if a TV company said to a carp angler: “We need you to catch a fish live for our cameras” it would seem nigh-on impossible to fail.
Go back 60 or more years and it would be a very different tale. Then, carp were unbelievably scarce and considered by the average angler to be virtually uncatchable anyway.
None of that deterred the great Richard (Dick) Walker when the BBC said that they wanted to broadcast a carp being caught on the first night of the 1953 season… live for the radio!
No such thing as portable equipment was available then. Instead, it was a ‘radio car’ with microphones hard-wired to the swim, along with a presenter and Bernard Venables – one of the co-founders of Angling Times – as commentator.
Carp bait in those days was normally a chunk of boiled potato, which was considered too big for anything else to eat. And do you know what? Walker only went and did it, landing a 16lb fish – which would have been the equivalent of at least a mid-thirty now.
This was June 1953, the year after Walker had smashed the carp record with the 44lb fish that became known as Clarissa.
Dick Walker, as an engineer, developed rods for carp fishing; there were none before his time. Split cane salmon rods were about all the carper could hope for, but Walker developed specific (compound) tapers for the job in hand.
He also invented the test curve principle, measuring the amount of force needed to bend the rod through 90 degrees. From that, the correct breaking strain of line could be calculated. Nowadays this is all done by computer-aided design technology.
Similarly, the recording of the broadcast could all be done these days on a mobile phone...only with video, too. As for catching a 16lb carp...no serious carper worth his salt would bother with fish so small. You’d be better off asking a match angler to catch one on his pole!
