Gone Fishing stars Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse have undergone drastic life upheavals since they started the relaxing show eight years ago, following major heart problems.
The BBC series was created in 2018 after Mortimer underwent triple heart bypass surgery and Whitehouse had three stents fitted after being diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
Mortimer, 67, has now said that the pair are “iller than we look”, with Whitehouse, 68, revealing he’s been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and has been forced to limit his alcohol consumption and cut his chocolate intake.
He said in a new interview: “I've cut almost all sugar out, and I’m also prescribed some medication for it.”
“I think with my lifestyle and our age, it’s quite common, actually,” Whitehouse told The Mirror. “I could probably have reduced it by cutting out the Maltesers, which I’ve done. I have two bits of dark chocolate that’s basically torture and not chocolate.”
After a series of health setbacks, Mortimer said he is now following a fitness regimen – and has organised a makeshift gym at home. “ I’ve got my kettlebells and weights at home, and I sit watching the telly doing exercises. I’ve really been working on it.”
Reflecting on his own health struggles, the Last One Laughing star told The Sunday Times: “When I look back on it, I just thought I was getting breathless when playing football with my sons. I just put it down to old age because I was in my early 50s. But you should not be out of breath in your 50s. That is the sniper’s alley decade for heart attacks.”
Mortimer was previously taken to hospital during the filming of season five in 2022, following which he told Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast that he was “not very healthy right now”.
Around this time, he also discovered that, after being free of rheumatoid arthritis for 29 years, “it came back 10 days ago”.
The comedian said: “It is really sad for me to know whether it will go. Yes, I might be fat, but actually, I am on steroids.”
Last week, Whitehouse was mugged at a cashpoint while buying medication. His wife, Dr Mine Conkbayir, who hosts the podcast I’m ADHD! No You’re Not with Whitehouse, wrote on Instagram that she and her husband were having “a horrid start to the weekend” in the wake of him being set upon in Islington, London.
Dr Conkbayir said that Whitehouse had gone out to pick up some medication for her after she had a “bad reaction” to some treatment, when he was targeted by a mugger.
“He did fight back and retrieved his card, with the perp scuttling away empty-handed,” she wrote. “But that’s not the point, is it?”
She continued: “I kept shtum, out of respect, but he just came over, having taken our daughter to football, still frustrated. I asked whether he’d like me to post – he said yes – in the hope that it might help folk to be more aware when out and about.”
The new series of Gone Fishing airs Sunday 25 October at 9pm on BBC Two.
Read MorePaul Whitehouse ‘mugged at London cash point’ while picking up wife’s medication
Simon Pegg confirms life-changing diagnosis: ‘It’s just who I am’
Women’s Aid: ‘Big Brother risks presenting abuse as entertainment’
Vinnie Jones opens up on tearful reunion with Guy Ritchie after falling out
Celebrity Gogglebox star reveals famous dad ‘hated it from start to finish’
Only Fools and Horses airs never-before-seen footage from show’s archives
