Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is getting into its stride, or at least getting into its amiably grouchy amble. The two friends, both with heart problems, drive around England: Bob arranges bunks and food, and Paul tries to teach Bob to fish. Not that unsuccessfully, if the beast of a barbel Bob netted this week was any indication. Along the waters they gas away: about death and music and miscellany; of cabbages and kings. It's reminiscent obviously of The Trip, but less mean; I was more reminded of the much-missed Detectorists, and truly England has seldom looked so beguilingly tranquil - long lazy shots of geese in early mists over the Wye, set to the likes of Liszt, Bach and Bellini, which seem somehow to have been written precisely for that particular Arcadia.

If the opening episode of Bob and Paul's angling amble felt downbeat, this episode's opening ruminations on tombstone inscriptions might not immediately lighten the mood. And yet, as talk turns from the funereal to the finer points of fishing, the camaraderie continues to appeal.