Bob Mortimer reveals secret hospital trip while filming new series of 'Gone Fishing'

Bob Mortimer has confessed he is "not well" after revealing he was taken to hospital in the middle of filming the latest series of his fishing show.

The 63-year-old comedian and actor - who underwent a triple heart bypass in 2015 - had begun filming a fifth series of his BBC Two show Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing with friend Paul Whitehouse.

Mortimer told Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre podcast: “I am not very well. I am not very healthy at the moment.”

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He went on: “I did a show last week, a fishing show and there was only two and a half days filming and I did it Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday and I was in hospital on the Saturday.

“I am sorry I should not have said that should I? It's a real downer.”

The Shooting Stars host went on to joke about his previous unhealthy life choices, including having 16 sugars in his tea.

He added: “I think because I was a smoker and an incredibly fast runner and a very dramatic dancer and I put that all in my younger years.

“I think I am about 10 years ahead of myself with my body ageing.”

The comedian revealed he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis in his 20s and so had put his weight-gain down to the steroids he was taking.

But his heart surgery had been a wake up call and he had started to live a healthier life.

Mortimer admitted: “It takes until you are 60 to realise all the things you could have done.

“When your bones start aching and when you hear people say: ‘I am going to do this,’ - you aren’t going to do them. You have got to do them now. There is no going back.

“At my age we all feel 47 but then your body packs in.”

Gone Fishing originally came about when Whitehouse decided to support his friend in recovering from bypass surgery by taking him on restorative fishing trips.

The star's heart problems were so serious that he got married in hospital before going into surgery and almost died the day after his operation.

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He said last year: “I did some things after the operation that I wouldn’t have done before. It felt like a brush with mortality. I realised that you are counting down the years.”

Mortimer is perhaps best known for his work as half of comedy double act Reeves and Mortimer with partner Vic Reeves.

Watch: Vic Reeves reveals the secret to Reeves and Mortimer's success