A river-side chat with Paul Whitehouse

The words ‘immersive experience’ have always suggested, to me, a rather strained hour or two smiling patiently at unemployed actors pretending to be ghosts or personages from the olden days or, if I’m really lucky, chocolatiers who are not called Willy Wonka for legal reasons. In fact, all the publicity for the ‘Fish and Feast with Paul Whitehouse’ seemed designed to raise my blood pressure: it was not just ‘with’ the comedian and actor, but ‘expertly curated’ by him and included a session with a ‘wild cooking expert’. Animals, plants, and the man of Borneo can reasonably be called wild; cooking is in the other column with swimming and camping.

This particular ‘immersive experience’ is a spin-off from Gone Fishing, the television series Paul Whitehouse presents with Bob Mortimer. The programme is an odd mixture of the staged – the ugly dog doesn’t even belong to either of them! – and the genuine: its charm is entirely reliant on the friendship between the two men.