Bob Mortimer: From The Long Shoe to Last One Laughing, the UK's Favourite Bloke Does It Again
There are some faces that just make you crack a smile the moment you see them. Bob Mortimer's is one of those. The guy's a real-deal national treasure, a status he's nailed not through some master plan, but by being utterly, brilliantly, and often bafflingly himself. Whether he's spinning a yarn about a dodgy pheasant on Gone Fishing or delivering a deadpan one-liner that takes three days to fully click, Mortimer works in a comedy lane all his own. And right now, he's everywhere – in the best way possible.
The Joy of New Bob: A Trio of Tales
For those of us who can't get enough of his particular brand of quirky, the last few years have been a treat. His dive into fiction has been an absolute delight. It kicked off with The Satsuma Complex, a novel that felt like being wrapped in a warm, slightly surreal blanket. Then came The Lost Library, co-written with the equally brilliant Tom Adams, which doubled down on his knack for spinning mysteries out of the everyday. These aren't just quick cash-in celebrity books; they're proper, page-turning reads packed with the kind of offbeat characters you'd expect to find lurking in the mind of a bloke who once convinced the nation he'd been attacked by a "rat-eating seagull".
Now, hot on the heels of those successes, comes The Hotel Avocado. Without giving too much away, it's a return to the world of his first novel, and it's classic Mortimer. You've got your usual mix of mayhem, a lead character you can't help but root for, and sentences that suddenly veer off into a hedge of glorious absurdity. And lurking in the background, as it always seems to, is the mythical The Long Shoe. It's a phrase that keeps popping up, a kind of running gag that feels both deeply personal and utterly universal – a perfect example of how Bob can take a random bunch of words and make it feel like a secret handshake between him and his audience.
Last One Laughing: The Mortimer Masterclass
Of course, we also get to see the man in his natural habitat: on the telly, causing chaos. The second season of Last One Laughing UK has just dropped on Amazon Prime, and it's a masterclass in Mortimer's unique talent. The idea is simple: a bunch of comedians are locked in a room together. If you laugh, you're out. It's a pressure cooker of comedy, and watching Bob navigate it is a thing of beauty.
While the likes of Jimmy Carr and Roisin Conaty are busy trying to crack each other up with well-honed gags, Mortimer operates on a different wavelength. He'll just stare into the middle distance, or start rabbiting on about his neighbour's peculiar habit of painting his gnomes, and the sheer oddness of it all becomes infectious. He doesn't even need to tell a joke; his face, a canvas of gentle confusion and suppressed amusement, does all the work. It's a reminder that in a world of polished comedy routines, there's still a place for the beautifully bizarre.
- The Satsuma Complex: Gary Thorn's journey through a south London mystery, complete with a talking squirrel. Essential reading.
- The Lost Library: A charming caper involving a dead author and a missing manuscript. Pure escapism.
- The Hotel Avocado: The much-anticipated sequel. Expect the unexpected.
What makes Bob Mortimer so loved, I reckon, is that there's no real gap between the man and the performer. He's not playing a character; he's just turned the volume up on his own glorious peculiarity. Whether he's signing copies of The Hotel Avocado or silently trying not to corpse on Last One Laughing, he's always unmistakably, wonderfully Bob. And thank goodness for that.