Bob Mortimer: From The Long Shoe to Last One Laughing, This National Treasure Does It Again

There are some faces that just make you smile the moment you see them. Bob Mortimer's is one of them. The man is a bona fide national treasure, a status he's cemented not through some grand plan, but by being utterly, brilliantly, and often bafflingly himself. Whether he's recounting a tale of a rogue pheasant on Gone Fishing or delivering a deadpan one-liner that takes three days to fully process, Mortimer operates in a comedy sphere all his own. And right now, he's everywhere – in the best possible way.

The Joy of New Bob: A Trio of Tales

For those of us who can't get enough of his particular brand of whimsy, the last few years have been a feast. His foray into fiction has been nothing short of delightful. It started 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 talent for weaving mysteries out of the mundane. These aren't just celebrity books dashed off for a quick buck; they're proper, page-turning reads filled with the kind of off-kilter characters you'd expect to find lurking in the mind of a man who once convinced an entire 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 debut, and it's classic Mortimer. You've got your usual mix of mayhem, a protagonist 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 pops up, a kind of running gag that feels both deeply personal and utterly universal – a perfect example of how Bob can take a random collection 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 television, causing chaos. The second season of Last One Laughing UK has just landed on Amazon Prime, and it's a masterclass in Mortimer's unique skill. The premise is simple: a group 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 frequency. He'll just stare into the middle distance, or start talking 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 mirth, 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 beloved, I reckon, is that there's no discernible 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.