Gone Fishing's Ted makes his final appearance as Mortimer and Whitehouse return to the River Ribble
Ted the dog made his final Gone Fishing appearance as Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse returned to BBC Two. Here is the story of the rescue terrier who became a Sunday night favourite.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing returned to BBC Two on Sunday night with an opening episode many viewers had been waiting for since the spring, because it was the last time they would see Ted on screen.
The Patterdale Terrier cross, who became one of the most recognisable faces in British factual television, died in April, and the first episode of the ninth series features his final outing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.
The episode takes the pair to the River Ribble in Lancashire, a trip Whitehouse has described as one of his favourite shows of the run. Speaking ahead of the series, he said the two of them caught a good number of fish that day and joked that "maybe Ted brought us luck".
Mortimer, for his part, has talked about Ted as the perfect fishing companion, a dog who pottered about the bank doing exactly as he pleased while the two men got on with their rods.
Ted's route onto the programme was a happy accident. He was rescued from a dog home in 2013 by Lisa Clark, the show's executive producer, and lived with her as a family pet before making his television debut in the third series in 2020.
He soon became a regular fixture, ambling along riverbanks with an air of mild indifference that won over audiences, and his popularity grew well beyond the programme itself. His Instagram account built up more than 280,000 followers, and in 2024 he even had a bestselling book to his name, A Pawtobiography.
News of his death, at around 13 years old, was announced on 30 April and made headlines across the national press. Mortimer called him "lovely Ted, the best companion and the greatest little chum", while Whitehouse said: "He wasn't a dog, he was a species all of his own."
Those words sum up why the Ribble episode carried so much weight for regular viewers, who had come to see the little terrier as part of the furniture on a Sunday night.
Gone Fishing has always been as much about friendship and the slow pleasures of the British countryside as it is about the fish, and Ted fitted that spirit perfectly. He never performed for the camera, which is precisely why people loved him, and his last appearance lets the programme say goodbye in the gentle, unhurried way it does everything else.
For anyone who wants more of Mortimer's company, he can also be seen alongside Richard Ayoade in Netflix's Hot or Cold.
The rest of the ninth series follows the pair to rivers across Britain, taking them as far north as Shetland, and the show will carry on without its four-legged co-star.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing continues on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, where Ted's final episode is available to watch now.
Images: BBC.
