Bob Mortimer reveals his unique remedy for writer's block
His latest crime thriller The Hotel Avocado is now available to buy.
What did you miss?
The One Show guest Bob Mortimer opened up about his novel writing process on Thursday's episode.
The national treasure comedian was promoting his latest crime thriller — The Hotel Avocado — on the BBC programme when co-host Roman Kemp brought up the fact he doesn't take inspiration from other authors, putting pen to paper in picturesque or calming locations.
The comic says his muse is a local retail park which provides him with inspiration for many of his characters.
What, how and why?
"If I get stuck, and you do when you're writing a book... I go to my local retail park and park opposite Halfords and Pets At Home with Costa [Coffee] behind me," said the Gone Fishing star.
"It is in its own way quite inspiring. You're seeing people, there's characters I've seen in a retail park that go straight into the book. You see pets go into Pets At Home not very happy, and come out all happy. You see people go into Halfords and then come out more miserable than ever!" he laughed.
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Mortimer then pointed out that by placing himself in a mostly inconvenient writing space, it forces him to hit his daily word count. "It works for me," he added.
The Hotel Avocado is Mortimer's third fiction novel in three years following 2022's The Satsuma Complex, and 2023's The Clementine Complex. He has also written two non-fiction books: 2019's Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, and his 2021 autobiography And Away...
What else happened on The One Show?
Earlier on in the show, Kemp rather brutally revealed to the world that his dad Martin Kemp was only invited into the '80s pop band Spandau Ballet because of his nan's insistence.
"My dad only got into Spandau Ballet because my nan said that Gary [Kemp] was leaving him out," he told Mortimer, Nicki Chapman and co-host Alex Scott, who were left awkwardly laughing.
"Yeah no joke. Gary didn't want my dad in the band and then my nan was like, 'You're leaving Martin out!' I think the other bandmates said, 'He's the only good-looking lad we know so put him in.'"
The One Show airs weekdays on BBC One.