Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is returning for two more series, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.

The hit BBC Two angling show attracted an audience of more than four million for its recent Christmas special, in which Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse travelled to Norway to fish, though without their canine companion Ted.

However, the trio will be reunited and their faithful hound's birthday celebrated in a sixth series later this year, with additional highlights of the six 30-minute episodes including overnight camping on the shores of a carp lake and a visit to the oldest pub in the UK, as they cast their lines in Wales, Shropshire, Wiltshire, the Scottish Borders, Driffield Beck in Yorkshire and Burgh Island off the Devon coast.

Next year's seventh series is expanded to a run of eight episodes for the first time, with the friends' excursions seeing them visit Derbyshire, Newark, Bedfordshire, North Norfolk and Northern Ireland.

"We are delighted Gone Fishing will be coming back later this year for a sixth series and then a bumper seventh in 2024," BBC commissioning editor Max Gogarty said. "This show brings a huge amount of joy, catharsis and escapism to millions each week and we're thrilled the boys will be back (Ted in tow) later this year.''

Made by Mortimer and Whitehouse's own production company, Owl Power, Gone Fishing is executive produced by Lisa Clark (Shooting Stars, Vic & Bob's Big Night Out), with Gogarty the BBC's commissioning editor. The series was commissioned by Catherine Catton, BBC head of commissioning for factual entertainment and live events.

"When we started the series five years ago I'm not sure we ever dreamed we'd still be travelling the UK's river banks, but the love for Bob and Paul and their fishing adventures is phenomenal," said Clark. "We're delighted to be continuing to deliver their magic to the screen along with Ted and the glorious views of the British countryside."

Speaking on the Hawksbee and Jacobs radio show on talkSPORT in November, Mortimer said that he and Whitehouse hoped to keep making Gone Fishing until the BBC no longer wanted to commission it.

"We won't stop until we're told," he said. The BBC have "left us be and it's just a little holiday, three days with a mate ... we make the UK look extraordinary, which is no bad thing in these times."

Meanwhile, Whitehouse will present the two-part documentary Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers on BBC Two from 5th March, in which he investigates the effects of pollution on the waterways of England and Wales. The programmes will reunite him with singer and environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey, who previously appeared in two episodes of Gone Fishing.

Speaking to Andrew Marr on his LBC radio show on Tuesday, Whitehouse called the state of rivers in this country "a disgrace".

"Having grown up as an angler, with my dad and being on the riverside, for so many years of my life, I was sort of aware of it from an early age of pollution," he said. "And when my dad was born in the Rhonda, the river there ran black with coal dust and things improved post industrially, when obviously the rug was pulled out from many communities, but the natural world sort of perked up.

"We are the protagonist, really, and the villain of the piece here. In many instances, it is because of the policy of the water companies. And it is something I still find quite shocking that they are legally allowed to discharge raw sewage into our rivers in times of high rainfall."

All episodes of Gone Fishing are currently available to view on BBC iPlayer