12/06/2026
Bob Mortimer has spoken openly about what it felt like to be told his heart needed emergency surgery.
He hadn't been unwell in any obvious way. There were no dramatic warning signs. He went in for a check, and came out with a date for a triple bypass.
He was off work for months.
The career he'd spent decades building, the writing, the performing, the projects, it all had to pause. Not because he chose to step back but because his body made the decision for him.
But he recovered, he came back. His career continued, eventually producing Gone Fishing, a show that exists largely because he and Paul Whitehouse, who had also been through serious heart surgery, decided to spend time doing something that actually mattered to them.
It's a good ending. But the middle part, the months of uncertainty, the inability to work, the income that stopped, that part is real.
For a TV comedian with a career behind them, that period is deeply unsettling but survivable. For a self-employed business owner or a sole company director, the same situation looks very different.
No sick pay. No employer is covering the gap. Just a business that depends entirely on you being available and a period where you aren't.
Most limited company directors have never properly mapped out what their finances look like if they can't work for three months, six months or longer.
It’s easy to assume it won't happen, and there are always more pressing things to deal with today.
Bob Mortimer didn't see it coming and that's usually how it goes.
It’s worth knowing what your numbers look like if the same thing happened to you.
