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As he flitted in and out of consciousness after life saving surgery, comedian Bob Mortimer pondered one of life’s big questions: “I wonder if Boro will get promoted?”

And his determination to find out the answer to that crucial question helped pull him through after an emergency triple heart by-pass last October.

“I thought I had a chest infection and went to the doctor - my arteries were 95% blocked and five days later I was under the knife,” explained life-long Boro fan Mortimer.

He got special permission to marry his partner Lisa Matthews on the morning of the operation, made a will and then prepared for extensive surgery fearing the worse.

“The heart thing... that was scary,” he admitted. “Seriously, I thought I was a goner.

“It all happened very quickly and you just get swept along, powerless and very, very scared.

“I never thought about the big things like work or money. You realise that doesn’t mean anything."

'Watching Boro can be stressful'

“I was walking around the house saying goodbye to mundane everyday domestic objects like egg-cups because at the end of the day your life is an accumulation of little things,” said the TV comic.

“Oh, yes, I was scared. The worst part of it was being in intensive care the day afterwards and I had some problems and they were struggling to reinflate my lungs and I seriously thought I was on the way out.

“But one of the first things I thought when I woke up and was feeling sore as hell and all wired up in the intensive care unit was ‘I wonder if we get promoted this season? Well I can’t be going anywhere until I find out.’

“Football is a constant in your life isn’t it? You can judge and remember moments against memories of matches. And that’s a moment I’ll certainly remember.

“In fact the night before the operation I was watching Boro’s penalty shoot-out from Old Trafford. That’s all you need when they are operating on your heart.

“I was watching it in the hospital bed. Grant scored, Stewie scored and Ben Gibson scored and then I could relax.

“That was my last memory before the operation.”

Bob, 57, is now upbeat about the medical drama that has radically rebooted his life.

“It was a game changer,” he said. “It has dramatically changed my lifestyle: exercise, eating... sometimes I eat so many seeds I feel like a chaffinch.

“There’s nothing better than a brush with mortality to inject a bit of perspective into your life. Apart from the threat of imminent death I’d recommend it.”

Mortimer, who went to Green Lane Primary along with much missed microphone icon Ali Brownlee and later Acklam High School before studying law, recovered fully from his cardiac plumbing work.

The scare had come midway through a 25th anniversary tour of his seminal surrealist comedy double act with Vic Reeves. He resumed that in the New Year - “the doctor said that was OK as there was no heavy lifting” - although had to wear a heart monitor on stage.

And he quickly resumed his life-long love affair with Boro.

“It was three months before I was fully back up to speed,” he said.

“I was back working but I didn’t feel up to going to games at first because they can be long days, there’s the travelling and, let’s be honest, watching Boro can be a bit stressful.

“The boys went to games on their own without me and I would mope about but once I started to get itchy and wanting to go with them again I knew I was getting better.

“By the end of the season I was back in the swing and I enjoyed the tensions and the celebrations along with the best of them.”

Boro’s promotion season had started well for Bob. He had travelled to Marbella with sons Harry, 19, and Tom, just turned 18, to take in the sunshine and Aitor Karanka’s pre-season preparations.

And, he revealed, he was star struck to meet the Boro boss.

“I was excited right from the start last season because I was out in Marbella and watched pre-season training and the games out there and, to be honest, I was really very impressed and I came away quite enthused by it all,” he recalled.

“There was a good feeling about the whole place. The squad are obviously a very close knit group and they were working hard and it was all serious and professional and quite intense but there was a lot of laughter and smiles too. It was all very upbeat.

“And I was lucky enough to get invited for an evening with Aitor and his staff and that was a great privilege for me because as a supporter you don’t often really get to see things up that close.

“And I have to say I was mightily impressed by Aitor. He was great company, very interesting to talk to and very interested. He was entertaining and engaging and he has a sharp sense of humour too.

“He’s not like he comes across when he interviewed straight after a game but I suppose he is at work then and has got his professional head on.

“What struck me most was that there is a lot of trust and respect around him, between him and the people he works with and within the whole squad and you feel that and you feel strengthened by it as a supporter.

“He has a lot of respect for the players and for Middlesbrough, the club and the town. He struck me as a very sincere and down to earth guy. I like him.”

The season ended in a winner-takes-all tussle with Brighton as Boro finally inched over the line on the back of four tense draws and Bob admits to moments of doubt in a tense finale.

“The season was hard work at times wasn’t it?,” he asked rhetorically.

“We got there in the end but it was a bit of a slog and if I’m honest I never felt fully confident going into the last few games. I was OK until that run of draws at the end and then the nerves kicked in.

“I just kind of assumed we would find a way of blowing it right at the end but that is just typical Teesside cynicism isn’t it?”

Now the team are back in the Premier league after seven years and while the funnyman is going to relish every second he is quick to admit he has enjoyed the bread-and-butter of the Championship - if only because it has ignited his sons’ passions for their Boro birthright.

'Hooked on singing and dancing'

“I’m sure the Premier League will be very exciting and I’m looking forward to it immensely after such a long time,” he said.

“But I thoroughly enjoyed the Championship I must say. It's a great league. It is very competitive, very unpredictable, very dramatic with some crazy results. There are some great grounds to go to. And you win more games.

“And let’s be honest, Boro’s last few years in the Premier League were a bit dreary really weren’t they?

“We were going away and losing in limp displays in grounds with no atmosphere. It wasn’t a great time.

“A few of the lads I’ve been working with are Burnley fans and they hated their year in the Premier League. They felt they were on a hiding to nothing and found it all a bit soul destroying. It is hard to enjoy that kind of experience.

“I’m sure we will go up and give it a go and it will be exciting but it is a very different Premier League now."

He added: “When you see the likes of Swansea and Bournemouth spending £10-£15-£20m on players then you know everything has changed.

“The big plus for me is that my boys love going to the Boro now and I’ll enjoy the Premier League with them. They are really passionate Boro fans now - although it took a few years in the Championship to kick-start it mind.

“I tried to light the flame. I took them a few times to big grounds like Arsenal and Chelsea when they were younger and we were in the Premier League and they didn’t enjoy it.

“The grounds were nice but the games were dull and the atmosphere was flat and all a bit boring and I think they enjoyed the days out but never really ‘got it’.

“But I tried again a few years later in the Championship and it took off. We went to Peterborough and they loved it. It was a great little ground, everyone was standing and Boro fans created a fantastic buzz and we won 3-2 and we all ended up singing and dancing they were hooked. So we go together a lot now.”

For Bob it was important to pass on the torch. He is a life-long home-and-away fan who started going to Ayresome Park as a schoolboy and saw that as a given.

He was a decent player himself and had trials for Boro Boys but acknowledges he wasn’t quite good enough and suffers from arthritis that would have prevented progress as a professional anyway.

But the team and the experience of being a fan has always been a constant.

“For me Boro are something that has always been there,” he explained.

“I started going in the late 60s when I was only a kid. Stan Anderson was manager then and we used to challenge for promotion and then fall short every year and I thought that was the norm.

“When I got a bit older, in the Jack Charlton era, I started going to away games as well and Boro had a great team and we were in the first division beating big teams and it was brilliant. I loved it.

“I never missed many matches in those days, home or away. I’ve been to over 70 grounds with Boro.

“Some of my most memorable games were from back in those days, travelling away with a big Boro following to the smaller old fashioned grounds where it was all standing and singing and enjoying being part of the crowd. It was fantastic.

“One of my favourite games was the 5-0 away win at Swansea in the FA Cup at the old Vetch Field: Terry Cochrane’s overhead kick.

“They were flying at the top of division two and I think the cameras were there in the hope of an upset but Boro were brilliant that day. You come away from games like that absolutely buzzing."

'I don't do hospitality'

“Over the last few years I’ve tried to get to as many games as I can. I usually go with an old mate from back of the day when I come up.

“I take the boys when I can. I’m lucky that with my work I can arrange things to suit the fixtures and I can just say: ‘No, I’m not doing Saturday, I’m going to the match.’

“We live in Tunbridge Wells, and the last few years we have mainly done the away games in London and the South because that was practical but the boys are older now so we have been going more often and further afield.

“We’ve got season tickets this year so I hope to get to most home games but it might be harder to get away tickets now because of demand but we’ll get to as many as we can.

“I don’t do hospitality. I won’t be trying to get tickets like that. That’s not really me. I like to be in with the fans and enjoying it just like I always did.”

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The Premier League season has got off to a solid start and battle-scarred Bob is looking forward to it but is setting the bar quite low.

“Expectations? I’ve got none really,” he said. “I think we can stay up with something to spare. I don’t suppose it will be the biggest surprise in football history if we didn’t but I think we can.

“I think we had a strong side last year and we have strengthened and so we could do well.

“I’m looking forward to seeing if the likes of Grant, George and Albert can step up a level. They deserve the chance. I hope they can. I think they can.

“We know that Aitor prepares players and improves players - look at the transformation in Albert over the last year. That was incredible. If a few more can step up and improve like that and the new signings slot in then I think we can do OK, although it is a tough league.

“And the fans have a part to play. If we can keep getting big crowds and keep getting behind the team and recreate the atmosphere of the Brighton game then I think we can win a lot of games at home and those points will be the building blocks of a solid season.

“We have got a good defence and a hard working midfield so that gives us a good chance.

“I was at Villa in pre-season and you could see then we looked sharp on the counter-attack so I think we have the basis of a style that will work in the Premier League.

“I don’t know. I’m not really a pundit. I’m not an expert analyst. I just go and try to enjoy it.”