Fast Show star Whitehouse in doghouse as ex-wife's cat goes walkies

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But it was no joke when he agreed to look after his ex-wife Fiona's cat, Bob, while she took their three daughters on a Christmas break.

For the cat crept out while Paul wasn't looking – and vanished.

The 49-year-old comedian spent days searching high and low in the streets of Islington, North London, for the ginger eight-year-old.

And he was about as successful as Unlucky Alf, one of his TV characters, for whom nothing ever goes right.

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Cat-astrophe: Paul Whitehouse risked the wrath of his ex-wife Fiona when her cat went walkabout

A neighbour said: "He went up and down all the houses in the road asking whether we had seen the cat.

"He told one of our neighbours that it was an awful situation because he was looking after the cat for his wife.

"He was worried because he didn't know how he was going to break the news to his daughters."

Fearing he would be in the doghouse when Fiona and the girls returned, an increasingly forlorn Whitehouse put up a series of "Lost" posters on trees, appealing to everyone to check sheds and back gardens for any sign of Bob.

Lost and found: Bob's poster was put up around the neighbourhood before the cat came back of his own accord

Underneath a black and white photograph of the missing pet, he said he was concerned not only because of the freezing temperatures but also because the cat was taking a course of medication.

In the end, though, he needn't have gone to the trouble.

The family waited on tenterhooks for several days until Bob turned up in rude health and oblivious to the fuss he had caused.

"We were very worried about Bob because it was so out of character for him to disappear," Fiona said yesterday.

"But I'm so pleased he returned.

"We don't know where he was or what happened, but he's safe and well now."

Paul, who lives in a £2million Georgian townhouse in Islington and is currently working with Harry Enfield on a new series of their BBC1 sketch show Ruddy Hell! It's Harry And Paul, refused to comment.

He left Fiona after admitting he had fathered a lovechild with costume designer Natalie Rogers in 1999.

He blamed 'pressure of work' on the break-up.

Channel 4 viewers last week voted his Fast Show catchphrase "Suits you, Sir", one of the 50 greatest comedy catchphrases of all time.