British Comedy Guide
Would I Lie To You?. Lee Mack. Copyright: Zeppotron
Lee Mack

Lee Mack

  • 56 years old
  • English
  • Actor, writer and stand-up comedian

Press clippings Page 36

Tonight's episode climaxes (if that's the right word) with Tim Vine and Lee Mack in bed with a Polish sex worker - the culmination of a very shaggy dog story indeed. As Vine sighs, this is what comes of being a friend of Mack, whose sitcom is like a more risqué Men Behaving Badly, with more one-liners. Vine does make one astute observation: "If prostitution's the oldest profession, it must have been the first and only profession. So where was everyone else getting the money to pay for it?"

Ali Catterall, The Guardian, 3rd May 2012

Lee Mack is all over BBC1's Friday night line-up tonight.

As well as his regular stint as team captain on Would I Lie To You?, he's also rubbing shoulders with Zac Efron and Matt Le Blanc on The Graham Norton Show for anyone who just can't get enough of him.

Here, his sitcom almost lives up to the promise of its title as Lee, Tim, Daisy and Lucy attempt to go on a camping trip but don't actually get out of the car.

Lee is trying to prove that he's more of a real man than Tim.

It's a contest which hardly seems worth taking part in, but perhaps that's why he's gallantly allocated the lion's share of one-liners to dim Daisy (played by Katy Wix) and is content to take more of a back seat.

Literally, in this case.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 27th April 2012

There's a sad story from Richard Bacon: when he worked in McDonald's his girlfriend joined the queue for his till and dumped him when she reached the counter.

Of course, it could be complete tosh and the fun lies in the inquisition. As Bacon is on David Mitchell's team that means he's extensively quizzed by Lee Mack, backed by Clare Balding and a giggly Miranda Hart. And Balding is entertainingly cruel when Bacon reels off some facts about the cooking times of burgers.

Also, Dale Winton reveals how, as a child, instead of a comfort blanket or a teddy bear, he slept with a potato, while Hart insists she was a judge at the Identical Twins of the Year Award.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 27th April 2012

The best lines tonight go to smashing Katy Wix as Daisy, Tim's remorselessly stupid girlfriend. Daisy is a woolly-hatted thumb-head, a dim pixie, a clot. She thinks camping is sexist because of its terminology: "One-man tent, guy rope" and eczema is a National Park.

Daisy is at her most wide-eyed when the Not Going Out quartet head to the woods for a night spent in tents under the stars. Disaster quickly looms when Tim's car breaks down and Lee (Lee Mack) decides to behave like a real man to impress his adored Lucy. But there's something nasty in the woods and no one feels brave. It's all very silly, but you will laugh, despite yourself.

Alison Graham, The Mirror, 27th April 2012

Bobby Ball returns tonight to stir up more trouble as Lee's dad. This time he's in a wheelchair, covered head to toe with plaster, and in possession of some pain relief that can only be administered where the sun don't shine. That's the source of some obvious gags, but Lee Mack and Tim Vine play out the farce with their usual, splendid verve.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 20th April 2012

How many gags can you think of about suppositories?

Not as many as Lee Mack and his writing partner Daniel Peak, I'll bet.

Recurring guest star Bobby Ball, who plays Lee's errant father Frank, returns tonight for an episode crammed full of buttock-clenching humour.

Frank's got both his arms and legs in plaster after being hit by a bus and he's looking for a roof over his head, as well as a little pain relief and TLC.

But there's no love lost between father and son and Lee wouldn't touch his dad with a barge pole at the best of times.

I can't help thinking that a lot of unpleasantness could probably have been avoided if landlady Lucy had just bought paracetamol in the first place.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 20th April 2012

"This is a horrible stupid game!" moans David Mitchell towards the end of tonight's episode. "Whatever we say, if we get it wrong, we'll look like we've believed something ridiculous." Yes, that's the general drift: anecdotes and personal habits so far-fetched we refuse to believe they're true, though some must be.

Did Richard Madeley really wake up naked in a cupboard one Christmas morning, holding two cans of spray snow? Do pigeons nest using clippings from Kate Humble's hair? As the controversies rage, they're all leading up to the priceless sparring between Mitchell and rival captain Lee Mack. This week's battleground: pens.

David Butcher, Radio Times, 20th April 2012

Bobby Ball guests as Lee's wastrel dad, who arrives at the flat - almost top to toe in plaster - to throw himself upon his son's mercy. But Lee's mercy is strained, non-existent, even, particularly when dad needs a painkiller that cannot be taken orally and which has to be inserted, ahem, elsewhere.

You'll have gathered that this is comedy as broad as the M62. Luckily, Lee Mack just about gets away with a stream of gags about backsides; some are genuinely funny, some are just rank. If it's sophistication you're after, it's probably best to look elsewhere.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 20th April 2012

The brilliant Bobby Ball is back as Lee's (Lee Mack) wayward father Frank in this gently amusing sitcom. He turns up on the doorstep unannounced, in a wheelchair and asking to stay. Lee wants rid but Lucy (Sally Bretton) takes pity and invites him in. When Tim (Tim Vine) and his father (Geoffrey Whitehead) drop round to watch the cricket, their relationship inspires Lee and Frank into some father-son bonding.

Toby Dantzic, The Telegraph, 19th April 2012

While some panel shows are having trouble finding their footing, Would I Lie To You? just seems to keep going from strength to strength.

Rob Brydon, David Mitchell and Lee Mack seem to make a perfect team. There's so many angles for them to play with: Mitchell's poshness verses Mack's working class background; Mitchell's southerness and Mack's northerness; Mitchell and Mack's Englishness verses Brydon's Welshness, and so on.

There is one significant change to this new series, however, that being the show is now on before the watershed. This, for me, is a worry. You may remember that this happened to QI when it moved to BBC One, which ended up as a failure and resulted in QI moving back...

However, it would seem that it's survived this changed. The show seems to be just as funny as ever, especially the bit when Mack trying to claim that his ex-girlfriend's names spell out the world "Bermuda". The guests, Alexander Armstrong, Mel Giedroyc, Alex Jones and Chris Tarrant, provided much amusement too.

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 17th April 2012

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