Lee Mack

Lee Mack interview

His stand-up tour won acclaim far and wide earlier this year. And as it arrives on DVD, Lee Mack spares some time to talk about comedy, and the return of Not Going Out...

Lee Mack talks gags, gigs and lobsters

Lee Mack joins Richard Allinson to talk about his latest tour, playing to single-digit audiences, the return of his sitcom, Not Going Out and the perils of including a lobster in your routine.

Video: Susanna Reid flummoxed by Lee Mack gag

Lee Mack's approaching the end of a 120-date tour, but as well as that he's returning to our screens in the New Year in the BBC One sitcom Not Going Out for which he wrote the script while on tour.

Lee discussed the tour with BBC Breakfast and described the best heckle, which needed some explaining to Susanna...

This stand-up show from 2007 will come as a surprise to those whose only exposure to Lee Mack is in sitcom Not Going Out or as team captain on Would I Lie to You? The physicality of his on-stage persona feels as if the comedian regularly seen behind a panel-show desk has been let off the lead for the night and the result is riotous and very funny. Early on, he borrows a pair of glasses and breaks into an impression of Eric Morecambe. But there's more here than just quick one-liners and clever wordplay. The spontaneity in his interactions with audience members is impressive ("You're a plumber? Nice of you to turn up") and somehow his sheer cheek never ends up feeling malicious.

Do you think Rob Brydon is telling the truth when he assures us that when panellists read statements off their cards, they're seeing them for the very first time?

Or is that a lie as well? That thought might have occurred to you a few times already as all the participants turn out to be surprisingly capable of spinning a believable yarn around the most unlikely of subjects. So either the show is fibbing about the rules or Britain's celebs are actually a far more devious bunch than we give them credit for.

Tonight, no-nonsense Dragon Deborah Meaden insists that she once called in an exorcist after spooky goings-on in her home, Patrick Kielty claims an extraordinary meeting with Muhammad Ali, stand-up comic Mark Watson relives a childhood trauma, Bernard Cribbins holds up his hands to car theft. Worryingly, we're inclined to believe every word they say.

Team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack are on especially fine form tonight.

In tonight's episode of the comedy panel show, guests Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Rufus Hound, Miranda Hart and Rhod Gilbert compete to disentangle outlandish fact from fiction. Can it be true, for instance, that Fearnley-Whittingstall allows his dog to lick a well-known yeast extract spread off his face? Has Hound visited every pub called The Red Lion inside the M25, apart from four? Comedian Rob Brydon is the host, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as the team captains.

Ronnie Corbett is the very special guest on David Mitchell's team tonight. It's a chance for host Rob Brydon to try out his favourite Corbett impression on the real thing and also an opportunity for a very happy Lee Mack to fulfil a childhood dream.

Corbett's presence - small though it is - is a huge part of the show which also sees Julian Clary attempting to explain why he's got a unicorn in his garden and David discussing his unusual childhood friendship with a bucket.

The other two panelists, Sarah Millican and Holly Walsh, may be less well-known but in such legendary company as this they more than keep up their end of the banter - adding up to another perfectly breezy ­half-hour.

When writer and impressionist Ronni Ancona appears on QI, the show is sometimes a little less funny than usual but always greatly more interesting and even absorbing. She was a boon to QI and proves to be the same again here as she takes the role of first interviewer in a new run of the tag-team chat show. Her guest is comic Lee Mack, who has as many one-liners at his command as you'd hope and expect but gets drawn into richer areas about working in comedy. This is the joy of Chain Reaction: the guest is interviewed by someone who really knows their work and enjoys pressing for information that lighter chat shows miss. And you'll never guess who Lee Mack chooses to interview in next week's episode.

Full marks to whoever booked the panellists on tonight's Would I Lie To You?. It's a solid gold line-up this week. Joining David Mitchell, Lee Mack and Rob Brydon are Ruth Jones, Jason Manford, Jack Dee and Peter Serafinowicz - taking a break from what is practically a full-time job of filling the Twitter-verse with surreal one-liners.

This week they're all bringing their best poker faces to some very tall tales involving Ray Charles, a tortoise, a human sausage, a cheese and onion sandwich, Lee Mack's life expectancy, and David Mitchell's battery-buying habits.

And Rob Brydon's getting in on the act as well with his own true or false questions - did he really once steal Catherine Zeta-Jones' lunch money?