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 47

BBC axes Not Going Out

The BBC has axed studio sitcom Not Going Out after three series. The Avalon-produced series, co-created by its star Lee Mack and writer/broadcaster Andrew Collins, was part of BBC1's Friday night line-up.

Robin Parker, Broadcast, 30th March 2009

You have to admire the way Lee Mack manages to effortlessly tuck totally random gags into an otherwise normal sitcom. His The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe joke tonight is perfect - especially because you have no idea how it managed to find its way into a conversation about weddings.

That's right, Lee's flatmate Lucy is getting married to a hunky mechanic named Pavlov who has almost as many sob stories as Lee has one-liners.

It's the last in what's been another great series.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 20th March 2009

There's one big negative: it's got a laughter track. Spaced didn't neeed canned chuckles; The Boosh don't use them; Nathan Barley didn't come equipped with fake guffaws. It's an out-dated device that undermines a programme's writing and is best left to the stuff featuring Jasper Carrott. Because, granted, there are some canny one-liners amid the corny drivel, but when something's billed as a comedy, surely it shouldn't be too surprising that some moments are funny. Lee Mack is an ace stand-up but his moves into television have been mainstream meh. The Sketch Show, anyone? Mack should stop Not Going Out and get back on stage where he excels.

Editor Note: This critic seems to have fallen into the trap of not realising that NGO is filmed in front of a live audience

Micky Noonan, Metro, 6th March 2009

Normally, one-liners are best left in the realms of Christmas crackers. But Lee Mack and Tim Vine are two of the best in the business at dreaming them up and machine-gunning them out, which makes this sitcom such a fun maelstrom of ridiculousness, and one that trumpets its own cheesiness. And no, Mack can't really act - but as the loose-moralled lead who'll do anything to get the girl, he strikes the perfect balance of loathsomeness and lovability.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 6th March 2009

This daft sitcom shouldn't work, given that it centres on someone (er, Lee Mack) whose entire performance relies on shameless one-liners rather than anything much in the way of acting. But its punchlines land with such a devastating ka-pow that this regularly has us in stitches.

Metro, 20th February 2009

Lee Mack Interview

A brief interview with Lee Mack. See our own interview for a more in-depth discussion with the star.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 3rd February 2009

For a sitcom now in its third series, and which has won prestigious, international awards, Not Going Out is peculiarly bad. It comes to something when the most unbelievable part of an episode is not the plot in which Lee (the stand-up Lee Mack who also writes much of the show) became convinced that he'd got his landlady pregnant by sharing her bathwater.

No, that would be their shared flat, supposedly in the middle of London and so huge that it makes the apartments in Friends - which the show would dearly love to be - look like cupboards. What do these people do to afford this? Are they drug dealers, minor royalty, lottery winners?

You're not meant to worry about that, just go with it as they sling insults at each other in strange conversations that are like nothing resembling the way actual people talk. And actual people don't constantly address each other standing in the middle of a room, arms hanging at their sides. The more it goes on, the more fascinating it becomes. Someone enters, someone else immediately walks over to stand parallel to them, delivering puns in turns until the scene is over, then they do it again. You know who actually does have conversations like this? People on stage, which is where Not Going Out is filmed, in front of a live studio audience, who are in hysterics. I think you really had to be there.

Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman, 2nd February 2009

Series three of the one BBC1 sitcom we like got off to a rather unremarkable start. There was the usual sprinkling of fine one-liners and the lovely aerial shots of London (oh look, there's our house) and Tim Vine's Tim was as wonderfully pompous as ever. However, Lee Mack's Lee is normally so lovable, but this week he was just annoyingly idiotic, worrying that he'd made flatmate Lucy pregnant ("got a muffin in the breadbin") because she shared the bathwater he'd ejaculated into during a relaxing wank. The weakness of this show was at the forefront: poor storylines.

The Custard TV, 1st February 2009

Written by and starring comedian Lee Mack, the flatshare sitcom returns for a new series. Tonight, the gags continue to come thick and fast as Lucy (Sally Bretton) announces to Lee that she thinks she's pregnant or, as Lee sarcastically puts it, "got a muffin in the breadbin". When he goes for a drink with Lucy's brother Tim (Tim Vine), Lee wonders if the father might accidentally be him and we discover how the unusual conception may have happened.

The Daily Express, 30th January 2009

This sparkling, rapid-fire comedy - which boasts more smart and silly one-liners per minute than any other sitcom - is back with a third series. Starring Lee Mack and the brilliant punslinger Tim Vine, the charming larks generally revolve around Mack's continued efforts to impress Vine's sister. Better still, though, the writers have brought back Tim's dippy girlfriend, Daisy, as a regular character.

What's On TV, 30th January 2009

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