Tim Vine

Most sitcoms have done away with a studio audience but Not Going Out remains touchingly old-fashioned. If you're used to the natural feel of Gavin & Stacey or Outnumbered, it takes a few moments to acclimatise to the studio lights and set-up/gag/set-up/gag rhythms of Not Going Out, but it's worth it: the jokes are lovingly crafted and nobody could accuse Lee Mack of not knowing how to deliver a zinger. Mack plays hopeless big-kid Lee, whose long-held crush on his landlady Lucy isn't helped by the fact that she is the sister of his best friend, Tim (Tim Vine). Tonight's opener for series three undermines the trad format with a gleefully off-colour, not to say X-rated, storyline: Lucy thinks she's pregnant and Lee is worried he may have helped get her that way, although exactly how doesn't bear too much thinking about.

Apart from the inconvenient fact that Lee Mack isn't gay, Not Going Out almost reminds you of a British Will And Grace. The rat-a-tat gags and setup of unlikely flatmates might be as artificially manufactured and as full of dodgy additives as a market stall hamburger, but you can't get enough of it.

As series three opens tonight, Lee is pondering the urban myth about whether it's possible for a woman to get pregnant from bath water. Why? Well, his landlady Lucy (Sally Bretton) is mysteriously up the duff and there can only be one, disgusting, explanation. As Lee and best mate Tim (Tim Vine) consider the grim implications, the jokes come from all directions. Plus, we discover another reason why Lee is so keen to stay in the flat. Never mind that he fancies Lucy - the bathroom is amazing.