Not Going Out

Not Going Out review

Not Going Out does not require much analysis - it is meant as a tool for relieving the stress of the week and little else. It does, however, do a commendable job with that.

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.

Lee Mack has nude scenes in new series of Not Going Out

Fans will be seeing a lot more of Lee Mack in the new series of Not Going Out.

Katy Wix annoyed by not getting recognised for comedy

"Depressingly, I get recognised for that. I don't get recognised much for the comedy I do."

Tim Vine on how Not Going Out cast kept on laughing

Tickled Tim Vine has revealed how the Not Going Out cast keep laughing during filming.

Back for a well-deserved fifth series, Lee Mack and his co-stars are set to give your jaws another high intensity workout with an episode that packs so many laughs into each minute, the EU should probably slap a health warning on it.

All I need tell you about this week's episode is that Tim (Tim Vine) has joined a rock band - a concept so horrible and unlikely that it needs to be seen with your own eyes.

Lee's jealous that the guitarist fancies Lucy and has even written a song for her, but he's written a few lyrics of his own, too.

You know that gorgeous love song on Britain's Got Talent recently?

Lee's is even better than that. Why? Well, this one rhymes Lucy with Zanussi.

Friday nights are Lee Mack night, with Would I Lie to You? and the return of this endearingly silly sitcom, an unashamedly old-fashioned half-hour of daft gags, smut, wisecracks and wordplay. Mack plays a version of himself, the world's worst flatmate, Lee: an ageing slacker who's in (undeclared) love with his comely landlady, Lucy (Sally Bretton).

Lucy's dull financial adviser brother Tim (Tim Vine) has joined a rock band, the Auditors, and his supporters are out in force. But his onstage banter is painful, leading Lee to observe: "Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Alice Cooper is advising someone about the advantages of a cash ISA."

Sally Bretton filmed NGO two weeks after giving birth

Not Going Out star Sally Bretton, who plays Lee's love interest Lucy, started filming the latest series two weeks after giving birth.

The set-up for tonight's series opener is sound, sending Lee into a perfect storm of personal and professional jealousy when Tim's new pub rock outfit wins a battle of the bands contest and Lucy falls for the smug guitarist. Such is the onslaught of funnies in Not Going Out (targets range from Tango ads to Samantha Janus) that, as derivative as it is, a decent hit-rate is more-or-less guaranteed, and the climactic, bromantic take on I Know Him So Well is a triumph.

It's the new series of Lee Mack's pun-tastic, guilty pleasure sitcom. And there are a few improvements: Lucy, the put-upon landlady who is forever the apple of Lee's eye, has had her edges softened; and Katy Wix is given better material to work with as Tim Vine's dappy girlfriend. To kick off, Vine looks endearingly ridiculous as he decides to join a band.