Not Going Out

Not Going Out series 4 episode 5 review: Fireworks

As Not Going Out nears the end of its current run, the show throws a mysterious woman into the mix...

Have You Been Watching... Not Going Out?

Lee Mack's sitcom is a crowd-pleaser with integrity - and this series is even more joyously silly than the previous three.

Blog: Getting Arrested

I remain a big fan of the show and I watched the show again the other night, catching up on the first episode - and laughed out loud, very loud, several times. But I was wondering why I still didn't love the show...

Not Going Out series 4 episode 4 review

A slight change of cast, as marriage guidance counselling takes a sinister turn in the latest Not Going Out...

Not Going Out series 4 episode 3 review

What I really enjoy about Not Going Out is that, no matter what the backing scenario for a particular episode is, it can generate 10-12 really solid laughs per instalment.

Not Going Out series 4 episode 2 review

You can say what you like about Not Going Out, and I'm a fully signed up fan of the show, but its hit rate and laugh count consistently impress. And it did once more, again, in last night's episode.

Beware of pretty blondes carrying cups. That's as much as we can tell you without giving away too much. Not Going Out's metrical banter is, as ever, irritatingly vintage, but there's an unusually high good-joke count tonight, and an amusing flashback to a 1980s house party. "You look like a cross between a white Michael Jackson and Gloria Hunniford," says Lee when he meets bewigged host Tim for the very first time. In another key scene, Lee beats up a mini-golf windmill. Repeated exposure to Not Going Out does soften you up, but it's risk-averse and formulaic.

Lee Mack: I'm bothered by the existence of Twitter

Lee Mack talks about Not Going Out and why he's bothered about the existence of Twitter.

Not Going Out series 4 episode 1 review

Lee Mack and Tim Vine return in the first episode of Not Going Out since its reprieve from the axe. And the show is on very, very good form...

"Fast-moving" is somehow still too slow a phrase to describe Not Going Out, a sitcom that doesn't physically move much further than a similar flat-based show like Johnny Vegas's Ideal, but does so at three or four times the rate. Lee Mack writes and stars as displaced Lee in the flatshare comedy, where tonight things take a potentially sinister turn when Tim returns from a work do with a pocketful of a suspicious powder. Not a lot of soul, but plenty of what US comedy writers call "yucks", so it's worth checking out if you haven't yet.