Not Going Out: Stay In and Have a Laugh

Lee Mack first came to my attention as one of the team captains on Would I Lie To You? On that show he is always ready with one-liners and self-deprecating jokes about being from the North. Therefore, it is no surprise that his long-running BBC sitcom, Not Going Out, is a rapid-fire assault of jokes and farcical situations that provide a hysterical half hour of comedy.

In the show, Lee is a Northern layabout who shares a flat with Kate (Megan Dodds), an American girl who is the ex-girlfriend of his best friend Tim (Tim Vine). Megan Dodds left the show after one season and was replaced by Sally Bretton, who plays Tim's sister, Lucy. Lucy buys the flat and becomes Lee's landlady, so she has to continually hector Lee to get a job so that he can cough up some rent money. Of course, Lee and Lucy have a great deal of will-they-or-won't-they chemistry, which frustratingly has yet to be resolved. Lucy has had a string of boyfriends, while Lee has gone on a series of horrendous dates in true sitcom fashion. The lovely Miranda Hart also starred in the second and third season as Barbara, the world's worst cleaning lady, who mainly serves to egg on Lee's pursuit of Lucy and mock him mercilessly when his plans fall through. Katy Wix plays Daisy, Tim's incredibly dense girlfriend, who always gets on Lee's nerves and has a penchant for making a bad situation even worse.

Shot in front of a live studio audience, Not Going Out is a very traditional sitcom that often follows many predictable sitcom tropes. What makes it wonderful to watch, however, is the density of jokes crammed into every episode, and the barrage of comedic banter that ensues as the characters deal with inane complications that only exist in the realm of TV comedy. The cast are all wonderful, particularly Lee Mack who both mocks and is mocked fearlessly in each episode. His relationship with the much more middle-class Tim and Lucy is a source of constant amusement, and many episodes make you burst out laughing as they escalate into utter pandemonium.

Not Going Out just finished its sixth season and is still going strong. You can watch for the laughs, stay for the simmering Lucy-Lee chemistry, and just enjoy the comfort of a cozy British comedy. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it certainly is consistently funny, and that's more than you can say for most sitcoms.