20 Years Of Not Going Out (BBC1)
Rating: Five stars
Not Going Out (BBC1)
Rating: Four stars
Tim Vine looked a little traumatised.
After five series of Not Going Out, a sitcom all about people who weren’t in relationships with each other, his break-up with Lee Mack obviously hadn’t been as amicable as you’d hope.
‘Just, I fancied a change, really,’ former co-star Tim said with a nervous smile, on the retrospective 20 Years Of Not Going Out.
‘And it’s not really a great reason, perhaps, but, uh, yeah. We’ve made up about that now. Me and Lee. I mean, it came as a little bit of a shock to the system when I first said it to him…’
Cut to Lee, talking through gritted teeth: ‘When you leave, don’t make a big thing of it.’
He was explaining how the show absorbs the departure of a long-established character — a throwaway one-liner, and they’re gone. But Tim quit 14 years ago and it still appears to rankle.
Not Going Out is, without question, the most intensely stage-managed comedy on British TV since Stanley Baxter’s Christmas sketch show spectaculars
Ditto the star’s feelings about Catherine Tate, who never got beyond the pilot episode, and Miranda Hart, who managed three years.
Both of them left to headline in their own, hugely successful comedy series. Lee conceded this was a reason to give notice, but he didn’t sound delighted for them.
He’s a perfectionist, something you couldn’t guess from the version of himself he has played since the show’s beginnings as a sketch at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999 (the first BBC episode was screened in 2006).
Not only does he write, star and direct, but in the early days he was so hands-on that he even insisted on overseeing the overdubs. Maybe the show would be better titled Not Letting Go.
It is, without question, the most intensely stage-managed comedy on British TV since Stanley Baxter’s Christmas sketch show spectaculars, which were an entire year in the making.
Mack seems never to repeat himself. He’s taken a set-up where nothing ever happens, and invented infinite variations around it.
As the show returned, he and wife Lucy (Sally Bretton) were hosting a house party for her 20-year-old goddaughter and a bunch of Gen Z friends —hence the double meaning of the episode title, ‘Twentieth’.
All the Boomer vs Snowflakes cliches were lampooned, as the birthday girl suffered panic attacks whenever a balloon popped and Lee was seized by his own fits of anxiety at the thought of his alphabetised album collection getting muddled up.
Mack seems never to repeat himself. He’s taken a set-up where nothing ever happens, and invented infinite variations around it
Satire is a slight departure for him, and occasionally felt a little heavy-handed, as Lee was forced into a craven but insincere apology to avoid being cancelled by the partygoers.
To see him in full control-freak mode, though, was a joy.
Sitting down to be interviewed, he mocked the camera crew for filming him before the questions started: ‘That’s the new style of interview. How far back do we go? Why don’t we see me in the loo?’
And another sketch started to take shape in his head.
Fraternal bond of the night: Whether Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are really half-brothers, or if that’s just an in-joke, is a moot point. The duo prove they’re a sublime double act in the comedy Brother (Apple TV). ‘Based on a true rumour,’ they claim.
