Press clippings

Not Going Out, 100th episode review

A hundred episodes is quite some achievement for any UK sitcom. But it also means Lee Mack's remarkably long-lived Not Going Out has come to feel like part of the furniture rather than appointment-to-view TV.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 24th December 2023

Review: Not Going Out

Well I guess if one sitcom title sums up 2020 it's this one. And they've given us a sort of socially distanced lockdown episode to see out the old year and see in the new (albeit a day early) with the entire cast including Bobby Ball all in one room throughout the special.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 30th December 2020

Not Going Out Christmas special review

Old-school festive chuckles, with the late Bobby Ball as cheeky as ever.

Catherine Pearson, Radio Times, 30th December 2020

Not Going Out: series 10 review

It's in a different phase of its life but it's still much the same.

Jacob Gibbs, On The Box, 15th April 2019

Still Open All Hours Series 5 confirmed

Still Open All Hours will return to BBC One for a fifth series later in 2018. The recommission means that the sequel has now accumulated more episodes, and more series, than the original hit show.

British Comedy Guide, 2nd May 2018

Not Going Out: Out and out winner where jokes stay in

Confirmation, if it were needed, that laugh-out-loud BBC comedy Not Going Out (BBC One, Thursday) is now fully at home in suburbia, and thriving with it.

David Stephenson, The Daily Express, 11th March 2018

Guest stars revealed as filming starts on Upstart Crow Series 2

Filming is under way on the second series of Upstart Crow, with Emma Thompson, Geoffrey Whitehead and Noel Fielding amongst the guest stars.

British Comedy Guide, 27th January 2017

Not Going Out series 8 preview

Not Going Out isn't the sort of emotive, appointment-to-view comedy that so many artistically motivated comics are making. But the rarity of being a light sitcom that's dependably funny thanks to script and character - not the dated, grating extravagance of the likes of Citizen Khan or Mrs Brown's Boys - is quite the achievement. No wonder it's future is assured. The day Not Going Out is not going out on TV is a long way off.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 13th January 2017

Preview - Not Going Out

I've always enjoyed Not Going Out - probably because I like Lee Mack, so the return of the series was met with trumpets and fanfare at Chez Hargreaves. But that was before I realised that the new series includes kids.

Gareth Hargreaves, On The Box, 13th January 2017

Radio Times review

Slacker Lee, in pyjama bottoms, slumped in front of the telly, eating cereal straight from the box, is at the eye of a big festive occasion. But his pint-sized Death Star, his dad Frank (the peerless Bobby Ball) looms large. Or, rather, small.

Inevitably, this means the pair of them get drunk, and their night on the tiles is encapsulated in a brilliant montage of increasing degradation. It's a classic Not Going Out sequence in an episode that's surprisingly poignant. Maybe it's something to do with the time of year.

There are loads of great gags from Lee Mack, the human joke-rocket-launcher, while the stately Geoffrey Whitehead, as Lucy's fridge-freezer father, steals every scene. And watch out for some special guests...

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 24th December 2014

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