Lee Mack

Radio Times review

Lee Mack is a past master at the panel show game, but his new show is a very different beast from Would I Lie to You? It's a much looser, far less competitive affair in which guests propose some unbelievable facts - eg touching anyone's upper arm will help you get what you want from them - which are then put to the test.

Today's guests are Dara O'Briain, Ruth Jones and Melanie C, whose suggestions afford Mack the opportunity to show off his quicksilver wit - as well as the obligatory gag about the Spice Girls, he also deduces that the inside of Jones's mind is like a Disney film.

The best bits are those impromptu moments: Mack riffing about the baldness of a stagehand and an unexpected camera shot a lesser man would have left on the cutting-room floor.

Radio Times review

Sometimes this show works a sort of reverse magic and normally witty guests come across as whingeing sticks-in-the-mud. There's something about having to explain why you hate some aspect of modern life that makes everyone into a variant of Victor Meldrew if you're not careful. Tonight even the reliably droll Lee Mack teeters on the edge of curmudgeonliness as he rails against cars and kids parties, but of course he recovers his wits.

Meanwhile, Ruby Wax's mother sounds maddening, but can you really consign you own mum to Room 101? The audience sound doubtful. Most diverting part of the show: the tale of Dave Myers' alopecia. No wonder he hates wigs.

Review: Duck Quacks Don't Echo, Sky 1

Lee Mack's new panel show about improbable facts needs more substance to support the jokes.

Lee Mack reveals the shows he's said no to

"There was one show I was asked to do where you had to jump off a diving board and into a swimming pool..."

Lee Mack Q&A

'I feel like I'm only two days away from collecting trolleys in a carpark'.

Lee Mack interview

They say don't take your work home with you, but for Lee Mack, laughter's just as vital at home as it is in his day job.

Best of 2014: Comedy preview

Previews of Miles Jupp, John Robins, Miranda Hart, Russell Kane, Michael Che and Lee Mack.

Not Going Out provided the requisite amount of laughter to justify its place on the Christmas schedules. In fact I would go as far as to say that Lee Mack's comedy is currently the best mainstream sitcom airing on any terrestrial channel.

By now I think you know exactly what to expect from Not Going Out and if you don't like the kind of wisecracking humour employed by Mack and company then it's probably best to skip the show. While I concede that its loss some of its charm since the departure of Tim Vine, Not Going Out still delivers laughs on a consistent basis. Unlike some other sitcoms that are joke-heavy, Not Going Out features three likeable lead performers all of whom are great at delivering their lines at a suitable pace.

I personally felt that Not Going Out was perfectly placed on the schedules, late on Christmas Eve, so people could enjoy it while tucking into the first drinks of the festive season. Ultimately I laughed all of the way through Not Going Out and sometimes that's all you need from a Christmas Comedy Special.

Lee, Lucy and Daisy spend Christmas in a ramshackle, remote country house once owned by Lee's now-dead aunt. But it's a creepy place - a chair rocks by itself, there's strange music, a locked cellar door and a legend involving an unhappy boy.

Anyone who enjoys Not Going Out's quickfire, you-can-see-them-coming gags and its soft-centred smut will be in heaven. It's hard to resist such a straightforward, coarsely old-fashioned sitcom and Lee Mack's immaculate comic timing, despite or possibly even because of the scatalogical gags. Though everything is assiduously telegraphed, just give yourself up to a bit of ribald fun, one that stars the fabulous Geoffrey Whitehead as Lucy's magnificently austere dad.

The Christmas Special was possibly my favourite episode of the series, most notably as it featured the legendary Baroness Trumpington who famously appeared opposite Whitehall on an episode of Have I Got News For You.

She appeared here alongside Lee Mack, Christine Bleakley and Nigel Havers who I was incredibly surprised to learn was Jack's godfather. In fact a large portion of this episode was devoted to the fact that Jack believes that Nigel could well be his real father. This led Michael to recount, in quite graphic detail, Jack's conception and in one scene proved why he has been the star of this entire series.

Obviously the Christmas setting allowed Jack to get some of his worst Christmas memories off his chest and confront his father, who really wasn't that bothered. The only low point of this festive special was the weekly bonding segment, which is the sole part of the show which always feels forced. Here, father and son went to a hugging workshop that Michael inevitably bad-mouthed before later hugging Havers when he came onto stage. Thankfully, the appearance of Kris Akabusi as Santa, or Santabusi, more than made up for the slower parts of the episode and by the time Jack's mum came round with the drinks I had a massive smile on my face.

I personally feel that Backchat has only got stronger throughout its first series and this Christmas special proves that this probably won't be the last time we'll here from the Whitehall clan.