Staying In

Series one of Not Going Out was a delightful surprise. A Friday night, BBC1 comedy in the slot that had brought us the funny-for-five-episodes My Family and much other forgettable fayre, suddenly threw up a little gem. It didn’t baulk away from its comedy as so many other, more knowing, 21st century sitcoms tend to do and neither did it rely on extreme characterisation that encourages the audience to “laugh at” instead of “laugh with”. No, here was a comedy that was just

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Tags: Andrew-Collins, BBC1, Comedy, Lee-Mack, Not-Going-Out, Tim-Vine

Surprising Success

British sitcoms that are both high quality and highly popular have been a rare breed in the last few years, so it was with some trepidation that I approached Not Going Out, the latest in a series of BBC1, Friday night comedies in the tradition of My Hero (awful since the first episode) and My Family (started well, but never the same after Kris Marshall left).� Penned by famous talking head from many a “list show”, Andrew Collins and sketch show regular, Lee Mack, they have created what is

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Tags: Andrew-Collins, BBC1, Comedy, Lee-Mack, My-Family, My-Hero, Not-Going-Out, Tim-Vine