Lee Mack is a brilliant stand up comedian. He manages to be mucky and charming all at once. And his BBC sitcom, Not Going Out, does much the same. Now on its fourth series and still doing well Not Going Out is as American as a British sitcom will ever get. But despite that, dynamically sound and very, very funny.
I missed the first series entirely when it was shown way back when. I only caught one or two episodes of the second and third series. What I saw, I loved. It's laugh out loud comedy featuring some of the best performances to be seen on tv. So when the fourth series began a week or so ago I decided to not miss a single episode.
And you'd be surprised how many people love this show yet never seem to talk about it. I'm a comedy nerd and it took me three whole series to "find" it, as it were. Now it seems that the more I mention it the more and more people come forward to praise it. The whole back catalogue is on Youtube, you just need to dig around for it. I urge you to catch up on the last three series if you didn't catch them first time around.
But don't just take my word for it; believe the hype. The... quiet hype. Well, mention the show to some mates or something, then wait for them to tell you how late to the party you really are. We are both in this together, so don't worry.
