ON SET WITH...

on the panel Lee, 48, a team captain is back for an show Would I Lie To You?,

Not Going eighth series of his sitcom a typical Out. Here he talks us through is rehearsed week on the show, which filmed at for four days before being on a Friday… London’s Elstree Studios

13 MONDAY

Not Going Out has followed the fortunes of layabout Lee, a fictitious version of myself, for seven series. In the last one Lee and his girlfriend Lucy had married and were about to have a child. I have three children and I wanted this new series to be more like my real life, so we’ve fast-forwarded. Lee and Lucy’s son Charlie is now seven and he has five-year-old twin siblings Benji and Molly. Now that my co-star Hugh Dennis’s children in Outnumbered are so big, I hope we can steal their cute factor!

14 TUESDAY

We sometimes rehearse in a former sea cadet hut in Twickenham. It’s not glamorous and Sally Bretton, who plays Lucy, often says how cold she is, but it’s only two minutes from my house. We performed each episode of the new series at a theatre a few months ago, so today we watch those videos back. The scripts have already been edited and during rehearsals we chuck out lines that don’t work and try out new ones. Then we film the actual episode in front of a studio audience at Elstree.

15 WEDNESDAY

We’re at Elstree rehearsing today and my friend Rob Brydon is here, as is Emma Bunton [right, with Lee], who’s appearing as herself in a future episode. They both told me they liked the show so I found parts for them. I’m very happy with our regular cast too, so I’m very lucky.

16 THURSDAY

I’ve got two co-writers on the show and our main rules are that all our stories have to be based on some sort of reality; whatever happens in the show has to have happened to us or someone we know. In this week’s episode quite a few people will recognise the particular hell of being stuck in a car as you’re trying to get on to a cross-Channel ferry to France. It’s a nightmare, but great material for a sitcom. My real wife, Tara, hasn’t seen the scripts and that worries me a bit as I think she’ll recognise quite a lot. I’m genuinely concerned about what she’s going to say.

17 FRIDAY

At Elstree again, and we have one rehearsal this morning before appearing in front of the audience. Everything’s been finely tuned and there’s no ad-libbing. We’ve recently been commissioned for two more series, which is something else. When I first started the show I didn’t think we’d get more than two series. I was in my 30s then and I’ll be in my 50s by the time the next two series have been made, but I’ll carry on as long as I keep being asked. Some people do 12 episodes and call their show a classic, but I’m happy to drag this out until people are sick of it.

The first two episodes of the new series of Not Going Out are available on BBC iPlayer and the series continues soon on BBC1.