Mack back in business
When Lee and Lucy finally got together at the end of series seven in 2014 I assumed that would be the end of Not Going Out.
So I’m surprised it is now into its ninth series. I’m even more surprised the writers turned it into a suburban family sitcom without ruining it.
If last night’s opener was anything to go by it also has the legs to run and run. The central relationship remains Lee (Lee Mack) and Lucy (Sally Bretton) but there are others battling to steal the comedy limelight.
Lee’s run-ins with his dad (Bobby Ball) and father-in-law (Geoffrey Whitehead) follow classic sitcom patterns but none of it feels dated.
The kids are also a valuable resource – two turned up last night simply to belittle their dad with a song about his many shortcomings.
That probably didn’t go down too well with the Peppa Pig activists that are fed up of Peppa’s befuddled old chunker of a dad being the butt of the joke. It made me smile, though.
Well, sometimes it’s better to have a laugh at how life actually is rather than worrying about offending the people that tell you how it should be.