Now we are five! ​​​​​​​

Lee Mack on how his slacker alter ego tries to cope with being dad to three kids as the hit comedy returns.

- Sean Marland

When we last saw Lee Mack starring in Not Going Out it was Christmas 2015 and his on-screen wife Lucy was giving birth to the couple’s first child while they were being held hostage by an armed robber at a department store.

While the hit sitcom has only been away for little over a year, there have been some very big changes in the Not Going Out household for his lazy character Lee.

‘Lee and Lucy now have three kids – twins Benji and Molly and their eldest, Charlie – and live in the suburbs,’ says the stand-up comedian, who has written and starred in the show since it began in 2006.

‘I wanted to write a show about my real life, because I’m married with three children. We could have moved it on slowly over a few years, but I didn’t know if we were going to be on TV long enough to do that, so we decided to hit the ground running.’

The comedy has come a long way since arriving on our screens as a show about a group of thirty-somethings living in a London flat-share, but fans will be pleased to hear the laughs still come thick and fast. For Lee, mixing things up was essential if the show was to remain fresh into its eighth series and beyond.