Original title
Not Going Out
Released
10/6/2006
Origin country
GB
Genre
Comedy
Production companies
Avalon Television
Status
Returning series
Number of seasons
14
Number of episodes
99
Lee is a childish northerner who lives in a fancy penthouse apartment in London who goes through a variety of jobs such as a janitor and ice cream man, as well as attempting relationships with female flatmates. His best mate, Daily Mail reading, middle-class citizen Tim is always there to stop Lee from getting in trouble, or not? Mayhem is never far away with cleaner Barbara who has never done an honest day's work in her life.
Outtakes from Series 1, 2, 3 & 4.
In an effort to create the perfect Christmas for Lucy, Lee invites her parents to join the two of them and Daisy in a snug old house in the country which used to belong to his dear dead aunt.
An unexpected stranger turns Lee and Lucy's Christmas upside down.
It's Christmas Eve, and Lee and Lucy face a possible yuletide disaster when they discover the perfect present they have bought for their children has already been gifted to them by their grandparents.
Dragooned into organising a Christmas variety show to raise money for their children's school, Lee and Lucy find quality acts thin on the ground.
Lee and Lucy take the children out trick or treating for Halloween, but the night soon turns disastrous for Lee when he loses his phone on the porch of a spooky Victorian house. Once he returns to the house to retrieve his phone, Lee discovers that the house is full of secrets that would be far better left undisturbed.
We all know Christmas simply wouldn't be Christmas without a giant inflatable Santa, an aggressive bull in a field and a terrifying truck driver.
With 40 minutes to go until midnight, a New Year’s Eve party at Lee and Lucy’s house turns sour when family members start making their resolutions.
A family Christmas party turns sour when Lucy announces that she has got tickets to see Jason Donovan in panto. Lee loathes panto, especially given Jason Donovan was Lucy’s teenage crush. That night, while Lee and Lucy turn their backs on each other in bed, Lee has an unsettling dream in which he is dressed as Buttons and his whole life has turned into a pantomime. Lucy is Cinderella, Toby and Anna are the Ugly Sisters, Geoffrey is Baron Hardup, and Wendy is the Fairy Godmother - and Prince Charming, the handsome suitor who pursues Cinderella and asks for her hand in marriage, is played by Jason Donovan. Can Buttons keep the fairy-tale couple apart?
Lee throws everything at creating the perfect family Christmas, agreeing to Lucy's wishes to do something charitable and having "a normal Christmas where nothing goes wrong." This moment of festive spirit sees the couple invite Wilfred, a lonely pensioner from the nearby care home, to join them for Christmas dinner. The only instruction is that Wilfred is not, under any circumstances, allowed to drink alcohol...
Behind the scenes featurette for Series 3.
Extra on Series One DVD.
Kate tries clown classes after unsuccessfully getting Lee to go to them. You couldn't really call her own attempts a success. To repay Kate Lee goes on a date with Lucy Moss, an author whose book, about her turbulent life, was published by Kate's company. It's a less than happy event, as Lee proves less than great at being serious. With Lee out of the way Tim tries to make things up with Kate.
Tim's 94-year-old grandmother dies. Kate accuses Lee of not being in touch with his emotions when he fails to tell her. As penance he sees an expensive psychotherapist, who gets a bit too close to the truth. Tim, flirts with Kate, less than successfully, while she comforts him at his grandmother's funeral.
Ruth, an Australian friend of Kate's, comes to stay and Lee is persuaded to pretend to be Tim. Lee gets a job handing out leaflets at a shopping centre, but soon falls foul of a local youth.
Lee starts teaching Kate to drive. His (or her) lack of success seems to stress him out and Kate notices. She persuades him to try some yoga and given his track record he doesn't take it seriously. He is banished to have acupuncture while Tim tries his hand at teaching Kate how to drive. He does surprisingly well until Lee admits that he's taking tranquillizers during an increasingly speed fuelled drive in the countryside. Big question...will she pass?
Kate and Lee are forced to take in a lodger, a surly 14-year-old boy called Nicky. Lee's attempts to bond with the teenager prove less than successful, while Tim and Nicky discover they have quite a lot in common. Meanwhile, Kate tries to persuade a carnivorous Great Dane to become a vegetarian with unfortunate results.
Lee finally manages to get a job, as a caretaker. But taking up the new post involves moving out of the flat. Kate interviews potential new flatmates including Pete, and Tim sees an opportunity to get back together with Kate. Lee's new boss proves to be a hard taskmaster. So, will Lee stick at the job or throw in the towel and move back in with Kate?
Tim decides to sell the flat, so Lee sets to work putting off prospective buyers.
Lucy persuades Lee to pretend to be gay after she lies to a business acquaintance Guy, who she was told is gay himself, by telling him she lives with a gay flatmate to prove she is not homophobic. However, Guy soon starts to get suspicious and tests Lee's sexuality by taking him to a gay bar. Later, Guy overhears Lee saying to Tim, who had started to think Lee was gay, that he is not gay. When Lucy then explains to Guy what happened, he reveals he is not gay and he and Lucy kiss.
Lucy and Guy are going out with each other, and Guy has practically moved in. This annoys Lee who thinks Guy is too old for her. Lee soon discovers that Guy owns a lap dancing club. While at the club, Lee and Tim see Rose (Thaila Zucchi), a librarian that Tim has been seeing, and discover she is a lapdancer. Tim later dumps her, but then changes his mind. However, Rose refuses to get back together. Meanwhile, Lucy dumps Guy but they soon get back together but agree to take their relationship more slowly.
When Guy's daughter Chloe gets appendicitis, Lee and Tim are left looking after her son Dillon while Guy and Lucy visit her. While in their care, Dillon swallows a subbuteo football and Lee and Tim have problems locating it, and try to think of ways to get it out of his body. However, it later turns out Dillon did not swallow it after all. Lucy is worried about the age gap between her and Guy.
In an effort to appear as intellectual as Lucy's friends, Lee shows off his 'knowledge' of the art world - holding forth on the subject of an unknown artist, who his cleaner Barbara has told him is the next big thing. When Lucy takes the advice and invests a fortune in the artist's work, Lee is left trying to prevent her from finding out the artist is actually a nobody.
As Lucy and Guy's relationship intensifies, Lee starts to ponder his lack of a girlfriend and, encouraged by Barbara, tries speed dating. Tim is forced to go on a disastrous date with Barbara in order to prove that he sees her as more than 'the help'.
Guy showers Lucy with expensive gifts and whisks her away for a weekend.
Lee's plan to spend time alone with Lucy at Christmas is threatened.
Lee is shocked when Lucy announces that she is pregnant and he wonders if he could accidentally be the baby's father.
Lee wins a £1000 after winning an essay writing competition. A journalist shows up to interview Lee but expects him to be disabled after reading his story.
Lee and Tim ask a lesbian couple who have moved into the building over for dinner. They are shocked when Lucy discovers a side of herself that she never knew existed.
Lee and Tim decide to try and throw Lucy a 30th birthday party but they both have different ideas. Lee is not happy when Lucy shows up at the party with a man and decides to try and get rid of him.
Lucy isn't happy with the noise a new neighbour is making. She asks both Lee and Tim to talk to him but both are scared too. Tim decides to take up boxing so that he will have more courage. Lee ends up going to confront the man.
Lucy is stressed. She has an important speech to make at a Recruitment Conference and nobody to help her write it. Lee sees an opportunity to impress her and offers his services but at the expense of Tim, who also thinks he's the best man for the job. What starts off as a small job now turns into a competition between Tim and Lee to not only see who can come up with the wittiest lines but also to establish which of them Lucy likes best.
Lee is shocked when he finds out that Lucy is thinking about getting married to Pavlov so that he will be able to remain in the country. As Lee attempts to get her to change her mind her family and other friends think that Pavlov is perfect for her.
Lee's father turns up at the flat unannounced. This is the man who walked out of the family home when Lee was four, never paid his maintenance and ate Lee's goldfish. Lee wants him out of the flat but Lucy tells him that the only way forward is to forgive and forget. Unfortunately, Lee's dad's behaviour makes this virtually impossible for Lee to achieve.
After a night spent out clubbing, Tim returns to the flat wearing the wrong coat, and convinces Lee to help him return it to its owner.
Lee's past catches up with him when a young woman appears on his doorstep and asks for a cup of sugar.
Lee promises to stop treating Lucy's flat as if he owns it - but not before he has hired it out to a film director.
Lucy and Tim are distraught. Their parents' 30 year marriage is at an end and their father has moved out of the family home - and into Lee's bedroom.
When an old lady wanders into Lucy's flat and makes herself at home on the sofa, Lee doesn't know what to do with her.
Lee dreams of a perfect life with Lucy, but can the reality ever match up?
When Tim joins a band at work and Lucy falls for the lead guitarist, Lee becomes jealous, and decides that if he can't beat them he should join them.
Lee's lazy weekend is wrecked when his scrounging father turns up unexpectedly. Having just come out of hospital he needs somewhere to stay for the weekend. Will Lee take on the demanding role of carer?
In a desperate bid to prove his manliness, Lee joins Tim, Daisy and Lucy on a camping weekend in the middle of a dark spooky forest.
To impress Lucy, Lee starts training for a 10 kilometre Fun Run only to injure himself immediately. In an effort to hide the injury from Lucy, he gets himself a secret sports massage, but this just leads to more trouble.
Lucy finds herself working on a Government initiative encouraging men to regularly check themselves for lumps. Eager to please Lucy, Lee follows the campaign's advice and discovers something he wasn't expecting.
After Lucy suffers a mild indiscretion whilst drunk and claims to have no memory of the event, she and Lee embark on an experiment with a bottle of home-made potato hooch to prove once and for all that you can remember what happens when you're mashed.
Lucy accidentally runs over a pet rabbit belonging to the daughter of an important client.
On a holiday to Eastern Europe, Lee, Daisy and Lucy become stuck on a cable car.
Lee takes advantage of Lucy's new-found skills as a relationship counsellor to patch things up with his father.
Lee does what he has to do to stop Lucy from flirting with the male delegates at a three-day annual trade conference in order to get herself work.
Lee decides that the best way to get Lucy to notice him is to make her jealous. Now all he has to do is find himself a girlfriend.
Lee is forced to fight for Lucy's attention when her first love reappears on the scene.
When Lucy's god-daughter is suddenly dumped on her the night before the girl's birthday party, Lucy and Lee have to come up with an appropriate entertainment for fourteen nine-year-olds.
Lee spends a long weekend on his a boat with Lucy, even though she is terrified of water.
Lee invites Lucy and her parents and Daisy for Christmas at his late aunt Maureen's country house, which appears haunted though Lee tidies it up, burning a rocking-chair. This seemingly housed the ghost of a young boy and in the night ghostly music is heard - though it turns out to be provided by Lee's father Frank. Between them they discover the identity of the 'ghost', a childhood friend of Lee called Ralph - or so they think until Frank provides the answer to their questions.
When Lucy has her handbag stolen from right under Lee's nose, he feels the need to prove his manliness over and over and over again.
Lee's big mouth has got him and Lucy invited to a christening party thrown by new neighbours Toby and Anna, and now they have no time to find the perfect present for the baby who has everything.
When Lucy decides it is time to have a baby, she is surprised to find the whole family taking a personal interest in the conception.
Lucy aspires to be friends with her posh new neighbours Toby and Anna, but she hasn't reckoned on Lee dragging her back down to earth.
In an attempt to impress Lucy with his intellectual prowess, Lee joins Daisy as a contestant on the TV quiz show Pointless.
Frank's drinking becomes a problem and forces Lee and Lucy to reassess the living arrangements in the flat.
No matter what happens, Lucy's surprise party for her parents' anniversary must remain a secret or it won't be a surprise. So why she tells Lee about it is anyone's guess.
Flying off on a summer holiday, Lucy and Daisy endure the worst flight of their lives when Lee gets a bad case of the jitters on the plane.
Lee spends time in the bar with Toby worrying that the woman of his dreams is drifting further away.
The will-they-won't-they tension reaches new highs in this epic series finale for Christmas that sees Lucy and Lee in previously uncharted emotional waters.
Lee Mack, Sally Bretton and Katy Wix introduce a compilation of out-takes from across the various series.
After eight years of marriage, Lee and Lucy disagree over how to keep the romance alive.
Lucy causes offence by choosing the wrong babysitter.
Lee's hopes for a stress-free ferry trip to France with Lucy and the children are dashed when they don't leave enough time for the car journey.
Lee and Lucy play hot tub fantasy date with Anna and Toby, causing them to end up in hot water.
Lee is worried that Charlie is getting a reputation at school for being the class clown.
If Lee and Lucy's marriage wasn't in trouble before they go to marriage counselling, it is by the time they leave.
Are Lee and Lucy ready for another child?
Lucy's father reluctantly allows Lee to help Lucy clear up the builder's mess in their new kitchen extension.
As a surprise for Lee's birthday, Lucy invites the whole family to join them in an escape room.
A missing toy keyring causes a rift between Lee and Lucy and best friends, Toby and Anna.
To teach the children to be more responsible Lee and Lucy get a family pet.
Lee and Lucy open up a can of worms when they cancel dinner with Toby and Anna at the last moment.
Lee and Lucy object to the school lollipop man handing out lollipops to the kids.
Encouraged by Anna, Lucy considers whether a breast augmentation is for her.
A sponsored parachute jump raises not just money for Toby's hospital but questions about Lee's courage as well.
Can Lee and Lucy’s friendship with Toby and Anna survive a long weekend in a damp cottage in the New Forest?
Lee is outraged that the twins have started sex education at school and resolves to teach them everything he knows about the facts of life before Miss Anstis corrupts them.
When Charlie’s school gets a bad Ofsted rating, Lee and Lucy start looking around for alternative schools. Despite Frank's protests, Geoffrey and Wendy offer to pay to send Charlie to a private school, which presents Lee and Lucy with a moral dilemma.
Lee decides to gatecrash Lucy's favourite television show and watch it with her. Lucy is not best pleased, especially when Lee can't remember the name of the leading actor.
Unable to convince Lucy that he didn’t smash her precious antique vase - an heirloom that belonged to her grandmother - Lee summons the family to a meeting to flush out the culprit.
Lucy takes the kids away to her parents while Lee stays in the house to oversee the building work in their kitchen. Unfortunately, the builder Lee has employed to do the job has an annoyingly relaxed attitude to deadlines.
Social niceties are stretched to snapping point when Lee and Lucy take in a package for their neighbour and inadvertently discover that it contains an embarrassing object that Lee now has to return. That proves to be easier said than done.
To celebrate their anniversary, Lee and Lucy plan a friendly night of quizzing with Toby and Anna in their local pub, but the evening is derailed when neither couple can bear to lose to their partners and the foursome splits into rival teams.
When Lee's feckless dad, Frank, announces his engagement, Lee cannot believe that any woman would want to marry him and sets out to find out exactly what is wrong with her.
When Lee joins Facebook for the first time and makes contact with an ex-girlfriend from twenty years ago, Lucy is less than pleased.
A family visit to the World War Two war graves in Normandy unearths a piece of family history that is best left buried.
It’s been over a year since Frank’s passing and the always lovely Wendy, rediscovering a long lost love for painting, decides to create a very unique tribute in oils. How can Lee and Lucy break the news that they don’t necessarily like the likeness?
When Lee accidentally sends a rude text about Anna to Lucy, he makes the stupid mistake of sending it to Anna herself. Lee and Lucy now face the impossible task of stealing Anna's phone and deleting the text before she reads it.
When Lee promises Lucy that he will make more of an effort to be friendly with other parents in the playground, he makes the mistake of starting with Keith.
Recovering from knee surgery, Lee sits by the window day after day, spying on his neighbours through a pair of binoculars.
Lee does jury service and joins eleven other jurors to debate whether the accused is guilty or not. A simple enough task - until Lee decides to put the other jurors on trial.
Lee organises a family camping trip into the back of beyond, where they soon discover that no one can hear them scream.
When Lee and Lucy are asked to cover for Anna on more than one occasion, so that she can go out at night and have secret Italian lessons, they suspect the worst – that she is having an affair. Lee decides that it is up to him to tell Toby that his marriage is in jeopardy and sets about finding the evidence.
Lee's lifestyle catches up on him and he is forced to wait on a hospital ward for routine surgery on his gallbladder until his blood pressure comes down. But visits from the parents-in-law and Anna and Toby, who arrive to ask him a question he doesn't want to hear, ensure that his stress levels remain dangerously high.
To take advantage of three free tickets to Adventure Canyon Theme Park, Lee takes Mollie out of school for a day and gets into trouble with the new head teacher, Miss Anstis. Now all he has to do is think of an excuse to justify Mollie's absence. What could be simpler than a trip to the dentist?
Lee wakes up inside a coffin and can't remember how he got there, until a phone call from Lucy reminds him what he’d been doing that afternoon. Now all he needs to do is keep Lucy in the dark as to his exact location and work out how to escape.
It’s Lucy's birthday. To celebrate, Geoffrey and Wendy take Lee, Lucy, Toby and Anna for a trip on a vintage steam train. But Lee's decision to play Poirot when a stranger turns up unannounced in their carriage risks Lucy’s special day being ruined.
Lucy has cooked a special meal so that she and Lee can spend an evening in without distractions to talk about the state of their marriage. But Lee is obsessed with a beeping noise in the house that he can’t find, and the food is soon forgotten.
When Lee goes to watch Benji playing football for a local under-13 team, he is unable to restrain himself on the touchline and becomes the competitive dad that all other parents want to avoid. Undaunted by the disapproval of Toby, who coaches the team, Lee sets about rigging the vote for the player of the year.
Lee and Lucy find their lives as frenetic and complicated as ever.
Lee and Lucy are moving house and viewing a property that Lucy loves when, embarrassingly, Lee needs the loo. Before he can use it however, a second buyer turns up to take a look at the property. To dissuade him from putting in an offer. Lee pretends to be the vendor.
Lee brings a battered box back from the tip and gets a shock when he opens it in front of Lucy.
Lee has borrowed an old campervan to take Lucy away for the weekend. She is not impressed and wishes she was back at home when a strange woman knocks at their door...
Some might say that Lee and Lucy were foolish to try to buy tickets to see Oasis in concert, because when they lose their place in the queue, they start to blame each other.
Lee and Lucy look to a career in the movies when they play background elves on the set of a popular mini-TV series, Dragon Castle. Their aspirations to become leading actors, however, are thwarted by their lack of talent.
When Lee uses his collection of free discount vouchers to stay overnight in a mid-range hotel, he makes sure that he takes advantage of all the hotel’s complimentary services.
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