Lee Mack’s celebrated studio sitcom, Not Going Out, will return for a new season on the BBC in June. The UK’s longest running UK sitcom currently on air, and newest member to the elite group of sitcom centenarians (when the 100th episode aired during the BBC’s 2023 Christmas schedule), will see the story of wise-cracking Lee and long-suffering wife Lucy enter a new chapter.

First airing in 2006, the show introduced us to Lee, a juvenile and lazy slacker drifting from one job to another – a man unburdened by ambition or drive, living off the good graces of his Californian landlady. That was before Lee’s best friend’s sister Lucy (Sally Bretton) bought the flat he lived in, setting in motion a will-they-won’t-they chain of events that led to the unlikely couple marrying in a highly emotional season seven finale and Lucy having a baby shortly after. Next in Lee and Lucy’s lives, season eight jumped forward eight years into their marriage and into the midst of a chaotic family life with three children. Season 14 now rolls the story on several years again, with the couple moving away from their suburban ‘empty nest’ and finding plenty of time to focus on each other… what could possibly go wrong?

The sitcom is now the UK’s all-time second longest running by number of seasons (and fifth by number of episodes). Over 13 seasons, regular cast have included: Bobby Ball, Abigail Cruttenden, Hugh Dennis, Megan Dodds, Deborah Grant, Miranda Hart, Tim Vine, Timothy West, Geoffrey Whitehead and Katy Wix.

Not Going Out continues to be an important show for the BBC and, when it was last on air, it was in the top two most watched comedies on iPlayer alongside Ghosts, with audiences in 2025 still watching the back catalogue (13.2 million viewer hours in the last year) without any new episodes. The last episode, the season 13 Christmas Special (and 100th episode) averaged 4.6 million viewers.  The BBC has recommissioned the show for a further six episodes (season 15) in 2026.

Not Going Out (6 x 30) is produced by Avalon for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The series was commissioned by Jon Petrie, Director of Comedy at the BBC. The producer is Jamie Rix, the director is Nick Wood and the writers are Mack and Daniel Peak. The executive producers for Avalon are Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, Lee Mack and Jon Thoday. The commissioning editor for the BBC is Ben Caudell.

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Categories: Press Releases

Tags: BBC, comedy, iPlayer