Joe Lycett celebrates the British boozer

As comedian Joe Lycett prepares to present his latest Channel 4 show, coming live from his own pub, he speaks about the need to celebrate and support the locals as vital to any thriving local area...

What can punters expect from The Lycett Arms?

The Lycett Arms, due to administrative failures, is only open between 10pm and 11pm on Fridays, which means we're going to attempt to condense a whole week's worth of pub liveliness into one hour. 

So all the things that might happen over a whole week in a normal pub - you might have karaoke, a quiz, maybe some sort of dramatic moment, a few glasses breaking… perhaps a comedian doing a bit of stand-up, a celebrity popping in to get a pint… all these things will happen in that one hour. Then once the hour's over, we've got to close the doors because we can't afford to keep the place open

We’ll be cramming it in, we won't have time to do everything properly. We will have to change kegs in the cellar at a ridiculous speed, but it'll be fun. It'll be dramatic. It'll be frightening. It'll be arousing.

What made you want to open The Lycett Arms? 

 I love the pub. I always have. I think, at its core, it's a great place for communities to bond, for humans to come together from all walks of life, and to discuss the week, what they think is going on in politics, their own lives, what is making them happy, what's making them angry… to escape it all as well. 

The pub is a great place to go and get rid of your worries and just sit and interact with people and maybe listen to other people's worries or find out about their lives. 

I love a pint as well. I love it as a unit of measurement, not even just a pint of beer. I love a pint of water. I love a pint of milk. Pints are great, just the idea of a pint makes me relax. The idea of having my own pub was just too exciting to turn down. So that's it, really. A love of pubs. 

Many comedians start their careers performing in pubs and local comedy rooms, how does it feel to be running your own?

Well, in your early career, you go to a lot of shit pubs, and I've definitely done my fair share of them over the years, particularly in the first few years of doing stand-up. So, when you go to those shit pubs, you think, ‘Well, I could do better than this.’ And so, this is my exercise in seeing if I can. 

The concept revolves around special guests coming in and taking over as pub manager.What qualities do you think a good pub manager should have? 

I think they should be personable. I think they should be open to new things, be able to deal with difficult customers, perhaps difficult staff members. I've already employed a couple who I know are going to be impossible to manage [his aunties Margaret and Pauline, as seen on Late Night Lycett]. So you're going to need someone that can hold their own around two middle-aged women who have no respect or professionalism. They need to have a bit of experience in a pub, and that could just be that they've been to one. 

They should also be able to put up with me asking them questions and making them do things over the one hour that we're open without being flapped. They should be unflappable!

You will be leading your guest through a ‘trial shift’ at the pub. Did you ever do that?

I certainly did. I had a trial shift in a pub in Moseley in Birmingham. I think it was called the Junction at the time. It's changed names now, and I made a real pig's ear pouring a few pints of Guinness, and then the chef was really horrible to me, and I decided this isn't for me, and so I left that shift and never went back. 

You should be paid for a trial shift, and I wasn't. I still haven't been paid that money. I know they've gone out of business and changed hands now, but I still believe that I owed some cash by whoever was running the Junction Pub in Mosley, and I will be going to the Small Claims Court. 

I then worked in a call centre selling guttering, which was even worse than the pub. So maybe I should have stayed there. 

The Lycett Arms celebrates live entertainment and British pub culture, why was this important for you to champion?

Well, the live performance sector, if you want to call it that, is under great threat, and the pub industry is as well. And I think anything we can do to celebrate our British boozers is a good thing because yes, they provide a watering hole, and as I've said, I do think they're really good for society at large. It's good to have a public house where the public can come in and mingle with one another. It's good for people who are lonely. It's good for people who need to connect with their community. 

I moved to my area of Birmingham because I loved the local pub, and I still do. And when I go in there, there's always someone that I kind of know and can sit and have a drink with. And I think it's been a place of great solace for me over the years, and I think pubs closing in places kills the local area, and so we definitely want to champion those amazing boozers around the country. And it's a sort of a spiritual place for lots of people. 

And any place in addition that's providing live music or live entertainment, live comedy, we really have to champion those independent venues because they're under great threat from the biggies. 

What is your go-to pub snack and pint?

I do love pork scratchings. I love a Scotch egg. Any pub that's serving a Scotch egg, I'm into that. A pork-based snack, I'm in. Bacon fries, scampi fries, always classic. And pints… I've really got into alcohol-free stuff since my son was born, so I'm really enjoying Guinness Zero and Lucky Saints and those sorts of things. 

But really, I'm a sort of Pilsnery, crisp, easy-drinking, beautiful bit of business, cold golds all the way, baby. If it's cold, if it's gold, I'm into it.

• The Lycett Arms airs live on Channel 4 on Friday nights at 10pm, starting September 4

Published: 25 Aug 2026