Comic's stance after BBC show moved to Dave

Lee Mack threatened to pull the plug on Not Going Out – because he didn’t want the show being used to sell alcohol.

The comic, who has been teetotal for 18 months,  took his stance after his BBC show was repeated on commercial channel Dave.

‘We make it on the BBC but then it ends up on commercial channels and is heavily sponsored by beer,’ he says in today’s issue of Radio Times.

‘I spend ten months a year doing this, and suddenly I feel like I’m a brewer’s marketing department, and my work is being used to sell booze,’ he added.

‘I said, unless that stops, we’re not going to make any more.’

He said the issue became more ‘complex’ because of contractual obligations, but then he said: ‘All right, we’ll move on. We’ll change the name of the show, we’ll make a new one.’

When challenged over whether he would actually have walked away, he said: ‘Yes. But then Dave relented.’

Mack, the son of two publicans, is now an ambassador for the charity Alcohol Concern and says that: ‘I’m not opposed to the consumption of alcohol. I’m opposed to my kids watching TV at seven o’clock and being told to bet and drink.’

The comic is currently writing the tenth series of the sitcom.

Published: 27 Feb 2018