Lee Mack reveals ‘nasty mishap’ was scrapped from 100th ‘Not Going Out’ episode

Lee Mack scrapped a plan to have the 100th episode of ‘Not Going Out’ feature a “nasty mishap”.

The comic, 55, celebrated the landmark show run with a Christmas special of the comedy, and said he decided it was too grim an idea for his character’s aunt to appear in the episode aged 100 before she suffers a grim fate.

He told the Christmas issue of Radio Times magazine: “We wanted to celebrate the 100th with my 100-year-old aunt coming round on her birthday and having a nasty mishap.”

Explaining how the plot was changed to feature Santa, Lee added: “Then when we realised it was Christmas, we though that wasn’t very festive – better make it Father Christmas instead.”

Lee also revealed the idea for the show – which features him playing a layabout who rarely leaves his London flat – sprang from a sketch in which he was looking out a window using a telescope.

He added: “I was doing a sketch show at the Fringe (comedy festival) in Edinburgh with Catherine Tate and Dan Antopolski.

“There was a thought I had that wasn’t even a joke – me looking out of a window with a telescope, my wife walks in and I suddenly look up at the stars.

“In other words, what the hell was I looking at?

“At best mildly amusing, not a sketch but an idea, so I parked it.

“Then I had another and another and the sketch grew into a quarter of the show and then became a pilot.”

Lee recently said at a preview screening of the 100th ‘Not Going Out’ show he

struggled to understand why the series gets lambasted by critics for being old fashioned and including its audience’s laughter track when it’s being filmed.

He said: “When some critics say and they often do, ‘Do we still need to hear people laughing in the background?’ I always think, ‘How do they cope when they’re watching a play?’

“Are they constantly going, ‘Shush, stop laughing at this comedy, I’m trying to watch this.’

“That’s the joy of it! We’re filming a live theatrical event… I like the idea that you’re filming something that’s happening on that night.

“And that’s what I think is different. I’m the first say we're not a realistic sitcom, the language is not realistic.

“So without the laugh, it just sounds odd, because all the characters are quite often knowingly telling a gag.

“To have that to absolute silence would be weird. You need that laugh constantly for it to make sense.”