Lee Mack is to make a live episode of Not Going Out.

BBC One will air the special edition as part of the tenth series, which Mack is currently writing.

It will follow in the footsteps of Mrs Brown’s Boys, which went out live in 2016,

Mack revealed the plans on Radio 2, telling Steve Wright:‘We’re doing a live one. Talk about jumping the shark, that’ll be it then, won’t it?

‘When I heard of other people doing live shows I thought why, "Would you bother doing that?" It’s for your own satisfaction. It doesn’t aid the quality. And then I thought, "Oh go on then, why not?" They showed me the money…’

And he said a live sitcom was a different beast than live stand-up because of the technical side of filming, as well as the need to stick to the narrative.

‘I do live stuff but if it goes wrong in the sitcom I can’t go to the guy in the front row, "Where are you from?" He shouldn’t be in my front room."’

He also harked back to the days when all TV was live, saying: ‘Geoffrey Whitehead’s in our cast and he was in Z Cars and that was live.

Mack was speaking to promote the start of series nine of Not Going Out, which kicked off last night.

American sitcoms to have made live episodes include Will & Grace, 30 Rock and Undateable, which broadcast its entire third seasons live.

Published: 9 Mar 2018