Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Lee Mack, Sally Breton, Hugh Dennis, Abigail Cruttenden, Deborah Grant, Geoffrey Whitehead, Mark Kempner,
There is always a concern when it comes to attempt to pull off the live show, especially when it a comedy, particularly when it is one comfortable in its own skin of being one that can be rehearsed to the point of exhaustion to make it seem sharp and on the ball. The trouble is with recording weeks or even months in advance is that relies far too eagerly on the set-up and not enough on the natural skill of the performer in which to bring the element of surprise, the ability to rise above the fluffed line with the spur of the moment quip or ad-lib in which to keep the momentum moving.
Like a play on the stage, the feeling of being captured live is organic, an almost exclusive peek in to the natural realm of the show, and in Not Going Out- Live, that sense of unforced purity was one in which will surely not be bettered in this year’s festive period.
A show that is not willing to break its own boundaries or shake the comfortable soil in which it has grown, no matter how good it has been, and Not Going Out has arguably been one of the best British comedies of the last decade, never truly lasts for long. By willing to accept the live format for an evening, it finds that it opens up more valuable doors for Lee Mack’s and Danny Peak’s writing, but more importantly it showcases the four main leads of Sally Breton, Hugh Dennis, Abigail Cruttenden and of course Lee Mack in ways that might have been left wavering in the air for the fans of the show to only imagine.
What could go wrong when Lee volunteers his and Lucy’s services to raising money for the local school in the form of a talent evening, pretty much everything but it is in the art of the topical in which performing live which makes the show go right, become, for an evening at least, an effective tool in a box beleaguered by the artistically devoid of many other institutions. With memories of the insanely brilliant Drop the Dead Donkey and Andy Hamilton’s and Guy Jenkins’ prowess at sneaking one more topical gag before releasing the show, Not Going Out- Live excelled itself, a festive episode that raised more than a smile, it caught the attention of the fan in ways that might not have been thought possible, and surely introduced the show to the non-believers in a very different light.
Tremendously entertaining.
Ian D. Hall