It has been confirmed that award-winning sitcom Not Going Out will return to BBC One on January 13. After 10 years, the series, starring Lee Mack, is now the longest running BBC sitcom on air. There are some changes this time round though.

Viewers last saw Lee (Lee Mack) and Lucy (Sally Bretton) as a newlywed couple just having their first baby. Fast-forward seven years and baby Charlie now has five year old twin siblings, Benji and Molly. How has layabout Lee survived these dramatic life-changes? How do the not-so-new parents find the joy/relentless onslaught of bringing up kids?  If this wasn’t enough for them to contend with, combine it with negotiating some tricky family members in the form of lovably feckless father, Frank (Bobby Ball), always on hand with the terrifying offer of childcare, and close friends including the world-weary, or more specifically wife-weary, Toby (Hugh Dennis) and uptight ice-queen Anna (Abigail Cruttenden).  At least Lucy’s more dependable parents are on hand, but what exactly do Geoffrey (Geoffrey Whitehead) and Wendy (Deborah Grant) make of Lee and Lucy’s often mad house?

What could possibly go wrong with: Lee doing his best to get the ‘romance’ back on track; Frank finally getting his wish to babysit the kids; Lucy and Lee loading up the car for a family holiday to France; Lee devising a ‘brilliant’ master-plan involving Emma Bunton and a hot tub; one of the kids, very worryingly, starting to take after one of their parents (clue, it isn’t Lucy); marriage guidance making its way onto the couple’s agenda; and a decision to be made whether three kids really are enough.

Lee Mack is one of the UK’s most recognisable and celebrated comics.  A busy year has also seen Lee return as resident team captain on the tenth series of Would I Lie To You? (BBC ONE), host the fifth series of Duck Quacks Don’t Echo (Sky One), while early 2017 will see a London West End debut alongside Griff Rhys Jones in the The Miser.

The new series will begin on January 13th, 2017 on BBC1.