Not Going Out sofa watching television or at the local pub with his best friend, Tim Adams (Tim Vine), whom he has known for 15 years. Tim is an accountant from Henley-on-Thames who owns the flat in which Lee is a lodger. He is also noted for his cheeky wit and for having a very troubled relationship with his father, with whom he shares many traits and who openly mentions that Lee was unplanned and resulted in the end of his marriage. Very often, the only thing that can get Lee off his couch and active is his efforts to impress the girl
Not Going Out had to be written and filmed in a short space of time, Avalon Television brought in Nick Stacey, Paul Kerensa and Simon Evans to join the writing team. Mack, Collins and Stacey concentrated on writing the main body of the episodes whilst Kerensa and Evans were involved in storylining, rewriting and 'gagging up' the episodes. The third series saw the writing team expanded, with Darin Henry, Daniel Peak and Simon Dean contributing to the main episodes (all co-written with Mack); the "gag writing" team was also expanded, from two members to as many as eight, not counting the main writers,