‘OK, fine. I’m a national treasure’: Joe Lycett on fatherhood, Celebrity Traitors – and his TV show live from a pub
Comedian Joe Lycett is preparing to launch a new Friday-night TV show, Live from the Lycett Arms, in which he will both present a live programme and run a fully functioning pub, with celebrities taking turns as manager and his aunties working behind the bar. It follows his previous late-night live show and reflects his attempt to keep the format of live, chaotic television alive at a time when he says broadcasters are commissioning very little new work.
The pub, being built in east London, is not yet finished, and Lycett admits he does not know its exact address. A bigger complication is that he needs a Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders to legally run the venue, but failed the qualifying exam, scoring around 38% against the required 70%; a stand-in licensee may step in if he cannot pass in time. He also discusses adjusting to fatherhood since the birth of his son, who is nearly two, and jokes about the parlous state of the television and hospitality industries.
- Joe Lycett's new show has him running a live TV pub.
- He failed the exam needed for a pub licence.
- Pub venue in east London is still unfinished before filming.
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Comedian Joe Lycett has built a reputation for stunts and offbeat live television, and is now launching Live from the Lycett Arms, a new Friday-night show in which he presents live while also running a working pub, staffed partly by his own aunties and managed on a rotating basis by celebrity guests. The idea builds on an earlier late-night live format he has done before, at a time when he says broadcasters are commissioning far less new, unscripted television than they used to.
The show faces some genuine practical hurdles: the pub itself, being built in east London, is still unfinished, and Lycett needs a specific personal licence qualification to legally run a venue serving alcohol, which he has so far failed to pass. Alongside the show, he is also speaking more broadly about becoming a father to his young son and about his own rising public profile.