--- title: "Late Night Lycett" year: 2023 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/late-night-lycett" fi1m_id: "late-night-lycett" imdb_id: "tt26687060" tmdb_id: 222653 wikidata_id: "Q117717007" fi1m_score: 76 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-10-07T19:58:20.088777+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T19:58:34.088150+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Late Night Lycett (2023) 49m · Talk, Comedy ## Identity Late Night Lycett - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/late-night-lycett - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** late-night-lycett - **IMDb ID:** tt26687060 - **TMDB ID:** 222653 - **Wikidata ID:** Q117717007 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26687060/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/222653, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117717007 **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A chat show broadcast live so that anything can go wrong, hosted by the one man who hopes it does > Joe Lycett takes the chat show live to Birmingham and builds the hour out of things that might go wrong. It is the loosest chat show on British television in years, and when a bit dies you get to watch it happen. ## Synopsis Joe Lycett hosts a live chat show from Birmingham, broadcast on Friday nights, with a studio audience and a run of guests who are put to work rather than left on the sofa. Alison Hammond, Joanna Lumley, Katherine Ryan, Alesha Dixon, Paddy McGuinness, Alexander Armstrong and Carol Vorderman pass through, along with the comedians Sophie Willan and Jack Rooke. Sinitta stands by throughout as Lycett’s “Hunderstudy”, ready to take over if he cannot carry on. Lycett’s aim each week is to reach the end of a live 49 minutes of games, stunts, short interviews and a running joke about Liz Truss, and the show is built so that he might not. The first series of five episodes began on 31 March 2023; a second of six followed from 12 April 2024. ## Review The British chat show has been dying politely for years. Four guests on a sofa, each with something to sell, a host who has read the notes, a house band, and an hour recorded in advance and trimmed of anything that went wrong. Joe Lycett’s answer is to go out live on a Friday night, leave London for Birmingham, and fill the running time with things that might not work. Each episode runs about 49 minutes. The first series of five began on 31 March 2023 and a second of six followed from 12 April 2024. The guest list is the familiar one. Alison Hammond, Joanna Lumley, Katherine Ryan, Alesha Dixon, Paddy McGuinness, Alexander Armstrong and Carol Vorderman all pass through, and so does the usual sprinkling of comedians, Sophie Willan and Jack Rooke among them. What is different is what is done with them. They are not here to tell the anecdote they told the last show; they are handed props, sent into the audience and asked to judge things. Lumley gets a few minutes of being Joanna Lumley before she is enlisted, and takes to it with the air of a woman who has been waiting years to be asked. Hammond, who could host this herself, very nearly does. Then there is Sinitta. The credits list her as “Hunderstudy”, and the joke is exactly what it sounds like: she is on hand to take over should Lycett be unable to continue. The show keeps cutting back to her, standing by, ready, and the fourth or fifth time it did we laughed out loud at nothing more than a patient woman in a good outfit. That is Lycett’s method in one credit. He has planned for the show’s collapse and finds the plan funnier than the show. Lycett himself is the reason it holds. He is soft-voiced and immaculately dressed, a man who looks as if he has never once been flustered and who has built an entire hour out of being flustered on purpose. When a bit dies, and bits die, because it is live, he does not hurry past it. He stands in the wreckage, tells the audience what was supposed to happen, and gets a bigger laugh than the bit would have. We have watched a great many presenters pretend a segment worked. There is a real pleasure in one who lets you watch it fail. The audience is the other star. Birmingham is not a city television visits often and the audience knows it. The crowd is loud and local and plainly delighted to be there, and the cameras keep finding faces in it rather than retreating to a wide shot, so the laughter has people attached. What does not work is what you would expect. Because nothing is allowed to settle, the conversation is thin, and you will learn almost nothing about any of the guests that you did not already know. Then there is the Liz Truss business. Lycett’s running joke about the former prime minister is a fair target the first time. By its third return it has stopped being a joke and become a show kicking someone who has already left, and it is the one place the warmth drains out of the thing. We were not the only ones to notice. Set against the polished sofa shows it is competing with, this is a different trade: a variety hour that happens to have guests in it. It is uneven by design, which means some Fridays are better than others, and a bad one is still a man grinning through it for 49 minutes. Watch it live if you can. Recorded, it loses half its point; the whole reason for the format is that anything could happen, and knowing that it already has takes the edge off. It is not a programme to put on in the background. It wants your attention, and most weeks it earns it. *Fi1m score 76, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Late Night Lycett worth watching?** *Late Night Lycett* is worth watching for anyone who wants a chat show that might fall apart in front of them, and we scored it 76. Joe Lycett hosts live from Birmingham, puts his guests to work rather than leaving them on the sofa, and when a bit dies he stands in the wreckage and tells you what should have happened. The conversation is thin by design, and it is far better watched live than recorded. **How long is Late Night Lycett, and what is it rated?** *Late Night Lycett* has episodes of about 49m. It is a talk and comedy series. **Where can I watch Late Night Lycett in the US?** *Late Night Lycett* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Late Night Lycett compare to Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge?** *Late Night Lycett* is a real chat show built to go wrong, while [*Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge*](https://film.one/tv/knowing-me-knowing-you-with-alan-partridge) is a scripted comedy about a chat show going wrong. Lycett knows his bits may die and enjoys it; Partridge cannot see the crash coming. The Partridge series is the sharper and more disciplined piece of comedy, but Lycett is warmer and easier company, and the better choice if you want laughter without an evening of embarrassment. **What should I watch after Late Night Lycett?** After *Late Night Lycett*, try [*Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge*](https://film.one/tv/knowing-me-knowing-you-with-alan-partridge) (1994, Fi1m 82): The chat show as slow car crash, with a host who cannot see it coming. Then [*Taskmaster*](https://film.one/tv/taskmaster) (2015, Fi1m 82): Comedians made to do pointless things with great seriousness, judged by a man who enjoys it. ### Reviews we read (1) - **The Guardian**, Dylan B Jones (90/100, inferred): The Guardian’s critic finds the series a fresh, chaotic reinvigoration of the British chatshow. He praises Lycett’s confident hosting and the show’s goofy, unpredictable set pieces, while noting that its Liz Truss gag risks becoming tired and bullying. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/apr/07/late-night-lycett-joe-lycett-reinvigorates-the-british-chatshow) ## Details - **Cast:** Joe Lycett as Self - Host; Alison Hammond as Self - Guest; Joanna Lumley as Self - Guest; Katherine Ryan as Self - Guest; Alesha Dixon as Self - Guest; Paddy McGuinness as Self - Guest; Alexander Armstrong as Self - Guest; Sinitta as Self - Hunderstudy - **Runtime:** 49m - **Release (the US):** 31 March 2023 - **Genres:** Talk, Comedy ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: GB, IE. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Joe Lycett's Got Your Back* (2019): Lycett’s consumer show, where the same cheerful menace is pointed at companies instead of guests. - *Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge* (1994), Fi1m 82: The chat show as slow car crash, with a host who cannot see it coming. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/knowing-me-knowing-you-with-alan-partridge.md) - *TFI Friday* (1996): Live Friday television that treated the studio as a party and the guests as gatecrashers. - *The Eric Andre Show* (2012): An American talk show demolished nightly by its own host; shorter, nastier, just as live-feeling. - *Taskmaster* (2015), Fi1m 82: Comedians made to do pointless things with great seriousness, judged by a man who enjoys it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/taskmaster.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/late-night-lycett