Joe Lycett to open pub for new Channel 4 chat show, The Lycett Arms
Joe Lycett is applying for a personal alcohol licence to open his own pub for new live Channel 4 series The Lycett Arms, launching later this year.
Joe Lycett is applying for a personal alcohol licence to open his own pub for new live Channel 4 series The Lycett Arms.
The pub will operate for just one hour each week during the live broadcast.
The six-part series will feature celebrity guests, comedy and celebrations of pubs across the UK.
Joe must complete official licensing training and pass the required exam before serving alcohol.
Career comedian Joe Lycett is applying for a personal alcohol licence to open his own pub as part of his new live Channel 4 series, The Lycett Arms. But this is no ordinary local – the pub will only open for one hour each week, serving as the setting for the six-part live entertainment show produced by Bango Studios and My Options Were Ltd.
Before the series can begin, Joe must obtain the qualifications required to legally sell and serve alcohol. He is currently completing the application process, undertaking the approved training course and preparing for the mandatory exam to achieve the Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders.
Joe Lycett said, “I’ve always wanted to run a pub that only exists for an hour a week, for the purposes of a TV concept, and I’m thrilled beyond words to embark on the extended process of applying for a license to sell and serve alcohol. Filling in government-mandated paperwork has always been a passion of mine, and I only hope that at some point it involves the presentation of at least one form of photographic ID. Pretty much the only disappointment is that in addition to this enthralling form-filling process, I will also have to make a television series, as this is apparently the only way to make the whole tax dodge work.
Nevertheless, I will meet my obligations to sit in front of a camera welcoming celebrities into the pub for great conversations and top comedy, it says here, and generally creating an unmissable event that will brighten your Friday evenings for six weeks. Those are all the words that I have been requested to say. Now I can return my attention to figuring out how to get round being locked out of Gov.uk.”
Broadcast live on Channel 4 every Friday at 10pm, The Lycett Arms (6x60’) is set inside Joe’s own technicolour, paisley-carpeted East London pub, where celebrity guests, regulars and first-time visitors will gather for comedy, conversation and live entertainment.
Each week, Joe will be joined by a celebrity pub manager, while the show will also twin with a different pub from around the UK, celebrating the unique role Britain’s locals play in communities across the country. Live, unpredictable and with the potential for chaos at any moment, The Lycett Arms is a love letter to the great British pub.
Tom Beck, Head of Live Events & Commissioning Editor, Entertainment & Reality, Channel 4 said, “Enticing Joe Lycett back onto Channel 4 screens has been a long and arduous process, involving months of delicate negotiations, emotional resilience and, in the end, the promise of legally binding admin. Thankfully, Joe’s appetite for bureaucracy remains undimmed, and we are delighted that he has agreed to spend Friday nights running a pub that is open for one hour a week, while also reluctantly making what we are legally obliged to describe as a brilliant new live entertainment series.”
Emily Hudd and Iain Wimbush, Bango Studios, added: “We’re delighted that we will be helping to facilitate one of the Joe’s lifelong dreams; to set up and run his own pub (with extremely limited opening hours), and transmit it live on Channel 4. It’s an absolute thrill to be working with Joe again on a show which promises to be an exhilarating slice of live entertainment joy - so long as all the paperwork comes through on time.”
The Lycett Arms is produced by Bango Studios and My Options Were Ltd for Channel 4. The series was commissioned by Tom Beck, with Joe Lycett, Iain Wimbush and Emily Hudd serving as executive producers alongside Beck for Channel 4.
The Lycett Arms will air on Channel 4 later this year.