Lee Mack was offered a guest spot in Death in Paradise but turned it down due to the fact he has a fear of flying.
The Not Going Out star appeared up for the chance to be in the BBC1 crime drama but unfortunately, his flying fears meant that he’d be unable to get to where the show is shot in Guadeloupe.
Lee briefly entertained the idea of trying to get to the Caribbean by boat but ruled the option out as it would take so long.
“I got asked to be in Death in Paradise, but because I don’t fly I thought how am I going to get there? I looked into it, you can get a cargo ship from Portugal to nearby. It would have taken weeks and weeks and weeks and they only rent out a couple of rooms and the rest is for sailors,” he told The One Show.
The married dad of three has actually spoken about his fear of flying before and how he sends his family ahead on holidays by plane and joins them later as he arrives by other means.
Speaking on the Walking the Dog podcast in 2021, he said: “If we go on holiday — and we have done for the last couple of years — Tara has flown with the kids and I’ve met them there.
“And I’m including Barcelona, I’m including Switzerland. You know why? They won’t let me sit up front and drive it! I’ve asked. I’ve said, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll fly, can I drive?’ and they said ’No, and you don’t drive a plane, you fly it.’ And I’ve said, ‘Forget it then, I’ll go by car”.
Lee’s fear of flying actually featured in an episode of Not Going Out called Plane in season 7 [see if it made our best Not Going Out episodes countdown]. It sees Lee wrongly think the plane he’s on with Lucy and Daisy is being hijacked.
Meanwhile, during his chat on The One Show Lee revealed that they perform Not Going Out material in front of a theatre audience first to see if the jokes land.
“I do think one of the secrets of why it’s been on so long is that we do try it out in a theatre first. So we don’t go on the telly fresh. We take out all the gags that work and leave the ones that don’t work!”
Not Going Out season 13 is currently being shown on BBC One and is also available on iPlayer.
