The Lycett Arms will be broadcast on Channel 4 for a six-week run on Fridays nights with the premise of pairing a celebrity pub boss and a real pub to show the importance of sites and their communities.
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The 38-year-old who has starred in mischievous consumer activist shows alongside hosting shows such as The Great British Sewing Bee, Travel Man and been a panellist on 8 Out of 10 Cats and QI had to take a training course and pass an exam to become an personal licence holder in the on-trade so he could legally take part in his latest show.
In each episode, Lycett will be partnered by a celebrity pub manager on a ‘trial shift’ and the Lycett Arms will be paired with a real pub elsewhere in the UK.
Pubs are good for society
He said: “The live performance sector, if you want to call it that, is under great threat, and the pub industry is as well.
“Anything we can do to celebrate our British boozers is a good thing because yes, they provide a watering hole and, as I’ve said, I do think they’re really good for society at large.
“It’s good to have a public house where the public can come in and mingle with one another. It’s good for people who are lonely. It’s good for people who need to connect with their community.”
Lycett added he moved to the area of Birmingham where he lives because he loved the local pub and still does. He said: “When I go in there, there’s always someone that I kind of know and can sit and have a drink with. It’s been a place of great solace for me over the years, and I think pubs closing in places kills the local area.
Champion amazing boozers
“We definitely want to champion those amazing boozers around the country and it’s a sort of a spiritual place for lots of people.”
Channel 4 head of live events and commissioning editor for entertainment and reality Tom Beck added: “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.”
The Lycett Arms airs live on Channel 4 on Friday nights at 10pm from 4 September.
