Bobby made a number of appearances in Not Going Out as Lee’s father, Frank. Initially he was an occasional character, but appeared more regularly over time.
Episodes featuring Bobby were:
Absent Father Christmas, 2009
Life on Mars Bars, 2011
Dads, 2012
Therapy, 2013
Boat, 2013
The House, 2013
Donor, 2014
Alcohol, 2014
The Wedding, 2014
Christmas Shopping, 2015
Babysitting, 2017
The True Meaning of Christmas, 2017
Escape Room, 2018
Parachute, 2019
Schooling, 2019
Whodunnit, 2019
Halloween, 2019
Driving Home for Christmas, 2019
Resolutions, 2020
Carol, 2021
War, 2021
There is also a 2020 interview with Lee Mack on The Graham Norton show, where he talks about Bobby shortly after his death.
Absent Father Christmas (Christmas Special 2009)
First shown 23rd December 2009.
Lee arranges dinner with Lucy, and all is going well until Lee’s father, Frank turns up dressed as Father Christmas and wanting to borrow £500. Lee doesn’t wants him around, but when Frank says that that he is dying, Lucy tells Lee that he should get to know his dad again.
Lee takes Frank to a lap-dancing club, then Frank takes Lee back to the theme park where he once stole Lee a goldfish and later ate it. On the roller-coaster, Frank admits that he is not really dying, leading Lucy to admit that Lee was right all along.
See article from the Daily Record, 23rd December 2009
Life on Mars Bars
Series 4 episode 6. First shown 10th February 2011
Lee is badly injured after being hit by a car. During the episode he is in hospital in a coma, while we see what happens in his subconscious mind – in a similar vein to Life on Mars. Much of Lees fantasy world involves Lucy, but his father Frank (Bobby Ball) keeps popping up in a wide variety of surreal roles. As well as being simply Frank, he is a doctor, chauffeur, gynaecologist and lap dancer.
Dads
Series 5 episode 2. First shown 20th April 2012.
Frank turns up in a full body cast, claiming to have been hit by a bus and needing somehwere to stay for the weekend. Lee refuses to administer Franks suppository, leading to criticism from the others. Eventually Lee pretends to be treating his dad well so he can impress Lucy.
Therapy
Series 6 episode 3. First shown 19th April 2013
Lucy has enrolled on a counselling course at night school. She practices her new skills on Lee, before suggesting many of his issues stem from his relationship with his father. Lee visits Frank, who agrees to a join counsellling session with Lucy, but it doesn’t quite go to plan.
Boat
Series 6 episode 8. First shown 31st May 2013
Frank has had a win on the horses, and decides to buy a boat. Thinking it is a luxury yacht, Lee persuades Lucy to come along, only to find it is a £400 tug boat. Overnight the boat drifts out to sea, and with no engine they are stranded. It later transpires that Frank was planning to sink the boat and claim on the insurance.
The House (Christmas Special 2013)
First shown 24th December 2013
Lee has arranged for everyone to spend Christmas in a country house, formerly owned by his Aunt. After mysterious happenings they become convinced the house is haunted, only to discover Frank had also arranged to spend Christmas in the house himself and was attempting to scare them away.
Donor
Sereis 7 episode 3, first shown 31st October 2014
Lucy decides to use a sperm donor to get pregnant, and Lee ends up offering his. Frank appears briefly in the family conference at the start.
Alcohol
Series 7 episode 6, first shown 28th November 2014
Lucy and Lee confront Frank about his drinking. The three of them end up going to an alcohol support group together.
The Wedding (Christmas Special 2014)
First shown 24th December 2014
Frank insists on organising a stag do for Lee. The morning of the wedding they wake up in prison.
This episode also features a cameo from Tommy Cannon, as the vicar at the wedding.
Christmas Shopping (Christmas Special 2015)
First shown 24th December 2015
Lee and Lucy are doing some Christmas shopping in the department store where Frank is working as one of Santa’s elves. They get stuck in the store after it closes, then find themselves caught up in a armed robbery.
Babysitting
Series 8 episode 2, first shown 20th January 2017.
Frank babysits Lee and Lucy’s three young children. They have a great time, but a few days later one of them repeats a swear word, and the finger of suspicion points at Frank for teaching it to them.
The True Meaning of Christmas (Christmas Special 2017)
First shown 24th December 2017
On Christmas Eve Lee and Lucy discover that Lucy’s parents have bought the same gift for the children as them. They claim that Franks present was from them, but he finds out.
Escape Room
Series 9 episode 2, first shown 15th March 2018.
Lee, Lucy, their parents and friends visit an escape room for Lees birthday. Frank is surprisingly good at solving the clues.
Parachute
Series 10 episode 1, first shown 15th April 2019.
Set in a plane, with all the cast about to perform a sponsored skydive. All try to make excuses to get out of it.
Schooling
Series 10 episode 4, first shown 6th May 2019.
Lee and Lucy look for a new school for their eldest child, Charlie. When they find it is a faith school, they arrange to get him baptised and Frank agrees to be Godparent.
Whodunnit?
Series 10 episode 6, first shown 20th May 2019.
Lee is accused of breaking a vase, so invites round the friends and family to try and discover who did break it.
Halloween
Halloween special, first shown 30th October 2019.
Lee ends up stuck inside the house of an elderly woman after trick-or-treating. Frank arrives and gets stuck with him. Eventually the house is burgled and they catch the burglars.
Driving Home for Christmas (Christmas Special 2019)
First shown 24th December 2019.
Lucy’s bag is stolen while Christmas shopping. Lee and Lucy try to chase the thief’s car, but he gets away and they end up further and further from home. Frank is minding the children, with Geoffrey and Wendy.
Resolutions
Series 11 episode 1, first shown 30th December 2020.
A New Years Eve part at Lee and Lucy’s sees the cast making up New Years Resolutions for each other. The end of the programme featured a tribute to Bobby Ball, who had died shortly after filming.
Carol
Series 11 episode 4, first shown 22nd January 2021.
Frank has met Carol via a dating app, and they are thinking of getting engaged. Lee is convinced there must be something wrong with her, so tries to find out more.
War
Series 11 episode 6, first shown 5th February 2021.
The family are about to leave for a tour of war graves in Normandy, but family secrets keep coming out as they prepare to depart.
A special tribute to Bobby Ball was shown after the episode, with a selection of clips from his appearances in the show over the years.
Graham Norton Interview
In December 2020, Lee Mack appeared on The Graham Norton show talking about the forthcoming Christmas special and series, where he spoke about Bobby.
Lee: With Bobby. Yeah, because that was filmed not that long ago, actually. And only maybe a month or two after that, as everyone’s aware, Bobby passed away very suddenly. And it’s been, I mean, everyone says when someone dies, you know that it’s a shock and you can’t quite believe it, but when you’re editing, helping to edit and give edit notes on it and then, you know, and you’re coming on Graham Norton to promote a show that Bobby’s in, you really find it hard to believe that he’s gone. You know, it adds to that. And he’s been part of my life since I was a kid because I used to, well, we didn’t know this at the time, but my mum and dad used to run a pub and it turns out Cannon and Ball before they were famous, went in the pub to perform, got paid like 20 quid or something. So I’m so pleased that my fictional dad and my real dad met because my dad died many years ago. And then my first performance ever was standing on a school roof impersonating Bobby, because I used to have a very strong, much stronger than this Lancastrian accent. And so when we needed to cast my dad, I went, hey, what about Bobby Ball? Can we get Bobby to do it? And I’d never met him. And I was like genuinely starstruck, and it never went away. I was always in scenes with him going “that’s Bobby Ball.” Even though Bobby had been round my house, had dinner. You know, it never quite went away that that was Bobby Ball, you know. And it’s very hard, I suppose, for people, maybe under the age of 30 or whatever, to just realise just how big Cannon and Ball were, I mean they were just ridiculously big. We’re talking 20 million viewers, probably the most famous comedian of his day, probably.
