Channel 4
No ordinary Joe
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arm, witty and occasionally waspish, Joe Lycett is just the man to keep us entertained during lockdown. It’s fortunate, then, that he is presenting two lengthy prime-time TV series, with another on the way. And after a whirlwind few months making them, Lycett – while mindful of the suffering that Covid-19 has brought many – concludes that the new normal has been beneficial to his mental health. Being forced to stop work has made Lycett, 31, slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life. “It’s weird, but I don’t feel as anxious as I used to,” he says, while isolating in his house in
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Joe Lycett is filling peak-time slots on BBC One and Channel 4. Roz Laws checks out the upward trajectory of the comedian who takes on the corporates Birmingham. “For the past year, I’ve had mild anxiety symptoms, where I feel sick and dizzy, but that’s all gone. I know, for a lot of people, their anxiety has spiked – but I’m the opposite. “My wild schedule is not nearly as wild now. I can take stock and do
simpler things. And I don’t have to put any pants on. Selfishly, this is all quite nice for me.” The hard work that he put in pre-lockdown means he can cheer us up with two series – the Channel 4 consumer show Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back and BBC One’s The Great British Sewing Bee, shown on Fridays and Wednesdays, respectively. He was also in the middle of making Channel 4’s Travel Man, taking over from Richard Ayoade as presenter of the celebrity travel guides. That has been put on hold. Lycett’s career began a decade ago when, a year after he won Chortle’s Student Comedian of the Year, he took the Best Newcomer title. Just 12 months later, he was co-hosting a Saturday-night
