Joe Lycett is opening his own East London pub for a new six-part live entertainment series on Channel 4. The Lycett Arms will air live on Friday nights at 10pm later in 2026, with each hour-long episode taking place inside Joe’s technicolour, paisley-carpeted boozer. The pub will only open for one hour each week, although Joe still has to complete the full licensing process before he is legally allowed to serve alcohol.
That means filling in the required forms, completing an approved training course and passing an exam for his Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders, all for a pub created largely to make six episodes of television. “I’ve always wanted to run a pub that only exists for an hour a week, for the purposes of a TV concept,” Joe said. “Filling in government-mandated paperwork has always been a passion of mine.” He added that the only disappointment was having to make a television series alongside all the admin, before promising celebrity conversations and comedy that will brighten Friday evenings for six weeks.
Each episode will welcome a different celebrity pub manager alongside regulars, old friends and strangers. The Lycett Arms will also twin with a local pub elsewhere in the UK every week, celebrating the people and stories that make Britain’s pubs special. Channel 4 describes the series as a love letter to the great British pub, with the live format leaving plenty of room for things to go wrong. The broadcaster promises an anarchic atmosphere, with the wheels potentially coming off at any moment.
The series is produced by Bango Studios and Joe’s production company, My Options Were Ltd. Joe serves as an executive producer alongside Iain Wimbush and Emily Hudd.
For CultureCues, the fact that Joe is genuinely going through the full licensing process and all that paperwork for a pub that will only open for one hour a week is hilarious, and very him. A live Friday-night series with celebrity guests and no real idea what might happen once the cameras start rolling sounds brilliantly unpredictable. We will gladly pull up a stool when The Lycett Arms opens its doors.
The Lycett Arms will air live on Channel 4 at 10pm on Fridays later in 2026.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.