Joe Lycett's Got Your Back

Joe Lycett's Got Your Back
Also known as	Hugo Boss's Got Your Back
Genre	Comedy Consumer Affairs
Presented by	Joe Lycett Mark Silcox Rosie Jones Sophie Duker
Theme music composer	Holley Gray
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	22
Production
Running time	30 minutes (inc. adverts) (series 1) 60 minutes (inc. adverts) (series 2 & 3)
Production company	Rumpus Media
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Picture format	16:9 (1080i HDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	5 April 2019 (2019-04-05) – present
External links
Channel 4 - Joe Lycett's Got Your Back
Production website

Joe Lycett's Got Your Back is a Channel 4 consumer affairs comedy programme. It is presented by the titular comedian Joe Lycett, with assistance from deadpan comedian Mark Silcox, plus a guest television personality. The programme also contains pieces from comedians Rosie Jones and Sophie Duker.

The show involves the presenters doing comedic skits explaining and resolving consumer issues that viewers have raised to the programme.

Premises[]

Before the programme, Lycett's own comedic stand-up show often involves a previous complaint he had with Leeds City Council over a parking issue that went viral. He utilised the fact that he had a degree in English at University of Manchester, to make a humorous email exchange between him and the council over this issue.^[1][2] This got picked up by the production company Rumpus Media and together created his own show about consumer affairs. Asked about the show, Lycett said he wanted to create a "sexy Watchdog".^[3]

Notable cases[]

Boss Brewing vs. Hugo Boss[]

In the second series, the show tackled a trademark issue between the Welsh brewer Boss Brewing and the German fashion house Hugo Boss over the trademark "Boss". Hugo Boss said that the brewery couldn't use the name Boss on the brewery's beer including the brewery's stout Boss Black, as the name was already a trademark for Hugo Boss.^[4] Lycett as a joke, changed his personal name by deed poll to Hugo Boss,^[5] and created a fashion runway for a wrist brace, which the fashion house doesn't have the trademark rights to, outside on a public street at the atelier’s flagship store in Regent Street, London. After the show was aired, the fashion house receded the complaint and agreed that the brewery could use Boss on its beers.^[6]

Due to the name change, Lycett was known as Hugo Boss both personally and professionally for seven weeks between March and April 2020,^[7][8] and the programme was temporarily renamed to Hugo Boss's Got Your Back during the second series.

Ross McEwan[]

A nurse was scammed by a fraudster pretending to be from her bank NatWest, and asking her to move £11,800 from her savings account to two savings accounts owned by the fraudster. Initially NatWest was only able to retrieve £3800 from one of the savings account and said that they couldn't retrieve any more, saying that customers should be aware of scammers. After hearing the case, the programme tried to impersonate the head of the banking group at the time, Ross McEwan on social media. After building a convincing profile, they then later put out a prank tweet saying "I've got a smelly bum bum". Later, Lycett made a scene in the reception by pretending to be bank's chief executive in the bank's headquarters in London.^[9]

After a review of what happened to the customer, the bank said they were deeply sorry about being victim to a highly suspicious fraud and agreed to fully refund her money.

Uber Eats[]

Reports were made to the show that the food delivery company Uber Eats were selling and delivering food from restaurants and takeaways that came from establishments that a hygiene rating of zero from Food Standards Agency. Food retailers that have a rating of zero, include restaurants that possibly have live mice in the kitchen and chicken being stored inappropriately, which could potentially give customers food poisoning including salmonella.

The programme decided to see whether if it was possible. They did this by creating a takeaway called "Le Sauter"^[10] which was based in a old skip on a car park with no legal permits. They later discovered it was not only possible, the company did no checks on establishment whatsoever. Afterwards they then sent meals from zero hygiene rated restaurants to Uber Eats UK's headquarters in London by mocking their delivery service.^[11]

Subsequently Uber Eats said they were concerned about the issues raised and would not sell food from unlicensed establishments and require a rating from the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme of two or higher.^[12]

Hermes[]

A bespoke dog bed company Barka Parka ^[13] contacted the programme about a situation in relation to a missing dog bed. The company said that they had couriered a distinctive dog bed to a customer by notable parcel delivery company Hermes. Hermes said that they had lost the parcel in transit, and compensated Barka Parka for the lost at a nominal £20, despite the bed costing £142. Barka Parka later found the dog bed for sale on eBay, and later contacted the police and the programme. It was later discovered that Hermes regularly sold by auction, parcels it had claimed it lost despite the items having legible names, addresses, and tracking numbers. ^[14]

See also[]

• Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant – a documentary produced by Lycett and Rumpus Media
• That's Life! – a BBC magazine programme that included consumer affairs journalism and comedic skits
• Watchdog – a BBC consumer affairs programme

References[]

External links[]

• Joe Lycett's Got Your Back at IMDb
• Joe Lycett's Got Your Back at All 4
• British Comedy Guide - Joe Lycett's Got Your Back