Joe Lycett's Got Your Back is a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

consumer affairs comedy programme. It is presented by the titular comedian

Joe Lycett Joe Harry Lycett, also known by the self-given moniker Mummy, is an English comedian, painter and television presenter. Known for his sardonically camp style, whimsical public stunts and elaborate set designs, Lycett has been described as one ...

, with assistance from deadpan comedian Mark Silcox, plus a guest television personality. The programme also contains pieces from comedians Rosie Jones and

Sophie Duker Sophie Duker (born 1989/1990) is a British stand-up comedian and writer. Early life Duker was born in London to first-generation immigrants from West Africa. Her mother is from Cameroon and her father is from Ghana. She studied French and Engli ...

. 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 Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...

over a parking issue that went viral, involving a humorous exchange of email messages between himself and the council. This got picked up by the production company Rumpus Media and led to the creation of his own show about consumer affairs. Asked about the show, Lycett said he wanted to create a "sexy ''

Watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watch Dog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...

''".

Notable cases

Boss Brewing vs. Hugo Boss

In the second series, the show tackled a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

issue between the Welsh brewer

Boss Brewing Boss Brewing is a craft brewery in Swansea, South Wales, founded in 2014 by husband and wife Sarah and Roy Allkin. In May 2015 the brewery received a Society of Independent Brewers Gold Award and was awarded CAMRA's Champion Beer of Wales award ...

and the German fashion house

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, is a luxury fashion house headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and fragrances. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing companies, ...

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 Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscript ...

''Boss Black'', as the name was already a trademark for Hugo Boss. In response, Lycett changed his personal name by

deed poll A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding on a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an intention or create an obligation. It is a deed, and not a contract because it binds only one party (law), party. Et ...

to Hugo Boss, and created a

fashion runway Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

for a

wrist brace A wrist brace is a supportive garment worn around the wrist to reinforce and protect it against strains and sprains during strong use, or as a splint to help healing. Wrist braces are common accessories in injury rehabilitation processes involv ...

, which the fashion house didn't have the trademark rights to, outside on a public street at the atelier's flagship store in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

, London. After the show was aired, the fashion house withdrew the complaint and agreed that the brewery could use Boss on its beers. Due to the name change, Lycett was known as Hugo Boss both personally and professionally for seven weeks between March and April 2020, and the programme was temporarily renamed to ''Hugo Boss's Got Your Back'' during the second series.

Ross McEwan

''Got Your Back'' took on a case in which a nurse who had been scammed out of £11,800 by a

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

ster, who posed as an employee from her bank

NatWest National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it ...

, and did not receive a full refund from the bank. Initially, NatWest only refunded £3,800 to the customer, but claimed the rest could not be retrieved as the nurse should have been aware of

scammers A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

. In response, the programme tried to

impersonate An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...

the head of the banking group at the time,

Ross McEwan Ross Maxwell McEwan (born 16 July 1957) is a New Zealand banker, and the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of National Australia Bank. He was previously the chief executive officer (CEO) of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group ...

, on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. After building a convincing profile, they then later put out multiple prank tweets, one of which said "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. After a review of what had happened to the customer, in response to the programme's investigations, the bank apologised to their customer for failing to acknowledged she had been victim of a highly suspicious fraud that had fooled her completely, and agreed to fully refund the remaining balance she was owed.

Uber Eats

The

food delivery Retail food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either through a restaurant or grocer's website or mobile app, or through a food ...

company

Uber Eats Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014. Meals are delivered by couriers using cars, scooters, bikes, or on foot. It is operational in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries as of 2021. The process of ...

came under scrutiny by the programme, after receiving reports that food being delivered by them were coming from

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s and

takeaway A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

establishments that had a hygiene rating of zero from the

Food Standards Agency , type = Non-ministerial government department , nativename = , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Food Standards Agency.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , ...

. The rating established that hygiene conditions of food retailers were extremely poor - some restaurants were found to have

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

living in the kitchen and

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

being stored inappropriately, thus placing customers at serious risk of exposure to

food poisoning Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...

including

salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...

. An investigation discovered several restaurant and takeaway shops on Uber Eats website that had a zero food hygiene rating. To determine how the company was at failing to provide adequate food safety protection for their customers, ''Got Your Back'' set up their own takeaway called ''"Le Sauter"'' which was based in an old

skip Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aidin ...

on a car park with no legal permits. Despite failing every possible hygiene test, the programme's investigation discovered that Uber Eats made no checks on their establishment whatsoever, nor did their delivery drivers notice that the food being offered was unfit for consumption. In response to the programme's findings, Uber Eats promised to make significant changes, including a requirement that all restaurants and takeaway establishments would require a rating from the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme of two or higher to make use of the company's webservice.

Hermes

In the third series, the programme conducted an investigation against the

parcel delivery Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shippi ...

company

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...

, in regards to mishandling several of their deliveries that their customers had complained about. One complaint came from a small

dog bed Animal furniture refers both to furniture used by animals and to furniture made from animals. Furniture for animals Known as "pet furniture", furniture designed for use by animals became a popular Fad, trend in the early 21st century. Typical p ...

company, which had used Hermes to courier a distinctive dog bed to a customer, worth £142. However, the dog bed never reached the customer, and the company later found the item on sale on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

, with the delivery note highlighted on the website amongst several screenshots of the product. Hermes failed to explain why the item was never delivered and only paid a nominal £20 as compensation, despite having mishandled other items for the company. The programme opted to investigate the complaints, after learning that Hermes often sent items it could not deliver or claimed to have lost to auction. Undercover investigators discovered that an auction house regularly received from Hermes around 60% of undelivered or lost items, despite a significant number bearing delivery notes with clear information on when it had been sent, who the recipient was, and the return address of the sender. Hermes responded to the allegations by compensating several customers whose items had been wrongfully sent to auction, after being presented with the programme's findings.

Awards

In 2021, the programme won the prestigious

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

Programme Award for Best Formatted Popular Factual.

References

External links

*
''Joe Lycett's Got Your Back''
at

All 4 All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required ...

British Comedy Guide - Joe Lycett's Got Your Back
{{Consumer protection Channel 4 original programming Channel 4 comedy 2019 British television series debuts 2010s British comedy television series 2020s British comedy television series Consumer protection in the United Kingdom Consumer protection television series English-language television shows BAFTA winners (television series)