Joe Lycett's Got Your Back is a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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

Joe Lycett Joe Harry Lycett (born 1988), also known by the self-given moniker "Mummy", and officially self-renamed briefly as Hugo Boss in 2020, is a British comedian, television presenter, and painter. He has appeared on many TV shows, including '' Live ...

, with assistance from deadpan comedian

Mark Silcox Mark Silcox is a comedian and actor who has been performing since 2008. He is most known for being a stand-up, making it to the finals of the BBC New Comedy Award in 2013 and being one of several Asian comedians to be featured on BBC's ''The B ...

, plus a guest television personality. The programme also contains pieces from comedians

Rosie Jones Rosie Luisa Jones (born 24 June 1990) is a British comedian, writer and actress. After starting her career as a writer on panel shows, she went on to appear as a guest on '' The Last Leg'', ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdo ...

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 attended North London Col ...

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

Premise

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. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the ...

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 Watchdog, 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 form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

issue between the Welsh brewer Boss Brewing and the German fashion house

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG (stylized in all caps) is a designer fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, Fashion accessory, accessories, footwear, and Leather, leather goods. Hugo Boss is one of the ...

. The fashion house said that the brewery couldn't use the name ''Boss'' on the brewery's beer including the brewery's

stout Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale. The first known use of the word "stout" for beer is in a document dated 1677 in the E ...

''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. Etymology Th ...

to Hugo Boss, and created a

fashion runway Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

for a

wrist brace In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carpal ...

, 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 IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

, 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''.

Ross McEwan

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

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

ster posing as an employee from her bank

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

. Initially, NatWest only refunded £3,800, and said the rest could not be retrieved as the nurse should have been aware of scammers. In response, the programme tried to impersonate the head of

NatWest Group NatWest Group plc is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group operates a wide variety of banking brands offering personal and business banking, private banking, investment banking, insurance and ...

at the time,

Ross McEwan Ross Maxwell McEwan (born 16 July 1957) is a New Zealand banker, and former 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 Gr ...

, on social media. After building a profile, they then later put out multiple prank tweets, one of which said "I've got a smelly bum bum". Later, Lycett went to the bank's headquarters in London and made a scene in the reception, pretending to have a meeting with the bank's chief executive. In response to the programme's investigations the bank reviewed what had happened, and apologised to their customer for failing to acknowledge she had been victim of a highly suspicious fraud that had fooled her completely. They agreed to fully refund the remaining balance she was owed.

Uber Eats

Uber Eats Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by the company Uber in 2014. It is operational in over 6,000 cities in 45 countries as of 2021. History Uber Eats' parent company Uber was founded in 2009 by Garrett ...

came under scrutiny after the show received reports that food was coming from establishments that had a hygiene rating of zero from the

Food Standards Agency The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is led by a board appoin ...

. Some restaurants were found to have mice living in the kitchen, and chicken was being stored inappropriately. Both placed customers at serious risk of food poisoning, including salmonella. ''Got Your Back'' set up their own takeaway called ''"Le Sauter"'', which was based in an old skip and had no legal permits. Despite failing every possible hygiene test, Uber Eats made no checks on the 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 that they would require all restaurants and takeaway establishments to have a rating from the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme of two or higher.

Hermes (Evri)

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

were investigated after multiple customers complained about mishandling of their deliveries. One complaint came from a small company that made dog beds, which had used Hermes to courier a distinctive dog bed to a customer - but the dog bed never reached the customer, and the company later found the item on sale on eBay. The delivery note was visible amongst several screenshots of the product on the website. Hermes failed to explain why the item was never delivered and only paid a nominal £20 as compensation, despite this not being the first time they had failed to deliver the company's parcels. The programme makers learned 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 undelivered or lost items from Hermes, 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. After being presented with the programme's findings, Hermes responded by compensating several customers whose items had been wrongfully sent to auction.

Boohoo.com

Boohoo.com Debenhams Group plc, trading as Debenhams Group (also known as Debenhams, formerly known as Boohoo Group plc) is a British online fast-fashion retailer group, aimed at 16- to 30-year-olds. The business was founded in 2006 and had sales of £8 ...

and its sister company

PrettyLittleThing PrettyLittleThing is a UK-based fast-fashion retailer, aimed at 16- to 24-year-old women. The company is owned by Debenhams Group and operates in the UK, Ireland, Australia, US, France, Middle East and North Africa. The brand's headquarters are ...

were discovered selling stained clothes and many customers received the same item they had sent back. Customers' complaints ranged from food stains to several types of

bodily fluids Body fluids, bodily fluids, or biofluids, sometimes body liquids, are liquids within the body of an organism. In lean healthy adult men, the total body water is about 60% (60–67%) of the total body weight; it is usually slightly lower in women ...

. Lycett then gave the company the nickname of ''Poohoo'', in reference to frequent

faeces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...

markings on clothes. He then got his team together and they bought products, stained them and got a full refund. They then managed to receive the same item four times. Following the programme's findings, Boohoo.com apologised and said that quality control would be increased and something like this should never happen again.

Awards

In 2021, the programme won the RTS Programme Award for Best Formatted Popular Factual.

References

External links

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

All 4 Channel 4 (previously 4oD and All 4) is a video on demand service from 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 ...

British Comedy Guide - Joe Lycett's Got Your Back
{{Consumer protection 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 British English-language television shows BAFTA winners (television series)