Lee Mack lied to Tim Key to keep his 'Inside No. 9' episode a secret.
Lee Mack even lied to his friends
The 'Would I Lie To You?' star shocked fans with his appearance in an episode of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's horror comedy anthology series but the trio pulled the wool over everyone's eyes.
Viewers thought they were would be seeing an 'On the Buses' parody called 'Hold On Tight', but it was replaced on the scheduled by new game show '3 by 3' - hosted by Lee - which ended up being a very dark episode of 'Inside No. 9' after all.
The big reveal came at the very end, and Lee told RadioTimes.com: "It was very secretive – the hardest thing was actually keeping it quiet.
"Me and Steve Pemberton went out that night with Tim Key, and they're good mates and I know Tim quite well, but we weren't allowed to tell him.
"We had this weird conversation where I had to pretend to be doing something else – lying to him."
The 55-year-old star started to panic that he would get rumbled if the story spread and people started to pick holes his lie.
Lee added: "I said I was doing a real quiz show, and he said, 'Who for? Don't you already do one?'
"And then I got worried that other people would find out and then I shouldn't be doing another quiz show because I'm already doing one. It's very messy."
Meanwhile, Reece and Steve previously confirmed the show will end with its upcoming ninth and final series.
Taking to X - formerly Twitter - Reece recently confirmed: "We've been writing the last ever episode of 'Inside No.9' and it feels very strange and a bit said. But there you go. Everything must end."
However, Steve previously teased: "You could easily do specials and stuff like that.
"But for us and for the poor audience... I think it's good to know we are finishing after [season] 9, but we won't say 'lock the door and throw away the key.' "
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