Not Going Out has had a major refresh in its 14th season – but does it still work?

That landlady wasn't Sally Bretton's Lucy. No, at first it was Megan Dodds's Kate, with Bretton only joining in season 2, even if she was filling out a very similar role.

Over the years, cast members came and went – Tim Vine, Miranda Hart and Katy Wix were among those to play major roles in the early years, only to eventually be forgotten to history within the series, which doesn't do a whole lot of looking back.

The biggest change thus far came in 2014, when Lee and Lucy finally got together and, indeed, got married, paving the way for an eighth season where, years in the future, the duo were parents to three children.

Now, after six seasons of the show as a family sitcom, Not Going Out has changed things up once again, this time in a similarly dramatic fashion.

In the new episodes, Lee and Lucy have aged remarkably well, as we jump forward into a future where the kids have gone off to university, leaving them to move house to a new empty nest, a "forever home".

Gone are the supporting cast – the kids are nowhere to be seen, Lee and Lucy's friends Toby (Hugh Dennis) and Anna (Abigail Cruttenden) don't pop round once, and we don't hear a peep from Lucy's parents (Geoffrey Whitehead and Deborah Grant) in the new run.

There's also been a format change for the new season. Where previous episodes dabbled in real-time storytelling as a one-off, this time around, every episode takes place in real-time, giving us a snapshot into Lee and Lucy's lives and simplifying the stories.

The question is – does it actually all work? Or should the series have stopped at 100, bowed out with a milestone (and a really rather strong episode, Wilfred)?

Thankfully, I can report that, for the most part, the changes work. In fact, in streamlining things quite as much as this move has, Mack and his co-writer Daniel Peak have secured its future for a long time to come, should they wish to continue, and in doing so kept the studio sitcom alive – again.

Lee and Lucy's parenting years worked surprisingly well, given that they were in such stark contrast to the entire premise of what had come before, but they were always somewhat time-dated.

Unlike animated shows like The Simpsons, which can keep the children young forever, Not Going Out had to eventually move on as the child actors aged.

It's also true to say that while the series was definitely interested in parenting over those years, it was never actually that interested in the children themselves. Even in the surprisingly few episodes in which they did appear, they usually played a very minor role in proceedings, with more focus on Lee and Lucy talking about them.

Stripping everything back may seem like a drastic move to act upon a minor problem, but, in many ways, it's a welcome one.

The series doesn't make these changes lightly either. It isn't simply moving things into the future to get around the issue of ageing child actors, but it actually does, in a number of its episodes, feel like a show which is now interested in the process of getting older and in and nostalgia.

This is particularly noticeable in three episodes – House Move, Campervan and Oasis – the first of which is probably the new season's strongest link.

The final episode, Hotel Room, is also notably strong. Not Going Out has always been at its best when playing 'comedy of errors' type beats, with increasingly ridiculous lies being told and manoeuvring being made, simply to get out of an embarrassing bind.

The quick-fire jokes themselves remain the show's raison d'etre and Mack's USP, but arguably the best thing about studio comedy is often the physical gags and the way you can ramp these up for a live audience.

The other change to the format for this year, the episode's structure, is slightly less successful. That's not to say these aren't, on the whole, strong episodes, and it doesn't diminish the season in any way. In fact, it does add a certain level of immersion which some previous instalments have lacked.

However, one can't help but feel that the format does somewhat box the stories in, and stops them from feeling as unique from one another. It's a neat writing challenge, and a strict structure can help to keep things focussed, but Mack and Peak shouldn't allow themselves to feel constrained by it in future.

In a sitcom like this, variety is key. Now that Not Going Out has proven its ability to continue long into the future, and to reinvent itself whenever is needed, the team should be free to experiment, and switch between different types of episodes to ensure that variety.

This rings true for the slimming down of the cast, too. The fact that it works with just Lee and Lucy as returning characters was never really in question, but it's a positive sign that it does so here for six episodes back to back.

Now, one would hope that the writers feel free to add some of the supporting cast back in where it works and where it makes sense, even if just for solo episodes.

They don't have to pop in every week, but the occasional visit from Geoffrey and Wendy, or even characters from the show's past such as Tim or Daisy, would help to utilise the comic talents of the stars and their already established characters, without tying any of the actors down for a full season of TV.

In truth, any of these points of concern are about looking to the future, rather than examining this current batch of episodes. These season feels like a refreshing blend of a slightly new approach with the established elements of the show that fans know and love.

The question is whether some of the changes can be sustained for as long as the parenting era lasted, AKA six years. In answer to that, I would say this season proves it doesn't have to.

With a slimmed down cast of Lee and Lucy at its core, and no need to tell a particular type of story, Mack, Peak, Bretton and the rest of their collaborators can feel free to keep inventing, keep experimenting and keep changing what we expect from Not Going Out.

That way, almost 20 years in, the show can continue to prove there is still plenty of life in this delightfully old-school studio sitcom.

Not Going Out is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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