COMIC Lee Mack has revealed nervy BBC bosses forced him to edit a strip club scene on his hit sitcom Not Going Out.

Execs asked Mack, who writes and stars in the long-running show, to cover up dancers’ nipples over fears of complaints.

Lee Mack has revealed BBC bosses forced him to edit a strip club scene on his sitcom Credit: PA

Comic Lee on his hit sitcom Not Going Out Credit: BBC

Lee said: “For reasons I’ve never quite understood, suddenly we were told, ‘The BBC has decided we’ve got to be very careful what is said on the BBC’.

“So they said, ‘On that episode you’ve got to get rid of all the nipples at the lap dancing club’.”

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The directive came around the time of the outcry over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s ‘Sachsgate’ scandal.

In 2008 the media duo left crude answerphone messages for actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

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The broadcast sparked a massive public backlash, a record number of complaints and a £150,000 fine from Ofcom.

Mack admitted: “It was around the time that the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand ringing up Andrew Sachs story was everywhere.

“Because, as you know, if you ring up Andrew Sachs and do a joke, the best way to stop that happening again is to get rid of the nipples on a studio sitcom.

“So we suddenly had to edit the whole thing.

“It was at Barry Island in a lap dancing club and we used real lap dancers for the scene.

“Young comics aren’t making studio sitcoms and that’s been very handy for me.

“But from what I’m told the BBC would love more studio sitcoms.

“But the snobs aren’t watching, the industry is not watching it.

“They don’t see it as highbrow enough.”