Have I Got News for You

Have I Got News for You
File:Have I Got News For You Logo.png
Presented by	Angus Deayton (1990–2002) Guest presenters (2002–present)
Starring	Ian Hislop, Paul Merton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	34 (Episode List)
No. of episodes	290
Production
Producer	Hat Trick Productions
Running time	30 minutes (edited) 40 minutes (unedited)
Original release
Network	BBC Two (1990–2000) BBC One (2000–present)
Release	28 September, 1990 – present

Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show; produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been running since 1990. The show has cultivated a reputation for sailing close to the wind in matters of libel with its satirical, light-hearted format.

The BBC have signed up for the show to run until at least its 38th series; given that two series are broadcast every year, this would bring it to the end of 2009.

Participants

The original line-up, from 1990 to 2002, was Angus Deayton as chairman, with Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, and comedian Paul Merton as team captains. Each captain is accompanied by a guest, usually a politician, journalist or comedian, or somebody particularly relevant to recent news.

Merton took a break from Have I Got News for You during the eleventh series in 1996, making only one appearance as a guest on Hislop's team. He was replaced as opposing team captain by various people, most notably Eddie Izzard. Merton later explained that at the time he was "very tired" of the show and that he thought it had become "stuck in a rut". Nevertheless, he added that he felt his absence gave the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since".

In May 2002, following newspaper headlines of his (adulterous) use of a prostitute and illegal drugs, Deayton was ridiculed on the show by Merton and Hislop (along with guests Ken Livingstone and Dave Gorman). After further ribbings from Christina Hamilton in the following week's episode, Deayton was fired as presenter. Since then, the show has been hosted by a different guest presenter each week.

Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, and was described as "merciless" in his treatment of his former co-star. A series of guest hosts appeared for the remainder of the season, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Hislop, therefore, is the only person to have appeared in every episode — despite suffering from a burst appendix shortly before one edition and having to go to hospital immediately afterwards.

Despite a search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful, with average audience figures increasing from 6 million to 7 million. It was therefore announced in June 2003 that this feature would continue.

Format

The Have I Got News For You studio

Have I Got News for You began on BBC Two on 28 September 1990 and transferred to BBC One in October 2000. "Myself and Ian, we did a disastrous pilot for it," Paul Merton explained nine years later. "It was a beautiful summer's afternoon in 1990. Far too nice to be in a television studio, but I think the BBC had already bought it, so that's how it became a series."

Two series are made every year: the spring series between April to June comprises eight episodes and the autumn series between October to December contains nine, with a one-week break to allow the broadcasting of Children in Need.

Over an hour's worth of material is recorded for each 30-minute programme on Thursday evenings for broadcast on Friday, allowing the programme to remain topical while the BBC's lawyers have time to request cuts of potentially libellous material. "No reviewer could possibly review it in that time. We started off with an audience of two million, and somebody might have mentioned it to their friend, and then it sort of built up a momentum of its own."

In recent years, the late-night weekend repeat has occasionally contained extra material from the week's recording. This became a permanent feature from the spring 2007 series, with the repeat having a running time of 40 minutes, and being titled (in the TV listings) Have I Got a Bit More News for You.

The programme is recorded at the London Studios, former home of London Weekend Television, although the 2001 Election special episode was recorded at BBC Television Centre on the Friday morning after the election. The quiz aspect and scores are largely ignored in favour of the panellists' witty exchanges and jokes, and the format seems to change frequently.

"There's been a lot of confusion, with people saying, 'Well, they see the questions beforehand,' which we do," revealed Merton in 1999. "But some people say we see the answers, which we don't, because that would rob it of being a quiz."

"There is a certain amount of showbusiness that goes on in putting on a show," continued Merton. "We found very early on that it's worth seeing the questions beforehand so that you can work out your depth of ignorance. If you really don't know, you think, 'Well, I've really got to try and say something here.' It's much better to be doing that for ten or fifteen minutes before the show than be doing it when the cameras are rolling, in front of an audience, going, 'Well, who's he?'"

"Norman Tebbit wrote an article in The Mail on Sunday criticising the whole programme: 'Well, of course Have I Got News for You is all edited. These people, they couldn't improvise live. You put them on a stage, they wouldn't be able to improvise.' Well, when Norman Tebbit said I couldn't improvise, I was... [blows out cheeks and then goes silent]."

Opening

Proceedings usually begin with a one-liner. In the time of Angus Deayton, these took the form of such quips as:

"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You, the show that's done for Friday and Saturday nights what ten pints of lager does for Sunday mornings."

"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You, the show that does for comedy....."

More recently, with the guest presenters, these have been amusing comments referring to the hosts themselves, such as

"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You. My name is Boris Johnson and when I last appeared on this show, I complained that it was fully scripted and rehearsed. I'd now like to contend, in the strongest possible terms, that it isn't."

"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You. My name is Dara Ó Briain. Yes, it's only a week after the General Election and already an immigrant is doing this job... You really should have listened to Michael Howard."

"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You. My name is Alexander Armstrong, and if I seem familiar to you, it's because I'm a regular on ITV. Footballers' Wives, Coronation Street, Emmerdale. You name it, I've done some adverts in the middle of it."

In one episode, guest host and British Indian comic Sanjeev Bhaskar opened the show in Punjabi.

Following this, "In the news this week...": three video clips are displayed, each supplied with a scripted, humorous caption from the host who then proceeds to introduce that week's guests, with a jocular remark for each.

Main section

The main section of the show comprises several rounds, although, as noted above, this is liable to change. They usually consist of the following:

• "Film Round", in which silent news video clips are played to the teams, who then identify them and add their own views, including rants and jokes on vaguely relevant subjects.
• "Tabloid Headlines", in which the panellists must identify and comment on the stories of the week from sufficiently pun-filled tabloid headlines.
  • In recent series, this has sometimes been replaced with either the "Picture-Spin Quiz", where a picture is spun around and the teams have to guess what news story it is related to or the "Wheel of News", in which the host spins a wheel and the teams have to guess how the resulting person or object is relevant to the week's news.
  • In some cases it could even be some kind of topical buzzer round, but is sometimes replaced with a quiz game pertinent to the current guests, for example a mock Mastermind game when Magnús Magnússon appeared and a "Kick Blair's Butt" quiz when Boris Johnson MP guest hosted for the first time.
• "Odd One Out", where four personalities, characters or objects are presented to a team, whereupon it must identify the interloper, and the topical, amusing or ridiculously obscure link between the other three. In one episode, Merton's "Odd One Out" selection consisted of 16 images and in another, the round comprised four photos of Michael Howard.
• "Missing Words", where newspaper headlines are displayed, with choice words blanked out. The panellists then suggest what these could be. Also usually featured is an obscure "guest publication" from which some of the headlines are taken. In the past, these have included Goat World, Arthritis News, International Car Park Design and Diarrhoea Digest. Examples of Missing Words are "I'll take Edward up the _____", "Church may be forced to sell _____" and "PM sucked into _____".
• Occasionally, just after the final scores are read out, there is a Caption Competition, where potentially amusing pictures are shown, to which the panellists are invited to provide an apt headline.

Despite the fact that Merton is a comedian and Hislop a current affairs magazine editor, the former usually wins, often by answering questions that were actually addressed to the other team.

Rounding off

Deayton typically rounded up the scores with amusing summaries, such as "This week's dog's dinners are [...], while this week's dog's bollocks are..." He also awarded 'prizes': for example "So, for our winners: the chance to go to Michael Portillo's constituency and see the count. For our losers: the chance to retype that sentence without the spelling mistake." The host then thanks the guests and ends with "I leave you with news that...", providing scripted, satirical captions to a further few pictures.

Notable moments

File:Hignfy.jpg

The Very Best of Have I Got News for You DVD cover. L-R: Ian Hislop, Angus Deayton, Paul Merton.

• One of the biggest laughs of the show's first year came when the Missing Words round posed the question '"I made Thatcher ____ ", boasts Nigel', to which Merton (perhaps spurred on by the presence of Tony Slattery on Hislop's team) suggested, "Swallow?" Deayton replied, "No, it's not a reference to food."
• When Roy Hattersley failed to appear for the 4 June 1993 episode — it was the third time he had cancelled at the last minute — he was replaced with a tub of lard (credited as "The Rt. Hon. Tub of Lard MP"), as it was "imbued with much the same qualities and liable to give a similar performance". The Tub of Lard was on Merton's team and, though Hislop suggested things were too formal and suggested they name the 'guest' "Tubby", Merton insisted: "Mr Lard to you." He and the lard went on to win. This was despite the fact that Merton's team's questions were made deliberately hard — especially those directly posed to his 'guest'. The Missing Words round featured foreign headlines, in languages such as French, German, Russian and even Japanese. The final one was in English, but the entire headline had been blanked out. Despite this Paul still won the show.
• When Piers Morgan was a guest in 1996, he came across as very thin-skinned and demanded the others (and in particular, Hislop) cease their "vindictive attacks" on him as he "demanded his privacy". Clive Anderson (replacing Merton as team captain that week) scathingly joked that the Daily Mirror was now, thanks to Morgan, almost as good as The Sun, and when asked by Morgan, "What do you know about editing newspapers?" replied, "About as much as you do". In what was not Morgan's finest moment, when shown his question in the Odd One Out round (Rupert Allason; Sting; a koala; Geoffrey Clements) he responded, "Is the answer 'jam'?" in reference to a joke made by Eddie Izzard the previous week, saying, "Last week Eddie Izzard said it and everyone roared with laughter as if it was hilarious." Hislop retorted that Izzard got a laugh because "People like him". When Hislop successfully made the 'jam' joke later in the programme, Morgan replied, "Don't play the popularity line with me, Hislop", before appealing to the audience: "Does anyone like him?" The audience responded loudly in favour of Hislop. In his autobiographical book, The Insider, Morgan claims that he was joking throughout and was surprised that viewers took the arguments seriously.
• Conservative Member of Parliament and journalist Boris Johnson has had several memorable appearances on the show, which arguably raised his public profile and later led to him being asked to be a guest presenter. The first, in 1998, Johnson seemed to take the ribbing in good humour and eventually admitted defeat and announced that he wanted it "on the record" that he'd "walked straight into a massive elephant trap". In a later appearance in 2001 he was subjected to a spoof round of Mastermind where he managed to get his name wrong before being asked questions on the then leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, ending up with a score of 0. His mobile phone also rang earlier in the same episode.
• On the episode where the main news story of the week had been the allegations about Deayton, the presenter was made the butt of almost every joke. The show opened as normal, but as soon as he asked Hislop the first question, Merton said, "This has been one news story of the week but the one I'm really interested in, Angus, is..." He and Hislop then managed to turn nearly every subsequent question into a comment on Deayton's behaviour. The host took the light-hearted abuse well, opening the show with: "Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You, where this week's loser is presenting it," later adding, "Do not adjust your set, my face really is this red." Towards the end of the show Merton pretended to apologise for his behaviour and on behalf of his opposing captain for going to the trouble of bringing in newspapers showing the headlines, before unzipping his jacket to reveal the relevant News of the World front page printed on his t-shirt. During the end-of-show retakes, Deayton commented on the teams' low scores. Merton replied, "It wasn't the winning that was important tonight: it was the being here."
• The first real 'guest' presenter was Anne Robinson, and at the beginning of the show, during her opening greeting, she pointed to the fact that on a previous show Paul Merton had mocked her about her famous wink that she did on Points of View and The Weakest Link, saying that it made her look like she had had a stroke. So after declaring that there were no hard feelings, she proceeded to give Ian Hislop five points. However, when Hislop made continual Robert Maxwell references during the course of the episode (alluding to the large payments Robinson received from her former employer), she gave Merton more points. Merton then went on to lampoon The Weakest Link ("I only watch the last five minutes because The Simpsons comes on afterwards. It's nice to see some animation on the television screen"). In another reference to The Weakest Link, Merton shouted "Bank" twice during random points of the show.

File:Hignfy bruce cards.png

Bruce Forsyth revives his role from 1980s quiz show Play Your Cards Right using the Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards: one of several of his shows to be satirised. Merton exclaimed, "I've been waiting 14 years for the show to be like this."

• In 2004, Robert Kilroy-Silk was fired from his position as host of a daytime chat show (Kilroy) by the BBC, following an article he had written for the Daily Express entitled "We owe Arabs nothing", which was widely condemned as racist. He appeared on Have I Got News for You a few weeks later and after being constantly interrupted by his team mate, Paul Merton launched into a tirade against the former MP. In answer to his claim that Arabs had contributed nothing to society in the last 500 years, Merton said, "Shakespeare hasn't done much in 500 years either. What's your contribution been, Robert? Say in the last twenty years. When you weren't doing your show. When you weren't doing that crap show, what's your contribution been to society?". The unedited clip on disc 2 of Best of the Guest Presenters Vol. 2 DVD shows Merton losing his temper at Kilroy-Silk for persistently interrupting during the Odd One Out round, telling him repeatedly to "Shut the fuck up!"
• In the edition broadcast 12 October 2007, Hislop sarcastically referred to Wikipedia as "that reliable tool for all of us". This referred to the obituaries of recently-deceased TV theme composer Ronnie Hazlehurst, in which many British media organisations reported that he had co-written the S Club 7 song "Reach". In fact, he hadn't, and it was discovered that this information had been sourced from a hoax edit to Hazlehurst's Wikipedia article.

Running gags

• The longest running gag in the programme first emerged in 1992 when Merton revealed that he achieved a CSE ungraded qualification in metalwork at school in an effort to prove the rather less classical nature of his education in comparison to Hislop's. As of 2007, this gag is still occasionally made. This originates from both Merton's appearances on Just a Minute and his stand-up routine. In the commentary on the original Best of DVD, Merton states that he had a conversation with Stephen Fry about this "stupid metalwork thing" and had trouble convincing Fry that it was in fact true and not just made up for the sake of comedy.
• John Prescott's alleged appetite and weight is the subject of continual ridicule. On one episode guest host Michael Buerk said, "People should stop tip-toeing around him," as Merton added, "It would take a bloody long time."
• Merton occasionally jokes about Hislop constantly losing, or being out of touch with popular culture. Some of the other guests have picked up on this. After being asked a question about Wayne Rooney recently, his fellow team member Julia Hartley-Brewer said, "Do you know who Rooney is?"
• Hislop's magazine Private Eye is also sometimes the subject of a joke, usually involving the number of lawsuits the magazine has received, or the number of readers it has. When Boris Johnson appears on the show, his magazine, The Spectator, is on the receiving end of similar jibes. Hislop once said that he knew only three people read it, but he didn't realise that they were Boris and his parents.
• When Peter Mandelson was "outed" by journalist Matthew Parris on Newsnight, the BBC clamped down on any reference to the former minister's sexuality. Have I Got News for You chose not to follow this directive. For example, whenever footage of Mandelson was shown, his eyes were blanked out, in order to protect his 'anonymity'. On another occasion Hislop commented of Mandelson that "We're not allowed to say he's a home (and then following a brief pause to insinuate the word "homosexual") owner", to which Merton replied "What's wrong with gay people owning homes?" (A reference to stories about Mandelson having a conflict of interest over a loan to purchase a house, which led to his resignation.) Hislop also described Mandelson as a "friend of John Birt", a reference to both the ban itself and the term "friend of Dorothy".
• During his spell as leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith was subject to a great deal of ridicule on the programme. In particular, Merton insisted that he was in fact two people: Iain and Duncan Smith. On discovering that his full name was actually George Iain Duncan Smith, Merton cried, "There's three of them?"
• Following his appearance in a 2004 episode, a clip of Robert Kilroy-Silk introducing his TV show Shafted with the words, "Their fate is in each other's hands, as they decide whether to share, or to shaft" (with appropriate hand gestures) was played in subsequent programmes at the flimsiest of excuses. It resurfaced in the autumn season of 2006. During the 2004–05 series, after Kilroy-Silk's lack of success with UKIP, he was frequently ridiculed for both his tan and getting covered in a bucket of slurry, leading Merton to refer to the incident as "When the shit hits the tan".
• A recurring joke in the spring 2005 series (Series 29) was that Hislop would be the next actor to play the Doctor in Doctor Who. In the final episode, a picture was shown of Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper morphing into Hislop and Ann Widdecombe. This was continued in the 2006 Have I Got News for You book, in which a 'storyboard' for Hislop's first adventure as the Doctor was included.
• Merton occasionally says "Don't you know" in a faux-posh accent when talking about class issues. A recurring theme of class warfare is often played out by Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, originating from their contrasting educational backgrounds. He most recently used it during a discussion on the dispute between Burberry and the ferret clothing retailer, Ferret World, by saying that if he were a ferret, he would wear a top hat and silver cane and go around saying, "I'm a ferret, don't you know."
• Similarly, when a joke is made about Germans, Hislop 'complains' in a German accent. This was first used while observing that the German ambassador would carp about any mention of World War II: "Oh, you are so backwards, you English. Why don't you just forget it all?" A recent example was in Series 30 during a discussion on how England fans are supposedly going to go to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany wearing T-shirts displaying the catchphrase "Don't mention the war!" in German. Hislop responded, "Even with ze football you keep saying ze same old joke!"
• Paul Merton regularly answered questions by replying, "Is it Lulu?", until a 2006 episode where (much to his astonishment) this turned out to be the correct answer to the Missing Words question "'What' spends £2,500 on a pacemaker?". Since this, he has started giving "Eamonn Holmes" as a stock answer instead.
• In the autumn season in 2007, every time Heather Mills is mentioned, she is introduced as, "Paul McCartney's strange ... sorry, estranged wife..." with the guest host pretending to misread the autocue.
• Paul Merton has frequently referred to Bagpuss, the title character from a 1974 UK children's television programme. This joke began in series 2 and has continued ever since. These references include claiming he will take the name Pope Bagpuss when he is elected pope and most recently, likening guest host Ann Widdecombe to Bagpuss.

Frequent targets

There are several people, places and things that are attacked and joked about more often than others. Some of the current figures of fun include The Daily Mail, Boris Johnson, John Prescott (in particular his fatness), George W. Bush, Ann Widdecombe, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown (in particular his smile), The Daily Mirror, Private Eye, Piers Morgan (who has had an ongoing row with Hislop and Private Eye), Robert Kilroy-Silk, Jeffrey Archer and The Royal Family. The Sun and the Daily Star also get their fair share of abuse.

Controversy and litigation

• When Paula Yates appeared on the programme in October 1995, she took offence at Hislop's verbal assaults about her relationship with Michael Hutchence, whom he accused of "beating up people", and the alleged poor quality of her autobiography, together with Merton's ad libs and Deayton's scripted jokes concerning her breast enlargement surgery. Yates eventually called Hislop the "sperm of the devil". Hislop replied with, "Even your insults emanate from the genitals."
• In a 1994 episode, Deayton read out the following: "The BBC are cracking down on references to Ian and Kevin Maxwell, in case programme-makers appear biased in their treatment of these two heartless, scheming bastards." However, the Maxwell brothers were about to go on trial, and on 26 July 1996, the BBC and Hat Trick Productions were fined £20,000 in the High Court for Contempt of Court .
• In 1996, a book based on the series, Have I Got 1997 for You, noted about Conservative MP Rupert Allason that "...given Mr Allason's fondness for pursuing libel actions, there are also excellent legal reasons for not referring to him as a conniving little shit". Mr Allason then pursued a libel action against BBC Worldwide and Hat Trick Productions over the remark. He lost the case.
• After a not entirely successful first guest appearance in 1998, during which he was questioned by Hislop about a secretly recorded telephone conversation in which Darius Guppy asked him to help beat up a journalist, future Conservative MP Boris Johnson alleged that many of the supposedly ad libbed lines on the show were in fact scripted, writing: "The whole thing is a fix [...] Before you say that I write as one stitched up, let me confess that I was made to seem a bit of a chump." Tony Parsons, in The Daily Mirror, agreed: "What bothers the hurt hack [Boris] is not that there's a bit of preparation behind Have I Got News for You, what bothers him is that he was completely unprepared to go on the box and end up looking like a prize wally." In later appearances, Johnson apologised for suggesting this and the supposed scripted nature of the show has become yet another running joke. It is now accepted that the host has a script, autocue and all.
• In April 2003, frequent guest panellist Stephen Fry announced that he was boycotting the show following the sacking of Angus Deayton, a decision described by Fry as "greasy, miserable, British and pathetic".
• On 23 November 2007, Ann Widdecombe appeared as a guest host for the second time, with Jimmy Carr as Hislop's teammate. However, due to Carr's risque material, Widdecombe vowed she would never appear on Have I Got News for You again. She said, "His idea of wit is a barrage of filth and the sort of humour most men grow out of in their teens. There's no amount of money for which I would go through those two recording hours again. At one stage I nearly walked out." The following week, Will Self appeared as a guest. Self, one of the most regular guests on HIGNFY, said that he would not appear on the show again as well. He said, "I'm afraid that without the reality element, the programme has become just like any other pseudo-panel contest, where funny fellows sit behind desks cracking jokes. Moreover, in the post-Hutton era, the BBC seems to have lost its bottle so far as edgy satire is concerned: the sharpest crack I made all evening — and the one that received the most audience laughter — was cut for transmission."

DVD

• The Very Best of Have I Got News for You (2002), a compilation of highlights from the first 13 years of the show, from the beginning up until the episode made after Deayton hit the tabloids. Just over three hours long, and another several hours of extras, including, among other things, running commentary of the whole presentation by Merton and Hislop.
• Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters (2003), which, as well as including the normal half-hour cut of Boris Johnson's first guest-hosting, also included a bonus disc, "The Full Boris", which showed a far longer cut of the same episode (lasting slightly under 60 minutes). Slightly longer versions of the shows featuring William Hague, Martin Clunes and Bruce Forsyth as chair were also included, as well as a compilation of clips from other presenters' appearances (with only the episode hosted by Liza Tarbuck not represented). There are also several small extra features, including a discussion between Paul Merton and Boris Johnson regarding Johnson's appearance as presenter, filmed during his interview on the Merton-hosted Room 101.
• Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters Vol. 2 (2005), which is nearer in content to the first "Best of" DVD compilation than its direct predecessor. It contains four 45-minute compilations of the Autumn 2003, Spring 2004, Autumn 2004 and Spring 2005 series, rather than complete episodes; although it does contain a bonus disc with an uncut version of Boris Johnson's second stint as presenter. This episode lasts about 80 minutes. "The A to Z of HIGNFY" is also included on the second disk and includes various clips (some unseen) as well as behind-the-scenes content.

Video exclusives

Four VHS videos were released, two containing specially made editions of the programme:

• Have I Got News for You (1993), containing clips from the first five series plus the complete 1992 election night special.
• Unbroadcastable Have I Got News for You (1995), featuring guests Eddie Izzard, Richard Wilson and a surprise appearance from Germaine Greer (specially produced).
• Classic Battles & Bust-Ups (1996), three full-length episodes featuring the Tub of Lard, Paula Yates and Germaine Greer, among others.
• Have I Got News for You: The Official Pirate Video (1997), featuring guests Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey (specially produced).

Video podcasts

File:Hignfyonyoutube.gif

The Have I Got News For You vodcast on the YouTube homepage

Have I Got News for You started broadcasting a vodcast called The Inevitable Internet Spin-off on 13 April 2007. These podcasts will take place for the next six series, meaning that the show will be broadcast until at least 2009. They are available from both the Have I Got News for You BBC website page and the video sharing community YouTube, where they are regularly featured on the home page and the BBC's official channel. As of the October 2007 series, these are referred to as "webisodes"

Appearances and guest presenters

Many guests have appeared on the programme more than once, and, since the departure of Deayton, many celebrities have acted as guest presenters on the show. There are only five people who have appeared as a panellist after appearing as a guest host: Paul Merton, Jeremy Clarkson, Liza Tarbuck, Marcus Brigstocke and Jimmy Carr. (List complete up to and including show broadcast on December 14th, 2007)

Most appearances in total 10 appearances Alexander Armstrong 9 appearances Will Self 8 appearances Clive Anderson Germaine Greer Ross Noble 7 appearances Danny Baker Dr. Phil Hammond Boris Johnson Charles Kennedy Ken Livingstone Kirsty Young 6 appearances Marcus Brigstocke Jeremy Clarkson Martin Clunes Jack Dee Andy Hamilton Linda Smith Mark Steel 5 appearances Alan Davies Julia Hartley-Brewer Eddie Izzard Fred MacAulay Dara Ó Briain Lembit Öpik John Sergeant Janet Street-Porter Francis Wheen

Guest presenters 10 appearances as host Alexander Armstrong 6 appearances as host Kirsty Young 5 appearances as host Jeremy Clarkson Jack Dee 4 appearances as host Boris Johnson Dara Ó Briain 3 appearances as host William Hague Des Lynam 2 appearances as host Michael Aspel Marcus Brigstocke Martin Clunes John Sergeant Ann Widdecombe 1 appearance as host Ronni Ancona Clive Anderson Bill Bailey Sanjeev Bhaskar Jeremy Bowen Jo Brand Gyles Brandreth Fern Britton Rob Brydon Michael Buerk Jimmy Carr Adrian Chiles

Charlotte Church Julian Clary Joan Collins Robin Cook Ronnie Corbett Hugh Dennis Omid Djalili Greg Dyke Anna Ford Bruce Forsyth John Humphrys Lorraine Kelly Charles Kennedy Neil Kinnock Chris Langham Jane Leeves Damian Lewis Sean Lock Richard Madeley Andrew Marr Sir Trevor McDonald Alistair McGowan Paul Merton Nicholas Parsons Gordon Ramsay Anne Robinson Moira Stuart Liza Tarbuck Chris Tarrant Carol Vorderman

Other TV shows based on the Have I Got News for You format

Similar shows based on the Have I Got News for You format exist in other countries:

• Dutch comedian Raoul Heertje appeared on the original Have I Got News for You in May 1995. A year later he became team captain in the newly launched Dutch version of the show: Dit was het nieuws ("This was the news"). The show gradually developed into a very successful programme. Dutch Wikipedia info
• In Finland a show called Uutisvuoto (literally "newsleak"; the pun works as well in both languages) has been aired since 1998.
• In Australia, the Doug Anthony All Stars lead singer and comedian Paul McDermott hosted Good News Week (GNW), first on ABC TV and later on Network Ten from 1996 to 2000. GNW varied from Have I Got News For You in that there were three team members per team, instead of the usual two. The series was also notable for the number of UK-based comedians that were panellists on the show, including Ed Byrne. The Ten version also had a weekend broadcast, Good News Weekend, taking its format from Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2001, the company behind the recently cancelled GNW developed a similar program called The Glass House on ABC TV. This show was cancelled in October 2006.
• Sveriges Television of Sweden aired their version of the show called Snacka om nyheter between 1995 and 2003.
• Denmark briefly had a version of the show.
• In Norway the Norwegian Broadcasting Company broadcasts the show Nytt På Nytt (literally: "The News Anew"). It is one of the most popular TV shows in the country with 1.3 million viewers every week.
• Loosely based on the theme of Have I Got News for You, ITV in the United Kingdom aired a show in 2004 called Bognor or Bust, also fronted by Angus Deayton, which discusses current affairs.
• In Israel, a similar show called "Mishak Makhur" ran for 54 episodes.
• In Ireland, RTÉ made one pilot episode of a licensed Have I Got News for You clone, with Dermot Morgan as the presenter sometime in the early 1990s. It was never named or made into a full series. However, a topical news and current affairs quiz appeared entitled Don't Feed the Gondolas, which was comparable to a cross between Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
• Germany has (or had) a version called "7 Tage, 7 Koepfe" (literally "Seven Days, Seven Heads")
• Inspired by Have I Got News for You, Pakistan's News, Views & Confused went on air on one of Pakistan’s leading TV channels, AAJ TV from April 11, 2007. The show is hosted by TV personality and journalist Fasi Zaka and co-hosted by eccentric journalist and writer, Nadeem F. Paracha and fashion journalist, Mohsin Sayeed.
• Iceland had a version called Þetta Helst (Translation: "Top Stories") in the mid-nineties, which aired on RÚV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service).

Episode list

• See List of Have I Got News For You episodes

References

• Have I Got News for You: The Shameless Cash-in Book, BBC Books, 1994, ISBN 0-563-37111-0
• Have I Got 1997 for You, BBC Books, 1996, ISBN 0-563-38783-1

External links

• Have I Got News for You at bbc.co.uk
• Have I Got News for You at Hat Trick Productions
• Have I Got News for You at UKGameshows.com
• Have I Got News for You at the British Film Institute
• Have I Got News for You at IMDb

Articles

• "I Hope the Lawyers Are Getting All of This!" - The Have I Got News For You Story. Matthew Rudd, June 2005. Off the Telly.
• "Deayton in the lion's den". Jonathan Duffy, 24 May, 2002. BBC News Online.