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Have I Got News for You

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Have I Got News For You is a UK television panel game, on the subject of news, politics and current affairs. It is a comedy programme rather than a serious game show: the banter between the guests and the sardonic remarks are more important than the scores, which are only ever briefly referred to. The format is loosely based on that of a popular radio show, The News Quiz.

HIGNFY, as it is commonly known, began on BBC2 on September 28, 1990, and transferred to BBC1 in October 2000. Two series of (usually) eight episodes are made each year. It is taped on Thursday evening for broadcast on Friday, allowing the satire to remain fresh while the BBC's lawyers have time to request cuts of potentially libellous material. The show likes to cultivate a reputation for sailing close to the wind on matters of libel; it is a tradition on the show that particularly scurrilous accusations are suffixed with "...allegedly."

The original line-up was: Angus Deayton as chair, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as team captains. Each team is completed by a guest member each week, often a politician or journalist on one side and a comedian on the other. Merton took a break from the show during the eleventh series in 1996, making only one appearance as a guest on Hislop's team.

In 2002, allegations linking Deayton with prostitutes and drug use appeared in UK tabloids, and on October 29, 2002 Deayton was asked to resign from the show, after Merton and Hislop teased him about them and he did not deny. Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, and a series of guest hosts appeared for the rest of the series.

High points of the show:

  • after Jeffrey Archer was convicted of perjury, Hislop repeated the phrase "Jeffrey Archer, the liar" at all available opportunities.
  • David Shayler, ex-MI5 agent, was a guest on the show though not physically in the studio. A large television set was placed on the desk, showing him in a studio elsewhere - supposedly in Paris, where he was in hiding from Official Secrets Act charges.
  • when guest Roy Hattersley didn't bother to appear for the June 4, 1993 episode, he was replaced with a tub of lard, as "they possessed the same qualities and were liable to give similar performances". It was later announced that the tub of lard had been booked for a return appearance, though this turned out to be a ruse to disguise the appearance on the show of Salman Rushdie.
  • Hislop's teasing of Paula Yates led her to label him the "sperm of the Devil" (presumably meaning to say "spawn of the devil").
  • When Sir Elton John failed to appear as billed, he was replaced by a "lookalike" who made no verbal contribution.

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