Quote: Dave @ September 2, 2007, 2:49 PM

I remember Before They Were Famous. That should come back. I wonder why it went away.

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I think it's because they'd run out of people to do at the time. I remember in the last edition that they did, they were showing things like U2's early songs even though they were big hits and therefore already famous by then. It was already stretched out far too long. They probably could do another one or 2 now that new people have become famous though.

I prefer HIGNFY without Deayton as it still makes me laugh every week and if he was still with the show there's no guarantee that that would be the case.

I think that Deayton was great, but it's an impossiblity to re-create the magic. He could hardly say, for example, Archer's a liar without being rebuttled by Archer saying 'well, you're one too'. Unfortunatly to be a satarist you need to be seen as clean, especially in a high profile program such as HIGNFY.

Don't watch it much these days. Preferred it when Deayton was there and never took to the guest presenter thing. Think it needs to stick to one person and leave it at that.

Anyone else think that Paul Merton has got less and less funny over the past few series'? I just get the impression that he doesn't try anymore. He knows he'll get a laugh, so he just makes a slightly odd comment, and looks towards the presenter with a raised eyebrow kind of thinking look.

I do think that the guest presenters have gotten stale, but at the same time Angus Deayton should not come back. He was brilliant on his time on the show, but there's simply no way he'd come back now as Paul and Ian would have a field day (then again, they'd often have a field day at his expense without the scandal, e.g. the brown jacket or that Caroline Quentin episode where Paul accused him of sleeping with her). I think they need to stick to one presenter now, possibly Alexander Armstrong if he is not too busy with his new sketch show.

Have I Got zzzzzzz for you! Let's lose this old claptrap!

Sure, let's give it the decent burial it deserves and commission something fresh from aspiring new writers and performers who need a well deserved break.

Hislop and Merton ... thanks but the knackers yard beckons, the heart attacks are around the corner, act now boys... you've had a well deserved long, long, long run!!! But do the decent thing now and fall on the sword!!!

You know it makes sense, Rodney!!

I agree; it's got to the point where Paul Merton could recite the elements and the audience would laugh.

Well, that was actually the funniest thing I've seen in a very long time. Real proper laugh out loud comedy for me.

Merton continuing his recent streak of desperately grasping for jokes, and Alex James almost comatose he made such little contribution (at least to the final cut), but Ann, Jimmy, and to a lesser extent Ian, were a perfect combination. Would love to see them working together again (in a non-nude sense of course).

Anyone watch last nights? She is by far the worst presenter on earth... why didn't she put her glasses on, the silly old bag!

Still funny... "I don't listen to wrong answers... impossible you were a tory"... I loled.

Yes, not best at the auto-que was she!

A bit like the episodes with Boris, the regulars soon realised this though and so shifted the focus away from the news topics and more onto personal reactions. Very funny.

It was one of those shows that really annoyed me though - I hate it when a guest sits there and doesn't pull their weight - like Aaron says, Alex James did nothing!

I didn't mind that, since he's a bit shit anyway. Really, really enjoyed the episode though. If Ann and Jimmy returned every week, that would be amazing.

Ann Widdicome (sp?) is an odd fish. When she did Louis Theroux she presented a thinly-veiled hatred of publicity, prudish shyness and almost punkish anti-image. Now she's presenting HIGNFY, had her hair and other fuglyness styled and seems to me to be courting exposure like some ex-BB wanabee?

She's either broke or lonely. I don't get her at all.

Either way, she should be presenting HIGNFY every week. I watch the 'extended' show again last night and picked up on Paul's quip that "you have jokes?!". Particularly ironic, as in the preceeding 20 minutes or so, she'd been umpteen times more funny than he has over the past three series'.

Quote: Aaron @ November 25, 2007, 11:56 AM

Either way, she should be presenting HIGNFY every week.

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Sadly it looks like your wish will never be granted Aaron...

"Ann Widdecombe has vowed never to go on Have I Got News For You again. Not because she was monstered by Ian Hislop and Paul Merton - in fact she lauds the satirical quiz's long-standing team captains for "the fastest wits in showbusiness". No, what has provoked her wrath is being forced to endure the company of fellow guest Jimmy Carr. "His idea of wit is a barrage of filth and the sort of humour most men grow out of in their teens," she harrumphs in her Daily Express column today. "The edit got rid of much of it but there's no amount of money for which I would go through those two recording hours again. At one stage I nearly walked out." And now, sadly, Ann has walked out on the show for good. Jimmy, how can you live with yourself after what you've done? The nation will not easily forgive you."

(From The Guardian)

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!