Hislop: 'Merton never liked Deayton'

Ian Hislop has said that he used to get on with Angus Deayton but fellow Have I Got News For You panellist Paul Merton never liked the host.

TV's best topical panel show by a mile returns for an unlikely 37th series. In TV terms the show may be an old-timer, but its satirical teeth can still leave the kind of wound that must keep its libel lawyers busy. That's thanks to the nimble wit of team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, still the oddest of TV couples and still adept at ripping the events of the week to comedy shreds.

Satire! It's great. Except for when it's not, obviously. Then it's rubbish. That Have I Got News For You manages consistently to avoid the potholes routinely occupied by its contemporaries (to wit: crudeness, the triumphs of ego over comedic esprit de corps, Jason Manford, etc) is testament not only to the chemistry between long-serving team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, but to wit so sublime it can turn a one-liner on Gordon Brown's incisors into a dazzling nugget of incontrovertible topical wisdom.

Returning as the show's guest host tonight is This Morning's astonishingly game/foolhardy Fern Britton. Place your bets now on how many seconds will elapse before Paul Merton mentions g*stric b*nds.

The long-running satirical panel show returns for a new run with perennial team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton all present and correct. It never ceases to amaze that this show remains as fresh as ever after 18 years on air and always earns its keep in the schedules.

Now in its 18th year and 35th series, Have I Got News for You is without doubt the little Radio 4 parlour game that could. Its success is due partly to its topicality, but mostly to the genuine rivalry between team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton (Merton in particular hates to lose).

Deayton in the lion's den

BBC News reports from the back row of the HIGNFY studio audience that Angus Deayton received 'a mauling' from Ian Hislop and Paul Merton in now infamous episode.