Have I Got News For You

Newcomers such as Mock the Week can snap at its heels, but Have I Got News for You continues to operate at the same reliably high comic level that it has done for years. Much in the same way, you could say, as tonight's host. He's had his ups and downs, but Martin Clunes remains a British comic institution - he's currently in Doc Martin on ITV1 - and seems certain to prosper as the latest beneficiary of the show's Sugababes-style hot-desking policy. Also worthy of note this week is guest panellist, the Guardian's Charlie Brooker.

The long-running and consistently funny news panel show returns for its 38th run. Martin Clunes takes the presenter's chair as the series's first guest host. Joining him is Arlene Phillips, whose sacking from Strictly Come Dancing caused a storm of controversy, plus writer and broadcaster Charlie Brooker.

Surely the dumping of Angus Deayton as the regular host of Have I Got News For You, way back in whenever-the-heck-it-was, was the best thing that ever happened to this programme.

Not because Deayton was a bad presenter - let's be fair, the man's autocue-reading skills were first-class - but because it brought about the rota system, presenting-wise, that's managed to keep the show fresh ever since.

And given that tonight, believe it or not, is the start of its 38th series (with Martin Clunes in the chair), maintaining both its freshness and its must-watch status is no mean feat.

Mock The Week does a sterling job at, er, mocking the week but we still have a special place in our hearts for its televisual older brother, which returns tonight for an astonishing 38th series. Helping Ian Hislop and Paul Merton with the mirth will be satire's latest poster boy Charlie Brooker and axed Strictly judge Arlene Phillips, and Martin Clunes is back as guest host, a role he's made a good fist of before... though it beats me why they can't get someone permanent in the main chair.