Have I Got News For You

Hat Trick plans to extend HIGNFY and Room 101 online

The indie [Hat Trick Productions] is also developing an interactive web version of Room 101, despite BBC Two axing the show two years ago...

For Room 101, Hat Trick wants to build a community of users who would make their case for everything they would consign to their own personal hell.

Review of the Brian Blessed episode

Whatever genius came up with the idea of letting Brian Blessed host an episode needs a hefty pat on the back and a firm handshake to boot. The man was pretty much single-handedly responsible for the funniest episode of the show in some time.

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).

Off The Telly Review 2002

The high profile sacking of Angus Deayton from his role as host on Have I Got News For You has left the BBC with something of a problem. As with many shows, the topical news quiz worked because of a specific chemistry that had built up over many years between the presenters.

Have we got news for you - you're fired

One of the many news articles reporting that long-time HIGNFY host Angus Deayton has been sacked.

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.

Deayton 'feels a fool' over reports

BBC News reports that over the weekend Angus Deayton has been caught up in a tabloid scandal and that the star was now dreading having to record an episode of HIGNFY on Thursday.

Off The Telly Review 1999

To the best of my knowledge, no one talks about Have I Got News For You anymore. Tonight the 18th series drew to a respectable close. There is a consistency to the programme that has remained throughout its 10 year run.

None the less, in the face of its downmarket competitors, HIGNFY has stuck rigidly to the format it has made its own, resisting the urge to undermine for the sake of a cheap gag. Mark Lamarr always took too much delight when the Buzzcockers chose to stand on their desks, or swap teams. Undermining your own rules is not particularly rebellious, nor is it revolutionary TV. Nor is it funny.

Making a sharp vertical move, we come to the little piece of heaven in Friday night's Have I Got News For You (BBC2). Ian Hislop cuts an orthodox angel, but the savage and relentless verbal kicking he gave that repulsive princess of juvenilia, Paula Yates, was a thing of great beauty to behold.