Have I Got News For You - With or Without Deayton?

Just what it says on the tin.

Is Have I Got New For You better with all the guest presenters or with the reliable Angus? I know that with the guests, it's all a bit touch and go. It's like This is Your Life: You never know who's going to be on it. There have been some darned bad presenters in the past, though. Jane Leaves (Daphne from Frasier) springs to mind, as does Julian Clary and Boris Johnson. Alexander Armstrong tends to be good.

Btw, neither Paul nor Ian got on very well with Deayton through his ten year tenure.

Anyway, what does everyone else reckon?

I thought Deayton did his job well, but didn't miss him when he left. They really should stick with Alexander, the whole "who's it going to be?" wore off after about 3 guests.

The focus should be on the panel and topics, not the host.

Deayton's pretty good with a script, useless without – but so are a lot of actors.

Why not bring him back and get rid of Merton and Hislop. They've both been in it for 17 years merton's been phoning in his performance for the last five years. The audience is so enamoured of him he could literally say anything and get a laugh.

Just thinking, Hislop started working on Private eye straight after Oxford and got HIGNFY three years later. What a brilliant career! Beats temping or flipping burgers.

Boris bad?!!? Dave, you are ill, I say, ill!

Oh, and definitely Deayton.

Agree with Godot that Paul's gone downhill of late. Ian, I find, is sharp as ever though.

Boris Johnson was better than Angus.
I'd love him to be the regular host.

The HIGNFY Guest Host dvd is practically all Boris. Not that I have it especially for that reason or anything....

Just one of the many DVDs I haven't got around to watching yet. Naughty. *spanks hand*

I thought Angus Deayton was good untill he left HIGNFY and then you realise how very average he is. Without a chair and a desk I don't think he would be working in the biz.

Couldn't really care less... and 'Mock the Week' makes me laugh more anyway.

Quote: Dave @ September 1, 2007, 8:06 PM

There have been some darned bad presenters in the past, though. Jane Leaves (Daphne from Frasier) springs to mind, as does Julian Clary and Boris Johnson.

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I know I'm not alone in thinking the Boris Johnson presented episodes are the funniest of the 250+ episodes there have been - for the simple reason Boris was such a bad presenter. Admittedly I wouldn't want him presenting it every week though.

Boris doesn't have the talent for it. There's no point in just laughing AT him.

Would Angus even come back though? The BBC treat him like shit for years after the "scandal". His departure is the reason why guys like Steven Fry no longer wish to appear on the show. Merton and Hislop also lost a lot of friends because of the way they treat Angus for the few shows after. All in all, i think it would be pointless bringing him back, because Merton and Hislop probably wouldn't have moved on from the last time he hosted.

I am however for making someone a regular host.

Angus did return to the BBC with Would I Lie to You? though. But I don't think Paul would stand for it if he returned. Pride and all that.

I think Merton and Hislop had to do what they did. You can't ask a journalist and a comedian to ignore what happened and that episode was one of the funniest ever. Don't forget that Deayton made his living doing exactly the same, kicking celebrities and politicians when they were down.

Quote: Walker @ September 2, 2007, 12:55 PM

Would Angus even come back though? The BBC treat him like shit for years after the "scandal". His departure is the reason why guys like Steven Fry no longer wish to appear on the show. Merton and Hislop also lost a lot of friends because of the way they treat Angus for the few shows after.

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Really? Interesting.

Deayton wrote a lot of the early material too (people forget what a funny man he is, and not just someone reading out loud. See KYTV)

The whole intonation and rhythm of the jokes are still written as if Deayton was in the chair, so it just comes across as a pale imitation.

Sadly now, post-HIGNFY he DOES just read aloud and it's always some duff ITV script-by-numbers. His only other good work was Before They Were Famous - which he co-wrote the links with Danny Baker.