Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell to host Have I Got News For You

The former Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell is to make his debut as a host on satirical panel show Have I Got News For You.

Steve Coogan to guest on Question Time tonight

The Alan Partridge star will join the panel for this evening's debate in London. He will be joined by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, Liberal Democrat politician Shirley Williams, journalist Ann Leslie and former No 10 Director of Communications Alastair Campbell.

Capaldi: 'Tucker wasn't based on Alastair Campbell'

With his profane and aggressive manner, it had widely been assumed that Alastair Campbell was the inspiration for The Thick Of It's fearsome spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. However, Peter Capaldi has disclosed that his foul mouthed character was not based on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's director of communications at all.

Peter Capaldi on his fear at meeting Alastair Campbell

Peter Capaldi admits he was terrified of former Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell - because he was so nice.

TV Ratings: Question Time trumps 10 O'Clock Live

BBC1 politics show featuring Alastair Campbell and George Galloway beats launch of Channel 4's satirical format.

Despite the belly-flopping Daybreak, ITV has booked Adrian Chiles to front a more substantial show in a swishy evening slot. Perhaps now he'll find his rhythm and morph back into the convivial but brusque host we warmed to on The One Show. Chiles dissects the week's issues with middleweight celebrities. Names provisionally booked for the first eight shows include Alastair Campbell, Margaret Mountford, formerly of The Apprentice, and, erm, Louis Walsh. What The X Factor judge doesn't know about fiscal debt management, frankly, isn't worth knowing.

The foul-mouthed misanthrope, which is what writer Armando Ianucci has constructed as a comic monster from an image of Alastair Campbell, former director of communications to Tony Blair, now has a new victim, minister Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front). She has four kids and a businessman husband, is neurotic, desperate for affection and approval, happy to blame everyone else for her mistakes - and is a media disaster waiting for its moment.

Peter Capaldi, who plays spin-doctor Malcolm, is the linchpin here, with his gaunt face - most terrible when smiling - and his conviction that all around him are guilty until their innocence is brought to him on a plate. And his terror, too - which is that of one who understands the ruthlessness of media that no longer care for fairness in their dealings or for policy in their coverage, but, like a piranha shoal, drift here and there until blood is in the water, when they swarm. The Thick of It has a solid base, but Capaldi is its on-screen genius.

Chain Reaction (Radio 4, Tuesdays, 6.30pm) has been the highlight of my late-summer listening. Through it I've come to like Frank Skinner, discovered that Eddie Izzard can still throw aside the ponderous trappings of Hollywood semi-stardom and be himself again and found, in Alastair Campbell, a charm that he managed to hide so successfully during his years as Tony Blair's minister of propaganda. And every week I've told myself that, this time, I'll resist the temptation to write about it here and focus instead on the new.

But then last week Campbell only goes and interviews Alastair McGowan and all best intentions exit stage right. Last Tuesday's Chain Reaction was probably the best of the series so far, as McGowan gave a masterclass in how he does what he does so well. Slipping from one voice to the other, frequently during a single sentence, he analysed how they came to be. The Nerd Voice, for example, which he was already using as a generic, suddenly acquired a real-life person to attach it to: John Major. "The reason why it's the Nerd Voice," he said, "is because it's completely devoid of emotion and heart.

"Technically, it derives from the back of the throat, which is also used by Brian Perkins" - changing gear ever so slightly to become the legendary Radio 4 newsreader - "but Brian has a connection with his chest, so you have this wonderful, resonant open voice, while Major" - shifting the voice a couple of inches upwards - "is stuck in the throat, so he's cut off from feeling.

"Michael Heseltine," he continued, on a roll now, "had a fabulous oratory voice. He had a trapped 'R' and he couldn't speak properly, but when he really got going he was trapped and there was a little bit of shyness there and there really was a great power to it."

And by God he was right. So simple, and yet so intricate. "There are places the voice goes to," he summed up, "and the deeper it goes, the cooler you are."

Prompted by Campbell, McGowan gave us his Tony Blair, which derives much of its authenticity from the former PM's habit of replacing his "I" sounds with "U" sounds - "Uff the Honourable Member thunks..." but confessed himself stymied by the next PM, David Cameron: "Just sound posh and whisper."

But of course, McGowan is best-known, not for his political voices - Rory Bremner has that covered - but everything else. David Beckham, for example, is an unconfident Stuart Pearce, and when McGowan segued from one to the other you saw exactly what he meant. The same voice, but with a different man behind it.

Look, the latest series of Chain Reaction will soon be naught but a beam in the eye of memory (McGowan talks to Simon Callow today; should be interesting), and I'm going to write about something else in a minute, but there was one last McGowan moment to warm our way into winter. "I've recently discovered Neil Oliver, of The One Show," McGowan said, in Scots character, "and one thing I've noticed is that he's really passionate about everything he does, but he really has to keep his passion under control, because if he ever gets carried away with it, he's just going to turn into" - mid-sentence segue - "Billy Connolly!" The mind's ear caught the connection and thought 'I could do that.' As if.

A brief mention of the finest put-down of the week. In Chain Reaction (Radio 4, Wednesdays, 6.30pm), Eddie Izzard interviewed Alastair Campbell: a knockabout surreal comic going up against Eddie Izzard. How could it work?

At first, Izzard seemed to have decided that if this wasn't going to get bogged down in talk of bagpipes, writing soft-porn for Forum magazine, alcoholism and nervous breakdowns, then he would have to talk about cats taking over the world. Campbell was limited to the occasional dry interjection. Then Izzard went too far: learning that Campbell spoke French, and being known for having done stand-up shows in French, he began to ask him a question in that language. And Campbell corrected his grammar. Just like that. One sentence in. One felt as bad for the Izzster as one did for those poor political hacks who came up against Campbell during the No 10 glory days. Izzard floundered. He attempted to keep going in French, then collapsed. "This question might be better asked in English," he muttered, a broken man.

On Chain Reaction (Radio 4), Alastair Campbell was also recalling recent history. He was very comfortable discussing his soft-porn writings ("a mixture of stuff you'd done and stuff you wished you'd done), his drinking, his "crack-up" and his depression. When he was appointed as Tony Blair's press spokesman in 1994, he said, they had a bet as to which paper would dredge up which bit of his past first. "It was the News of the World, on the porn, eight minutes after the press release went out."