Paul Merton

HIGNFY: Once un-missable, now un-watchable

One viral video shown on Have I Got News For You was Fenton the dog chasing deer in a London park. After it was shown Paul Merton asked 'Why did people think that was entertaining?'

Radio 4 panel games come and go. In some cases they come, then stick around for decades after you wish they'd disappeared. But not this one, which might still be the best of the bunch. Nicholas Parsons, Paul Merton and other regulars are back for the show's 66th series - and in the first episode, fans will be holding their breath for 60 full seconds as Graham Norton achieves the rare feat of speaking for a minute without hesitating, deviating or repeating himself. Pam Ayres and new BBC2 sketch-comedy star Kevin Eldon round out a great panel.

As any JAM fan will tell you, it's not often that a panellist speaks for the whole minute, uninterrupted, without deviation, hesitation or repetition, but that's exactly what Graham Norton does here. Admittedly, he does have a distinct advantage with his subject matter - it's the Eurovision Song Contest - but even so, it's a rare enough event to inspire a warm and spontaneous round of applause from the audience.

And Nicholas Parsons takes some gentle ribbing from Paul Merton when he manages to work his forename into a round entitled "Fur coat and no knickers" - "You've been waiting 45 series to use that gag," says Merton.

Pointless giant Richard Osman tears himself away from his desk by Alexander Armstrong's side to slide into one of the guest seats for the first of a new series of the topical news quiz. Osman is surely destined for the guest host gig at some point but tonight it's down to Stephen Mangan to give Ian Hislop and Paul Merton free rein to roam around the lunatic fringes of the news, while Osman's fellow guest, Joan Bakewell, offers sage titbits.

The satrical edge on HIGNFY has dulled very slightly over the years. These days, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton don't so much lacerate the week's events and personalities as chew them over with the odd comic flight of fancy.

Occasionally, let's be honest, that makes for an underwhelming episode, where the panellists never get up a head of steam and only the host's scripted gags keep things rolling. But more often, the big old beast of a show rouses itself and delivers an enjoyably surreal spin on the news, providing us with a neat comedy coda to the week. One of the best episodes of the last series had Richard Osman as a guest, punning about David Cameron's "mandate" on gay marriage and showing an almost shameful knowledge of Spice Girls hits. Happily, he's back again tonight, with the excellent Stephen Mangan in the host's chair for the first show of series (drumroll, please...) 45.

Line-up announced for 2013 Glasgow Comedy Festival

Jimmy Carr, Harry Hill, Al Murray and Paul Merton are among the big name performers confirmed for this year's Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

It's not often you see Frank Skinner completely lost for words. So full marks to Miranda Hart for reducing him and her male fellow panellists to utter embarrassment with her unexpected nomination for a pet hate to consign to Room 101.

The re-imagined format is the same as it was last year when Frank Skinner stepped into Paul Merton's shoes. Three guests compete to have items in particular categories sent to pretend oblivion. Presenters John Craven and Reggie Yates also gamely do the business tonight. But it's a tougher gig than it looks.

The secret to being a really good Room 101 guest is being able to be amusingly irate about some quite trivial detail of modern life, without tipping over the edge into actual, genuine, scary anger.

The late Peter Cook calmly pointing to the mind-numbing dullness of the countryside - "has this film been speeded up?" - is still the gold standard by which all guests will be judged and Reggie Yates, bless him, is no Peter Cook. But then how het up is it possible to get about the existence of yogurt drinks?

Youth and experience on Have I Got News for You this week. Wet-behind-the-ears comedian Jack Whitehallp.o[ takes the presenter's chair, while "Bletchley Park Baroness" Trumpington is, at 90, the programme's oldest ever guest. But Ian Hislop and Paul Merton must be careful how they handle her. When Lord King of Bridgwater dared to suggest, in a House of Lords speech, that Baroness T looked old, she promptly gave him two fingers. Lord Sugar's wry sidekick, Nick Hewer, completes the line-up.

Angus who? Tonight marks 10 years since the job of host was given over to a succession of guest presenters following the Deayton sacking. The vast majority of the temporary emcees have excelled in the hot seat, thanks largely to a sharp presenter's script and Paul Merton and Ian Hislop keeping the conversation fizzing. Tonight, Homeland actor Damian Lewis takes the chair for the fifth time as UKIP's Nigel Farage and The Simpsons' Harry Shearer join the panel.

It's back and Friday nights make sense again. Nothing starts the weekend in quite the same way as this half-hour dollop of headline-based sarcasm, joyful meanness and unashamed unpleasantness. It's the best way to unpack the accumulated stresses of a working week. Some of the guests might occasionally be dull, like those terrified politicians who try too, too hard to be funny, but what the heck, team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop have seen it all before and the pace never flags.

Making her debut as host is Clare Balding, newly anointed National Treasure after stints commentating on the Olympics and the Paralympics won her a devoted following.