The News Quiz
- Radio panel show
- BBC Radio 4
- 1977 - 2025
- 1100 episodes (116 series)
A long-running satirical Radio 4 panel show that takes a look at the week's more humorous news stories. Stars Andy Zaltzman, Angela Barnes, Nish Kumar, Miles Jupp, Sandi Toksvig and more.
- Returns on Friday 3rd January on Radio 4 at 6:30pm with Series 116, Highlights Special
Press clippings Page 10
Though The News Quiz is one of Radio 4's most loved programmes, it's hard for me to write about. It goes out on a Friday night, after my column deadline, and - obviously - it's topical. I can only review the previous show, in this case the first in the new series, which discussed the Labour party conference, the EDF energy company and Sarah Palin. See: they're so last week! (Apart from Sarah Palin.)
The other block to me reviewing The News Quiz is, well, me. Though I am a Radio 4 devotee, its panel shows drive me mad. They're so cosy! The combination of laugh-at-anything audience and aren't-I-clever contestants creates a tittering dinner party atmosphere that makes me yearn for Jerry Sadowitz or Keith Allen or Joan Rivers. In short, I want anger.
Still, there's enough of that in today's Britain, eh? And anyway, The News Quiz has Jeremy Hardy, whose anger is there, just clothed in exquisite one-liners, and he usually keeps me listening. Hardy has a gentle bedside manner which hides his vicious shanking of the pompous establishment. Last Friday he managed to stick it to middle-class parents, banks, the government and Barack Obama within the first 10 minutes. 'Obama said that the collapse of the banks is no time for politics. No, Christmas dinner is no time for politics.' But the bit I really liked was when he had a pop at Sue Perkins over her appearance on Maestro. What that says about me, I hate to think.
Miranda Sawyer, The Observer, 5th October 2008The News Quiz returned for a 66th series, with subjects ranging wildly from the recession-driven return of the turnip to the reproductive organs of the bed bug. The best gag of the first edition was Francis Wheen's description of gun-toting vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as the love child of Sylvester Stallone and Ann Widdecombe.
Nick Smurthwaite, The Stage, 29th September 2008Sandi Toksvig Interview
As The News Quiz returns, host Sandi Toksvig tells The Telegraph why it's lasted so long - despite the 'galling' low pay she and her guests receive.
James Walton, The Telegraph, 25th September 2008Turning headlines into punchlines
The BBC News website investigates the serious funny business of producing BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz.
Stephen Robb, BBC News, 5th June 2007