Have I Got News For You

It seems unlikely that the ultimate question to the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything is: "How many series of Have I Got News for You have there been?" But this week saw the start of the 42nd series.

Jo Brand hosted the first episode back, with Victoria Coren alongside Ian Hislop and Graham Linehan with Paul Merton. When I learnt about the line-up my immediate reaction was, "Thank God!" It's something of a rarity for HIGNFY to have a line-up consisting of people who are all essentially humorists. No politicians, no journalists, just people who are paid to be funny for a living. That is who we want. It's generally one of the advantages that Mock the Week has over HIGNFY, in that all the people on MTW are nearly always comics.

Everyone on this week's show had their moments, whether it's Coren on her hatred of cat lovers, Linehan's in-depth knowledge of Twitter, or Merton suggesting confusion between Michael Winner smoking a cigar and a picture of a seagull doing a poo. What a wonderfully awful image.

However, the best bit was that this episode was the first in a while which didn't make any lazy jokes about Eric Pickles being fat. It won't last...

Back for its umpty-seventh series, Have I Got News For You is firmly established as the televisual equivalent of Private Eye. The two share not only the dominant presence of Ian Hislop, but an engaging balance of bitter satire and affable cosiness. Though the humour in both is essentially angry, it's also reliable and predictable, an exercise in applying the same jokes repeatedly to differing news events. Paul Merton returns as the opposition captain.

It's the big daddy, the elder statesman of satire shows. As Panorama is to current events, Have I Got News for You is to taking the mickey out of them.

Other shows (Mock the Week, say) may be faster-paced and more densely packed with gags but this is the satire show of record, the point on a Friday night where politicians and celebrities are enjoyably cut down to size and media storms dispatched with a curl of Ian Hislop's lip or a surreal quip from Paul Merton.

For the first of this new ten-part run - their 42nd - Jo Brand is tonight's guest host.

As much a part of the British autumn as football and conkers, the 42nd series of the topical quiz show begins with Jo Brand asking the questions, and Ian Hislop and Paul Merton - along with guests Victoria Coren and Graham Linehan - answering them. After a year in which the tabloid newspaper industry has taken a battering, and politicians continue to wade in sleaze, they will not lack for material.

BBC's 'Big George' died after he took illegal drug

Presenter collapsed after suffering amassive heart attack and died before the paramedics could treat him.

HIGNFY repeat beats usual Newsnight ratings on Monday

The BBC axed Monday night's edition of Newsnight because of the journalists' strike - then saw the audience almost DOUBLE for its replacement, a repeat of Have I Got News For You.

Paul Merton: HIGNFY isn't sexist

Paul Merton has hit back at a claim by Mariella Frostrup that his TV panel game show, Have I Got News for You, is sexist.

Another Masterchef winner duly crowned, John Torode and Gregg Wallace make history as they become the first ever co-hosts of Have I Got News For You.

They're not the first TV chefs to present the show - Gordon Ramsay had a crack at it back in 2006. But will it be a case, we wonder, of too many cooks spoiling the broth?

For the first time in its 21-year-history, Have I Got News for You has not one but two hosts. Taking the chair - or maybe a nice two-seater - this week are MasterChef's double act, John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Bucking the trend of booking comedians or actors for the job is an interesting decision. Whether it's a stroke of genius or a bad move remains to be seen. There are bound to be lots of food-related gags along the lines of Torode expecting perfectly seasoned answers from Paul Merton and Ian Hislop and their charges. But the big question is, will Wallace be able to restrain himself from booming, "Quizzes don't get tougher than this!"

There are two guest hosts for tonight's show and they're not comics - they're MasterChef mavens Gregg Wallace and John Torode. How they'll fare on laughs is anyone's guess. Happily, the reliably brilliant Richard Herring, who last turned up on HIGNFY sporting a Hitler moustache and
is a panellist again tonight, should do well in that department.