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'HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU'
Series 20, Episode 1
20th October 2000
So, dancing girls apart, the move from BBC2 to the mainstream after ten years and nineteen series showed no signs of the feared 'dumbing-down' that such a huge step could supposedly have caused.
The aforementioned
high-kicking ladies hopped their way across the set with extra-flashing lights
and irritating big-deal light entertainment music on Angus "Good evening,
I'm Carol Smillie" Deayton's cue to celebrate the move from BBC2's biggest
show to BBC1's newest comedy flagship.
PICTURED: Angus Deayton
When you consider that biting satire and political scandal, international divides and tawdry tabloid tales will always exist, unlike Victor Meldrew and Jim Royle, the sharpest of all smartypants quizzes has arguably the most important role to play in the news-inspired battle with ITN. It makes almost too much sense - move the nightly news bulletin back by an hour and replace it on Fridays with a news bulletin of a different and certainly more engaging kind. And episode one of the fresh era for 'Have I Got News For You' got proceedings and channel-battles off to a more than adequate start.
PICTURED: Ian enjoying a joke
It's testament to Beeb D-G Greg Dyke's known love for the show that despite the inevitable complaints from the more aged and prudish sections of the Great British Public who had probably never heard of BBC2 before, never mind the top rated programme on it, the change was smooth and almost unnoticeable in the sense that everything was true to form. This is also despite Dyke's memorable guesting three years ago during his time as 'monsieur directeur' of Channel 5, in which his TV station was ritually slaughtered, and subsequent claims that he resembles a Star Trek character and was the show's funniest guest - "if only to look at".
Angus stayed on the ball and the autocue, Ian Hislop stayed on the cynical and culturally ignorant side of society and Paul Merton stayed on the droll and surreal aspects of the seven days just gone. The familiarity of it all reaped its rewards, helped in no uncertain terms by equal amounts of charm and likeability from two very contrasting guests.
PICTURED: Paul and his metal tie
Poor old John Simpson, the world's greatest TV reporter, always makes a rod for his own back. This was his third appearance and yet once more he was subjected to ridicule over his famed hallucinogenic experiences in the Amazon, re-telling his story patiently, prompting applause and intrigued questions from fellow guest Richard Blackwood, the comedian and pop star whose attempts to educate his captain Ian in the patter, gesture and streetwisdom of the cool black guy naturally and amusingly failed.
PICTURED: Richard Blackwood
In what was a tough news week - train crashes, war in the Middle East, the funeral of Donald Dewar - the production team did well to find enough stories to stay on the lighter side of the week, helped by the Queen's visit to the Vatican to see her old Polish buddy and a review of the recently-expired party conference season.
PICTURED: John Simpson
The guess is that the most complaints from Outraged of Oswestry will come from
Angus's monologue about the Queen's beano to Rome, in which he claimed that Her
Majesty wore a black outfit, complete with veil, as "it is always good to
be prepared". For those of us brought up on jokes which are more than willing to ditch common taste in favour of good satire and a cheap laugh,
it was a comforting sign that things were still as normal, despite the alleged
big switch over.
The Odd One Out round consisted of two very tough questions - one concerning the
victims of doctored photographs, the other about neighbours from hell - though
not referred to directly as such, possibly for fear of plugging one of ITV's
shocking attempts to fill the gap caused by the regression of their news bulletin which kick-started the whole battle for mid-evening BARB figures
in the first place.
The 'nasty neighbours' question involved the cleverest joke from Angus of all,
concerning an infamous violent incident involving Vinny Jones - a bit like an
infamous drunken incident involving George Best - in which Jones was sentenced
to 100 hours of community service for attacking a neighbour "later reduced to 50 hours after an appeal. By the community."
Thus followed a true-to-form Missing Words round, featuring 'American Window
Cleaner' as the Guest Publication, and the bold new era of 'Have I Got News For
You' had hit the ground not just running, but sprinting clear for the line, as
hopefully the viewing figures will prove. Not that it was a bold new era - it was comfortingly normal for the sake of a centimetre to the left on
the remote control, and that was an absolutely crucial aim for all concerned
with the show. An estimated 8 million pairs of lungs now bait their breath for
episode two.
Series 20, Episode 2
27th October 2000
Tony
Blair probably took the brave decision to spend his early Friday evening bathing
Leo or having an elongated soak in the bath rather than flicking on his TV set
at No.10.
Had he opted for the telly, he would have been greeted by the sight of his
telegenic sister-in-law happily not toeing the hard family line that the Blairs
and Booths were supreme, flawless rulers of the nation whose every move,
decision and action was taken with wisdom and justificiation.
Lauren Booth, a writer and journalist married to Cherie's brother, was gleefully
scathing of her family when required, as well as happily ruining her prospect of
a decent Christmas present by taking Government policy down a peg or two.
PICTURED: Lauren Booth
Sitting
next to Ian Hislop, she told us all that the Dome - backed and trumpeted by the
PM until his nose bled - was a total waste of money which she refused to visit.
And all this was done with genuine feeling, not some transparent desire to be
rebellious and controversial just because she was on the telly. You could almost
hear Alistair Campbell spitting out his Kenco in horror.
Unafraid also to gently mock the family's awkwardness over Euan Blair's hazy
version of the doorstep challenge, her only slight lapse of sibling solidarity
came, naturally enough, during an Odd One Out round which involved her baby
nephew, in which Angus Deayton quoted Bill Clinton's reaction to the birth as:
"The president is delighted to hear the news", adding:
"Presumably that the baby didn't look like him."
The other guest was also someone not exactly expected to act as a Blair lapdog -
journalist Andrew Rawnsley, whose book basically took senior Labour figures and
assassinated their characters and personality, paying particular attention to
Gordon Brown. Foppish and plummy-voiced, he evaded Ian's closed-questioning
about who exactly said what about whom with consummate skill.
PICTURED: Andrew Rawnsley
As
for the regulars themselves, it wasn't a spectacular evening's work but more of
a slight struggle through thirty minutes without any great shakes. Just the odd
top-drawer witticism here and there, with the emphasis very much on grilling the
guests and their own professional skeletons.
Angus seemed rather fascinated by Lauren's former guise as a lads' mag agony
aunt 'Luscious Lauzza', while Ian spent the majority of the taping digging the
hole into which he hoped Andrew would leap.
PICTURED: Angus Deayton
Ian did his best work when given the ammunition of a politician he really despises - which is just about any politician, really - so after admitting he had seen Jeffrey Archer's courtroom play, in which the audience act as jury, he said: "I voted guilty - the moment I sat down." And in the toddler-dominated Odd One Out round, in which Leo was joined by two comradely ankle-biters and William Hague, Ian retorted: "They were all born this year except William Hague, who was born yesterday."
PICTURED: Ian Hislop
No
mention of Paul Merton yet, you notice. Sadly, this is the second show in a row
where Paul has proved alarmingly quiet, though this is often a decoy employed by
the man renowned for the satirical savagery which makes him the show's continued
best individual asset. But for once, we didn't get what we have greedily come to
expect from Paul.
His best line was typically surreal - given the headline SOME DAY MY PLINTH WILL
COME, he replied: "This is about Chris Eubank waiting for his holiday
snaps." But apart from a well-observed routine about drunk pubgoers using
flying jetpacks as a means of getting home ("normally you're happy to piss
against a car wheel, but now you can go and piss down the tax inspector's
chimney") he stayed subdued.
PICTURED: Paul Merton
Paul
remains the show's number one asset, yet when the show goes the way of the
topical and the highbrow in order to select its guests, this can alienate him
somewhat. Your bog-standard viewer relies on Paul's affinity with ordinary life
to keep the show easily accessible. But without his surreal uptake on the week's
events, the show can often lapse from an irreverant news quiz into something
more resembling the light-hearted 'final question from our audience' stage of
"Question Time".
While the chance to get a relative of the PM should never have been passed up,
there should have been someone far less susceptible to closed questioning on the
other side, such as another comic. Andrew was a decent guest, but could have
been held back until the following week as a balance should always be struck,
because going too far one way puts undue pressure on Paul to be on top form with
his neutralising, back-to-the-real-world skills. If he doesn't do that, then the
show is in danger of losing its basic aim - to make people laugh until they are
in pain.
PICTURED: 'Auld Lang Syne' the Ian Hislop way...
But it could have been worse, and in Lauren Booth they had a female guest with the easiest-on-the-eye physical features since Stephanie Calman way back in 1992. If you don't get all the in-jokes, then you could at least stare wistfully at Euan's aunt and wonder why your own aunties never looked like that...