End of an era (Have I got News for You)

Member Name: Asylum

Product:	Have I got News for You
Date:	10/11/02 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: hilarious, topical, spontaneous

Disadvantages: loss of original host

There are very few TV programmes left that are worth making a special effort to watch, but "Have I got news for you" is certainly one of them.
The format of the show is based around the previous week's news as a quiz, but is far from a serious one. The 2 teams comprising of Ian Hislop and guest versus Paul Merton and guest are more interested in political satire or simply abusing those in the news or each other than scoring points. The result can be quite hilarious.
A lot of thought seems to have gone into the original theme of the programme, with a caption contest for some recent news picture, an odd one out round featuring 4 apparently unrelating people and a section to guess the missing words from recent headlines which always a bizarre and obscure guest publication.
Like any programme which depends on the quick fire wit of it's members, the cast is all important. In this case the choices made were excellent with Ian having a vast political knowledge and years of experience running the famous publication "Private Eye", Paul being a very droll and sometimes outright abusive comedian and of course Angus Deayton as the quiz host armed with an array of pre-arranged comments for each subject.
Despite the massive success of this combination, the powers that control the programme have seen fit to remove Angus from the team. For the past 3 weeks different people have hosted the show, which probably means that they have not yet decided on a suitable replacement. Sadly, whoever is finally chosen will not be suitable. The show may still be a worthwhile one to view, but the loss of Angus certainly constitutes the end of a great era.

Summary: