Have I Got News for You is back this autumn, the BBC has confirmed; and luckily, fans don’t have to wait too long for the batch of brand new episodes, which will begin airing from Friday 2nd September on BBC One.
The new release marks a change for the long-running programme which usually returns later in the year, but this year has been pushed forward to accommodate the BBC’s World Cup coverage and avoid clashing with matches.
The premiere date itself is no coincidence, however, as it is Boris Johnson’s last evening at 10 Downing Street, which of course will provide plenty of fodder for the show’s political satire.
The broadcaster has also revealed the episode’s title which takes aim at Britain’s soon-to-be former Prime Minister: Have I Got News for Boris – A Special Tribute.
The BBC has teased that the episode will be “a romp through the soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister’s career and his distinctive contribution to British politics, on the eve of his departure.”
Comedian Jack Dee will be guest hosting the episode, and of course, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton will be captaining the teams. Journalist Janet Street-Porter and comedian Phil Wang have been confirmed for the panel line-up.
Presumably, the tone of the presentation will be entirely derisive …
Seems a pity that can’t find an advocate for his defence to be on the panel. Or maybe that would be deemed a health risk, a bit like Monty Python’s killer joke concept.
After a lifetime of swaggering and dissembling his way through one scandal after another on the strength of his prodigious political skills — a potent mix of charm, guile, ruthlessness, hubris, oratorical dexterity and rumpled Wodehousian bluster — Boris Johnson has finally reached the end. It seems that the laws of gravity apply to him after all.
It’s not that he ever fooled anyone about who he really was. Over the years, he has routinely been described as mendacious, irresponsible, reckless and lacking any coherent philosophy other than wanting to seize and hold on to power.
Mislead, omit, obfuscate, bluster, deny, deflect, attack, apologize while implying that he has done nothing wrong — the British prime minister’s blueprint for dealing with a crisis, his critics say, almost never begins, and rarely ends, with simply telling the truth. That approach worked for him for years — until finally it didn’t.
