Back in 1996, Paul Merton stepped down from his role as a panellist on Have I Got News For You. The show was in a rut. It was understandable, of course: how many TV programmes manage to keep firing on all cylinders after 10 full series on the air? Damn few. But Merton returned, mere months later, and he and Ian Hislop have remained wedded to the series ever since. Now, with the stalwart BBC comedy kicking off its 63rd series, the very notion of a rut seems almost beside the point. No, this is full-blown Groundhog Day, and Merton and Hislop are both Bill Murray, three acts deep and long past the point of resistance, robotically resigned to living that one February day over and over into eternity.
Have I Got News For You laid the formula for the modern British panel series; it has endured so long that most of its myriad imitators (from Mock the Week to QI) have faded into cultural irrelevance. What, exactly, is behind this ungodly longevity? Well, for one thing, it still draws an audience. (While viewership is down from its heyday, the decline over the past decade has been slight.) It is, for better or worse, a well-oiled machine – perhaps a little over-lubricated for those who prefer their satire sharp-edged and fractious. Its cadre of regular guest hosts and panellists rarely throw up any incident whatsoever. Some of the show’s other most-featured supporting players – Jo Brand, David Mitchell, Andy Hamilton (who features as a panellist tonight for the 26th time) – are also reliably droll. But there’s a stagnancy to the guest selection, which too often skews male, and far too often skews straight and white. Alexander Armstrong has hosted 37 times now. Next week’s host, Victoria Coren Mitchell, has featured on the series 24 times; Jack Dee, who hosts in two weeks’ time, will have appeared 16 times. The series has become simply the same old faces cracking the same old bleary jokes.
