Redirected from HIGNFY
HIGNFY, as it is commonly known, began on BBC2 on September 28, 1990, and transferred to BBC1 in October 2000. Two series of (usually) eight episodes are made each year. It is taped on Thursday evening for broadcast on Friday, allowing the satire to remain fresh while the BBC's lawyers have time to request cuts of potentially libellous material. The show likes to cultivate a reputation for sailing close to the wind on matters of libel; it is a tradition on the show that particularly scurrilous accusations are suffixed with "...allegedly" (in the style of British satirical magazine Private Eye). This phrase has permeated popular British culture to the extent that it has now become something of a cliché.
The original line-up was: Angus Deayton as chair, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as team captains. Each team is completed by a guest member each week, often a politician or journalist on one side and a comedian on the other. Merton took a break from the show during the eleventh series in 1996, making only one appearance as a guest on Hislop's team.
In 2002, allegations linking Deayton with prostitutes and drug use appeared in UK tabloids, and on October 29, 2002 Deayton was asked to resign from the show, after Merton and Hislop teased him about them and he did not deny. Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, and a series of guest hosts appeared for the rest of the series. Nearly two series after Deayton's departure it was announced in June 2003 that in future HIGNFY would use guest hosts on a permanent basis, as the average audience had increased from 6 million in Deayton's last series to 7 million. Former Conservative Party leader William Hague and actor Martin Clunes[?] received particular praise for their work as guest hosts.
The shows are often recycled as repeats under the title Have I Got Old News For You.
High points of the show:
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump