Well, they do say timing is important in comedy. If only the new series of Have I Got News For You had returned for its fiftieth, yes, fiftieth series last Friday. I would imagine that then it would have been all over Piggate like a rash(er). Instead it was nine minutes into the first show in the latest run before it got a mention.
It was a difficult subject to tackle. Firstly because it felt like every joke had been squeezed out of the story already. Could Twitter kill HIGNFY? Discuss. Secondly because the programme’s lawyers would have probably given any pig-references a good grilling. So instead we got Ian Hislop hogging it by laying mainly into Lord Ashcroft and an unusually quiet Paul Merton not saying a great deal but falling off his chair on purpose during a riff about feeding Jeremy Clarkson quickly to avoid being punched by the guest host.
In fact it was Clarkson that took the biggest pounding in this episode. Mainly from Richard Osman, who was on Paul Merton's side (Camilla Long was on Hislop's team) but seemed to think he was auditioning for a regular slot as host. Osman made constant digs at Clarkson, which got plenty of laughs but felt a little weary towards the end. They also felt a little pre-prepared. Was it an off-the-cuff ad lib when Osman suggested the channel the ex-Top Gear presenter was now working for was called “Amazon past-their-prime?”
Funnily one would have thought that with Clarkson as host the programme might have made more out of the recent VW emissions scandal. But he said that he is not allowed to say the “C word” on the BBC - C as in “Car”. Though as he pointed out, they can hardly sack him for it.
This could have been a memorable edition of this satirical warhorse. Instead it felt a little bit snippy and Paul Merton, usually so good, did his distracted, disinterested look a few too many times. OK, there were pithy gags about Putin, the Pope and Jeremy Corbyn. But somehow the programme seemed to be pulling its punches. We may never know what gems ended up on the cutting room floor, but having hit its half century of series HIGNFY felt like it was playing safe this week. Hopefully normal service will be resumed next week.
Fridays, 9pm, BBC1.
