Stepehen Mangan will host the first episode of the new series of Have I Got News For You.

Paul Merton and Ian Hislop will be in their usual chairs and the guest panellists will be Ross Noble and Ria Lina.

This will be the 62nd series of the enduring topical quiz.

In the second episode on October 15, Alexander Armstrong will guest present and joining him will be BBC news broadcaster Mishal Husain and comedian Geoff Norcott making his debut.

Stephen Mangan is also set to host the gala evening of film, live music and laughter that will be the centre-piece of the UK’s biggest festival of silent and classic screen comedy when Slapstick returns to Bristol from 26 to 30 January 2022.

The gala will take place at Bristol Cathedral on Friday 28 January and is the first of the 20+ events in the Slapstick 2022 line-up to be unveiled and go on sale.

It will feature Stephen Mangan introducing a triple bill of laugh-out-loud silent comedy films, including Buster Keaton’s 1928 masterpiece THE CAMERAMAN, accompanied live by the European Silent Screen Virtuosi plus shorts starring Laurel & Hardy and Harold Lloyd.

Mangan is a well-informed fan of silent film comedy and needed no persuading to host the latest Slapstick Gala. “This sounds great,” he wrote in a message to festival director Chris Daniels.  “Both Keaton and Stan & Ollie make life worth living”.

Tickets for the Slapstick Silent Comedy Film Gala 2022 are bookable now via the festival’s website www.slapstick.org.uk or https://slapsticksilentcomedygala.eventbrite.co.uk/, 

Have I Got News for You returns to BBC One at 9pm on Friday, October 8.

Stephen Mangan picture: Richard Kendall