Have I Got News for You returns for the 65th series

Since Angus Deayton got caught up in his own front-page scandal in 2002, HIGNFY has had 124 guest hosts, beginning with longstanding team captain Paul Merton, who stood in at the last minute following his colleague’s departure.

Among the most memorable was Brian Blessed, whose stint has gone into TV folklore.

Bellowing out “Gordon’s Alive!”, the larger-than-life actor made sure he was the centre of attention, with Merton and Ian Hislop having little choice but to ride out the storm.

Meanwhile, during his first appearance in 2003, Bruce Forsyth sang and danced his way through the show, occasionally shouting out one of his famous catchphrases.

His performance went some way to resurrecting his career at the BBC. Then there was Piers Morgan, who clearly wasn’t on the show to make friends. He clashed with Ian repeatedly, asking the audience if anybody actually liked him, with panellist Clive Anderson also getting involved.

“What do you know about editing newspapers?” asked Morgan.

“About as much as you,” Clive replied.

Another big personality to clash with Hislop was Jeremy Clarkson.

In response to the team captain’s jibe about Clarkson not writing his newspaper column, the mock-outraged presenter threw a pen at him.

Boris Johnson first appeared on HIGNFY back in the Deayton days, and over the years, the show gave the then largely unknown MP some much-needed exposure, as he bumbled along, shamelessly promoting his book.

The most memorable guest host from the past few years has arguably been Gary Neville.

Ian was praised for his comments to the retired footballer and Sky Sports pundit on the subject of the World Cup in Qatar.

When Neville asked Hislop if “it’s coming home”, he replied: “What, your reputation?”

Now, astonishingly, in its 65th series, HIGNFY shows no sign of slowing down, and they have a familiar face sitting in the hosts’ chair to kick it off.

TV presenter, satirist and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker will be making his 10th appearance on the show, and his fifth as host.

In Brooker’s previous outing in 2020, Ian jokingly blamed him for the coronavirus pandemic

He said: “Well, I’m thrilled to have you on as host, obviously… the purveyor of apocalyptic vision. Presumably we’ll get Nostradamus next week, and after that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are going to sit there and fire some jolly questions at us… I blame you.”

Meanwhile, Brooker likened preparations for the show’s filming to “having a breakdown”.

He said: “There was a test earlier on, where there were people sitting in all four of your houses and I was talking to four people in face masks. It was the most Black Mirror thing I’ve ever seen… and I’ve sat in the edit for that show.”

Thankfully, all those Covid restrictions are a distant memory, although with everything going on the world, don’t be surprised if Ian and Paul make reference to the end of the world or something similar in the studio tonight.

Although Deayton was a massive loss to the show at the time, his departure almost 21 years ago not only provided us with the most celebrated episode in its history, it opened the door for the guest hosts that we have come to know and love.