#RSS Feed for Comedy articles - Telegraph.co.uk [p?c1=2&c2=6035736&cv=2.0&cj=1] Accessibility links * Skip to article * Skip to navigation [telegraph_print_190.gif] Telegraph.co.uk ___________________ Submit Search - enhanced by OpenText Sunday 17 January 2016 * Home * Video * News * World * Sport * Finance * Comment * Culture * Travel * Life * Women * Fashion * Luxury * Tech * Cars * Film * TV * Film * TV and Radio * Books * Music * Comedy * Art * Theatre * Photography * Dance * Opera * Hay Festival * Glyndebourne * Comedy News * Comedy Reviews Advertisement 1. Home» 2. Culture» 3. Comedy After 47 seasons of HIGNFY, how has British satire changed? Have I Got News for You has run for 47 seasons – can satire in Britain survive for its 48th? Ian Hislop and Paul Merton from Have I Got News For You Ian Hislop and Paul Merton from Have I Got News For You Photo: BBC By Olivia Goldhill 5:32PM BST 03 Oct 2014 Follow Comments Comments If you’re aged 42 or younger, chances are your HIGNFY memories date back to your salad days – the programme has been running for 24 years and is due to start its 48th series on Friday night. Satire has been popular on British TV for more than 50 years - but is now a very different beast from its 1960s beginnings. That Was The Week That Was News-based satire arrived on television with That Was The Week That Was (TW3) in 1962, which was hosted by David Frost. Millicent Martin sang the opening song, Bernard Levin was a cast member and the scriptwriters included John Cleese, Roald Dahl and poet John Betjeman. When the first episode was broadcast, Reginald Bevins, who was postmaster general and the minister in charge of broadcasting, said he was “going to do something about this”. Related Articles * Paul Merton's 18 best lines and jokes 25 Sep 2014 * Emma Thompson's best quotes 03 Oct 2014 * Withnail and I: best quotes 03 Oct 2014 * Detectorists, BBC Four, review: 'first-rate writing' 02 Oct 2014 * Quiz: Are women now funnier than men? 02 Oct 2014 * Data-driven unisex jokes may yet have the last laugh 02 Oct 2014 But Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had other ideas and wrote a memo that read: “I hope you will not repeat not take any action about “That was the week that was” without consulting me. It is a good thing to be laughed at. It is better than to be ignored.” A clip below shows That Was the Week That Was's take on declining power in Britain: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/JOrPQmiw7Gc?enablejsapi=1 The programme's sketches and debates were relatively tame by today’s standards but shocked a public who had never seen their politicians mocked before. And Macmillan may have reconsidered his stance on laughter when the Profumo scandal became the butt of jokes a year later, in 1963. BBC governors decided the programme was too controversial to run in an election year, 1964, and so TW3 was short-lived – but its influence is still felt by TV comedy today. Yes Minister The 1980s sitcom lampooned the general confusion and cronyism of Westminster politics. It followed the MP Jim Hacker, who consistently failed to create effective policy while his permanent secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, had to save him from disaster. The sketch below shows a typical Yes Minister theme - how to get away with doing the opposite of your political promises: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/KgUemV4brDU?enablejsapi=1 Although it seems farcical, several politicians have said that Yes Minister was true to life. Margaret Thatcher was a fan, and said “its clearly-observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy”. The Prime Minister even performed in a Yes Minister sketch at an awards ceremony for the writers in 1984: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/cwaX_DgHZkM?enablejsapi=1 David Cameron has also praised the show's accuracy. In 2012, he told the Malaysian PM that he had to write an essay on ‘How true to life is Yes Minister’ as a student in the 1980s. "I think I wrote in the essay that it wasn't that true to life,” said Cameron. “I can tell you, as prime minister, it is true to life." The Thick of It The Thick of It is a version of Yes Minister for the 21st century. Like its predecessor, the comedy is set within a ministerial department and does not specifically refer to politicians – though some party politics and events pertain to real life. The central character, Malcolm Tucker, is known as one of the most fearsome characters on television – and for his liberal use of profanities. Tucker is not just bluntly aggressive but creatively so – he’s known for inventing the word “omnishambles”. Here's a taste of some of the affectionate nicknames in The Thick of It: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/fJMNHu9YM-4?enablejsapi=1 Satire often blends into reality as politicians fumble around their departments - one of the writers, Will Smith, said: “it feels more like they copy us”. Mock The Week The comedy panel game, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and featuring stand ups, is barely satire. Though the comedy spins of current affair and news events, the jokes are more silly than pointed - as you can see in the clip below. Former panellist Frankie Boyle said has complained that his risqué jokes were blocked from the show due to fears of “frightening the horses”, and overall the tone is more light-hearted than groundbreaking satire: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/iIeFZCSrgKA?enablejsapi=1 Have I Got News For You As Britain’s longest-running satirical tv show, Have I Got News For You (HIGNFY) has seen many scandals, politicians and libel actions come and go, but kept largely the same format. In 1992, for example, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop were there to joke about the Queen’s “annus bloody catastrophicus” and question whether a divorced man could be the head of the Church of England, after Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, separated. IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/8_ieICHDNXA?enablejsapi=1 Politicians often make an appearance, though that doesn’t stop them from being the subject of satire – as these clips of Alistair Campbell and Nigel Farage show: IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/SeXHdtKUTfQ?enablejsapi=1 IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/butns-TR8Cg?enablejsapi=1 Guest panellists who perform well can reap their benefits, and none have benefited more than Boris Johnson. The London Mayor was so popular on Have I Got News For You that he became a regular on the show, and saw his political profile boosted as a result of his comedic skills. IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/trE_bkWUFsE?enablejsapi=1 There are complaints that political correctness has curtailed the show’s humour, but these concerns have long existed. Seven years ago, panellist Will Self said that the BBC had “lost its bottle” in a post-Hutton era, and complained that his sharpest joke was cut for transmission. Self also said that Hislop and Merton are less compelling as they mellow in middle age. “It's hard to credit them as effectively wielding what is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful, when they're so clearly part of an elite,” he said. But the series shows no signs of slowing, and millions are expected to tune in for the 48th season of HIGNFY. Will a younger television show steal the satirical crown? Only time will tell. 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