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Have I Got News for You
1990 · TV series · 30 min episodes · 72 seasons
Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.
2 positive4 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
"comparatively, very few episodes. Especially places like the UK"
OK - Fawlty Towers: 12 episodes. Now, look up the Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise, Victoria Wood, Absolutely Fabulous, French and Saunders, Lenny Henry, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Ben Elton, The Fast Show, ... oh and I'm watching Dawn French doing current stand up right now. Jo Brand, ... oh this is getting boring and I've missed out loads. That's just a few comedians.
We have a few soaps that have stood the test of time too and a few current affairs programmes that have been around for a while: Coronation Street, East Enders, Have I got News for you, QI, The Archers, Panorama.
The BBC alone has been running for quite a while and I'll finish with an honourable mention for Blue Peter.
I haven't really refuted your argument but then that was pretty arse to start with. Gave me an excuse to reminisce for a while 8)
More accurately, synonymous with recent US Presidential debate.
Civil debate, people take turns and listen to each other; Anecdoche. everybody talks at once, nobody listens.
I've been a reader | writer | speaker of commonwealth English for decades, this has the feel of a list of words less familiar to American English speakers; there are a few words I've not come across - most might feature in an episode of Have I Got News for You (panel programm that rips and riffs on contemporary UK news events) or other chatty talkfests.
The BBC has some extremely good content... nature documentaries (David Attenborough), science shows (Horizon), archaeological/history (Digging for Britain), comedy (Ghosts), comedy/news/current affairs (Have I Got News For You). The US does big budget shows very well, but for a wide variety of content I really miss the BBC when I can't access it. I'm obviously biased though.
"Have I Got News for You", legendary UK political satirical/comedy-panel show, 1990-still running
One thing that kept them fresh was inviting guests-of-the-hour; often beleaguered under-fire politicians, who they would then call corrupt or liars or incompetent to their faces. Not something you'd ever see on US television, other than Stewart or Colbert.
Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_I_Got_News_for_You
Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=have+i+got+news+for+you
My kids have no concept of linear TV. My 9 year old came back and told me that a friend had a broken TV as when they turned it on, the program was already half way through.
Their 'channels' are netflix, amazon and disney. When I had the choice and they were pre-school then sure, we watched things like Alphablocks on iplayer. I can force them to watch Attenborough or Blue Peter, and they enjoy it, just not enough to want to watch them over things on disney. There's so much competition of things to do.
I do watch BBC (iplayer obviously) occasionally, but the material I'm interested in isn't as accessible as it is on disney/apple/prime/netflix/youtube.
We watched Eurovision and Euro2020 (England games) this year. Aside from that the only BBC output we watched was Roadkill about a year ago, and the one Doctor Who episode which had John Barrowman in. I would watch have I got news for you, but whenever I remember to watch it, it's not on.
This itself might not say a lot, and I still have a TV license despite the limited direct value I get (listen to a lot of BBC radio, and the news website), but what's interesting is I actually work for the BBC. If my household barely watches it, where does the future lie.
Linear TVs days are numbered, but the underlying cultural links that prime time TV provided in the 60s through 90s has already gone. 1 in 4 people in the UK used to watch the same shitty sitcoms in the 80s because there was very little choice.
It's not just BBC or the UK that has this cultural difference. "It's a wonderful life" is an American classic. It is because it was shown on every channel every christmas year after year, generation after generation, and kids watched it, because it was that or reading a book.
I think Star Trek was right with its outlandish prediction from 1988. TV as a form of entertainment won't survive much past 2040 (I think linear TV will still be going in 10 years time, but probably not 30).
The UK panel show "Have I Got News For You" includes a guest publication in every episode: https://metro.co.uk/2015/04/17/11-of-the-most-memorable-publications-ever-to-feature-on-have-i-got-news-for-yous-missing-words-round-5149667/