Have I Got News For You - Participants

Participants

The original line-up, from 1990 to 2002, was Angus Deayton as chairman, with Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, and comedian Paul Merton as team captains. Each captain is accompanied by a guest, usually a politician, journalist or comedian, or somebody particularly relevant to recent news.

Merton took a break from Have I Got News for You during the 11th series in 1996, making only one appearance as a guest on Hislop's team. He was variously replaced as opposing team captain by Clive Anderson, Alan Davies and Eddie Izzard (with another two episodes featuring an equal-billing double act as the opponents of Hislop's team). Merton later explained that at the time he was "very tired" of the show and that he thought it had become "stuck in a rut". Nevertheless, he added that he felt his absence gave the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since".

In May 2002, following newspaper headlines of his sex with a prostitute and use of illegal drugs, Deayton was relentlessly ridiculed on the show by Hislop and Merton (along with guests Dave Gorman and Ken Livingstone). Following a second round of revelations about his private life later in the year, leading to further mockery, Deayton was fired in October, two shows into series 24.

At short notice, Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, and was described as "merciless" in his treatment of his former co-star. A series of guest hosts appeared for the remainder of the series, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Despite an initial search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful, with average audience figures increasing from 6 million to 7 million. It was therefore announced in June 2003 that this feature would continue permanently.

Hislop is the only person to have appeared in every episode — despite suffering from a burst appendix shortly before one 1994 edition and having to go to hospital immediately afterwards. Merton is one of three people to have played all three roles of the show's format at various points: he has been captain of his own team, was the first post-Deayton presenter (series 24, episode 3), and has also been a guest on a team (Hislop's team, in series 11, episode 1). The others who have occupied all three positions are Clive Anderson and Frank Skinner, who have both stood in for Merton as team captain (in series 11, episodes 3 & 6 and series 36, episode 5 respectively.) Anderson also filled in for Merton at the last minute for the special live edition for 24 Hour Panel People for Red Nose Day 2011. (Martin Clunes could be considered the fourth person to have done all three roles, after sitting in Merton's usual seat in series 11, episode 4, but with his teammate being Men Behaving Badly co-star Neil Morrissey, the duo were given equal billing, with no captain.)

Apart from Merton, there are eight other people who have appeared as a panellist after being a guest host: Clive Anderson, Gyles Brandreth, Marcus Brigstocke, Jimmy Carr, Jeremy Clarkson (who subsequently appeared as a guest host again), Charles Kennedy MP, Richard Madeley and Liza Tarbuck. The only guests to have also worked on the production off camera are Kevin Day and John O'Farrell, who have both had stints on the writing team.