Have we got news for Deayton?
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Your support makes all the difference.The problem with quiz shows is that they tend to hang around. Once settled on a winning formula, the quiz show clings to it for dear life, refusing to alter the smallest detail. If Frank Muir had ever switched his bow tie for a cravat, Call My Bluff would have been doomed at a stroke. If Question of Sport went out without David Coleman making a complete hash of a question, the BBC would be forced to flash up the "Do Not Adjust Your Set caption".
Have I Got News for You (10pm BBC2) is another case in point. Nine series, eight million viewers and a Bafta to boot, the satirical news quiz is firmly established as a televisual institution... Why should they change anything?
Well, I for one am tired of the arrogance that seeps from the screen every time Angus Deayton shows his face. Paul Merton's towering genius is, I suspect, solely responsible for most of the eight million, while Ian Hislop, at least, exercises the requisite cutting edge; but it is time for Deayton to go. The withering looks to camera, the tiresomely scripted links, the groaningly dull spat over advertising... all have become too much to stomach. So let us imagine that Deayton wraps up the current series with the words: "Which leaden humour brings me grinding to the end of my stint as presenter". Then the show takes the Rory Bremner route to Channel 4 and signs up Chris Morris as quiz master. Now that would be worth watching.
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