Image: The original line up of Ian Hislop, host Angus Deayton and Paul Merton, series 1 September 1990
The satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You began on 28 September 1990. Loosely based on the Radio 4 show The News Quiz, it was chaired by Angus Deayton and the team captains were Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. Other panellists on the first show were Sandi Toksvig and Kate Saunders. The success of the programme prompted a move from BBC Two to BBC One in 2000 and provided the inspiration for an explosion of comedy quiz shows that continues to this day.
The guest panellists on Have I Got News for You are drawn from the varied worlds of entertainment, journalism and politics. They are frequently the object of ridicule themselves, if they are at all newsworthy. Deayton was replaced as chairman in 2002 after his private life became a tabloid news story. However the programme continued to thrive with a spectacular mixture of guest presenters, from Boris Johnson to Bruce Forsyth.
Merton and Hislop’s mutual admiration remains at the heart of the continued popularity of Have I Got News For You, whoever the guests are. The programme is generally merciless in its attack on public figures, but was praised for its sensitive tribute following the death of former Lib Dem Leader Charles Kennedy.
In 2011 Have I Got News for You won the British Comedy Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, the first time it had been given to a programme rather than an individual.
September anniversaries
Close down of Television service for the duration of the War
1 September 1939
The Morecambe and Wise Show
2 September 1968
Chamberlain announces Britain is at war with Germany
3 September 1939
Start of first series of Porridge
5 September 1974
Droitwich transmitter becomes operational
6 September 1934
The News Quiz
6 September 1977
Casualty
6 September 1986
Only Fools and Horses
8 September 1981
The Woodentops
9 September 1955
First live Children's BBC from 'the Broom Cupboard'
9 September 1985
The Saga of Noggin the Nog first transmitted
11 September 1959
Crackerjack
14 September 1955
The Royle Family
14 September 1998
Opening of BBC Bristol
18 September 1934
First episode of Fawlty Towers
19 September 1975
First episode of I, Claudius
20 September 1976
The Old Grey Whistle Test
21 September 1971
The Shock of the New
21 September 1980
CEEFAX: world's first teletext service
23 September 1974
Pride and Prejudice
24 September 1995
BBC Television for Schools begins
24 September 1957
Question Time
25 September 1979
The Epilogue
26 September 1926
Start of BBC European Service, News in French, German and Italian
27 September 1938
BBC Singers
28 September 1924
The beginning of The Third Programme
29 September 1946
Have I Got News For You
28 September 1990
War and Peace
28 September 1972
First episode of Come Dancing
29 September 1950
Start of Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4
30 September 1967
Chamberlain returns from Munich
30 September 1938
