They've ruined the News Quiz!

[Wafflesnsniffles]

Ill admit its been a while since Ive listened to it........made a point of listening to it this evening/Friday whilst cooking the tea. Arghhhhhhhhhh!!
A presenter Ive never heard of - come back Sandi!!
Didnt know any of the panel (except possibly one?)
Not funny. Lots of not funny one liners that seemed scripted.
Audience seemed to laugh entirely on cue - I did wonder if it was canned laughing but.......... they did seem to genuinely cheer for Barry Cryer at the end so perhaps not.

Jeremy Hardy RIP was fabulous on the news quiz.
Also Henning Wehn, John Finnemore, Richard Herring, Sue Perkins.......... others Im sure.

Maybe its just cos Im older, maybe its just me, maybe its due to covid but The News Quiz just didnt seem like the news quiz anymore.

Anyone else?

Ian Hislop - take a bow!

I listen religiously so it’s crept up on me more than you I think and I do like Andy Saltzman but your post has got me nostalgic for the old days!

Bump for the daytime R4 crowd!

I went to the recording of this weeks episode (virtually)
It wasn't canned laughter- the recording took almost 2 hours and it was heavily edited. The panel told many more jokes than made it to the final cut. The 2 men spoke much more than the women during the recording but the editing suggested it was equalish

Andy Salzmann is great- he went off script at many points and his sarcasm and wit were very funny

A couples bits looked scripted- they clearly knew the subject content but most certainly didnt look like it. The meerkats and the bread rolls theses ran through as a joke and only a small part was used.

There was a big cheer for Barry Cryer- it was genuine

I enjoy loads of the current crop actually I think - Chris McCausalnd, Simon Evans, Hugo Rifkind, Zoe Evans, Kiri Pritchard-McClean etc

Hoptimist - thats really interesting and good to know, thankyou for your experience. I hope you enjoyed being there to see it all live. Ive never been to a tv or radio recording.

Perhaps just me then. Perhaps Im just hopelessly nostalgic for how I remember it, the guests that were on then.

Nish Kumar repeated all his jokes on the Last Leg on Friday night so he'd definitely written himself a script even if no one else had!

I miss Sandi too. But Miles Jupp was a good replacement and Andy Zaltzman is very good but it always takes me more than a few episodes to adjust to change! I really struggled when they rotated presenters after Miles left.

Linda Smith & Jeremy Hardy were bliss!
Linda had fantastic timing, I remember one discussion of Jeffrey Archer and someone used the well worn phrase about denying him “the oxygen of publicity” at which point she butted in to advocate denying him “the oxygen of oxygen”.

I haven't listened for a few years now. I was a great fan from the beginning, but it gradually changed from being witty and apparently spontaneous to being a show that seemed heavily scripted and the contributors had come with a set of prepared jokes. Alan Coren was a great loss.

Can't warm to Andy Zaltzman. Miss Sandi and liked Angela Barnes. Miles Jupp was ok too.

I miss Jeremy Hardy and Sandi, I rarely listen anymore but used to love it. Went to a couple of recordings back ‘in the day!’

I now fear for ‘I’m Sorry I haven’t a clue’ i miss Tim Brooke-Taylor and now that Barry Cryer has gone 😢

Just a minute isn’t the same either. I went to a couple of recordings of that too and Nicholas Parsons was such a professional, he shall be missed.

I’m 47 and grew up with these programmes as my parents used to listen and now I’m sad they’re not the same.

I still enjoy it, but it does seem more heavily scripted than it used to be. I also think they seem to spend more time on each question than they used to. And I miss the cuttings sent in by members of the public!

I still enjoy ISAHAC too. Humphrey Lyttelton was a hard act to follow, but I think Jack Dee is quite a good fit. I do miss the old regulars though, with Willie Rushton, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer all now deceased, and Graeme Garden doesn't seem to have been on the programme for quite some while.

Yes the cuttings. When did they stop doing that?

I think the cuttings in News Quiz stopped during lockdown when the programme was made remotely from the contestants' homes.

The cuttings were so awesome - why did they ditch those. Madness.

Linda Smith, Alan Coren - I loved both of them!

I fear that ISIHGAC and JaM will be utterly not ok without the greats that made them both marvellous. Jack Dee I quite like in Clue but Just a Minute without Nicolas.......... No! Cant be done.
So many much loved voices of years past now no longer with us. :(

Clement Freud on Just a minute........ I miss him too.

I have listened for 20 years and although I love so many of the people mentioned, for me Andy Zaltzman has been the best host so far.

Andy Zaltzman is superb. More Alice Fraser, less (ideally no) Nish Kumar, please.

The thing I'm most proud of is that I have brought up my 21 year old ds to be R4 listener. It was him who messaged me to tell me that Barry Cryer had died. He is a big fan of ISAHAC and News Quiz. And many other R4 comedies.

When Andy Saltzman started presenting I wasn't keen - I felt he was imposing too much of his own comedy business on the standard question and answer format which had worked perfectly well for forty years dammit. But I've warmed to the new format now, and the rotating lineup of panellists are mostly pretty good. Give it another go OP - it's not his fault that Jeremy Hardy, Linda Smith and Alan Coren are dead.

I also "attended" a virtual recording in lockdown, which was very funny. One panellist's broadband crashed half way through and the others all bitched about him until he got back .

I was in the audience for a recording in the Alan Coren days. He chain smoked throughout the show, that's how long ago it was.

You are right OperationRinka its definitely not the current panelists fault the voices I remember and loved are now dead. Ill definitely give The News Quiz another go.

Andy Zaltzman is very good at presenting the News Quiz. Obviously I would love to have Linda, Jeremy and Barry and others back, but I feel confident that we're OK for a while at least.

You’re not the only one OP. I liked Sandi but I loved the Miles Jupp days. There was a good mix of people but he also let them go off piste too. I don’t like Andy Zaltzman as host and there’s usually someone I find a bit irritating in the lineup now and it’s just not worth tuning in for the odd good joke when I find the rest a bit tedious. I used to really love the programme so it’s a real shame. And Jeremy Hardy is such a huge miss too.