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?

@LemonRedwood

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!

He filmed the news quiz on Thursday night and the last leg on Friday

@TheHoptimist I know, that's why I said he repeated them on Friday. Because he'd already said them on Thursday. He has scripted his jokes and reuses them.

’It’s been a while since I’ve listened to it’

If you missed 4 years of Miles Jupp hosting it and all the guest hosts you’ve not listened for years. It’s not that surprising that you didn’t recognise people.

I love Andy Zaltzmann and think he is my favourite host so far - and I must have been listening well over 20 years. I think the panels are more varied now. Fewer stalwarts. But still some reliably funny and on the nose contributors. Hugo Rifkind can do no wrong in my eyes.

I also joined a Zoom audience. Loved how much unusable material there was!

For me it’s since it’s been remote, I didn’t mind over covid but I wish they’d go back to a studio. (Disclaimer I’ve basically stopped listening now so maybe they have)

I wish Andy Hamilton was on more often.
I was in the Zoom audience the week before last and there was so much good material that wasn’t used. It would be good if the longer version could be released on Sounds.

I like Andy Zaltzmann too. I think part of the problem at the moment is too much unfunny news and too many politicians who are beyond satire.
They should bring back the clippings, don't really understand why those wouldn't have worked during lockdown.

I reckon ISIHAC is surviving and even thriving far better than I'd have expected. I caught up with a couple of episodes today while doing the ironing, The 'wandering star' bit was obviously a rehearsed party piece by John ....someone who can do impressions who isn't Finnemore...., but none the worse for that, and a few of other things made me laugh aloud which I don't usually do during ironing! (Actually, about the only thing wrong is that too many of them nowadays, especially the women, are good singers.)

Hugo Rifkind is great. I also like Angela Barnes, Ayesha Hazarika, Elis James and Helen Lewis. I’d like to hear more of Desiree Burch and Sindhu Vee.

Andy Zaltzman convert here. Having never heard of him previously I can see now why he was picked, but only after a few episodes.

Desiree was on the last series of Taskmaster - she was really great.

Sindhu Vee might be interesting on Taskmaster actually - with a finance background she might have a completely different take on problems.

They're going back to live studio audiences any moment now: I've applied for tickets (but won't get them because it will be wildly over subscribed now they have to keep the numbers down again to the number that will physically fit in the studio).

Sometimes - all the time at the moment with Boris and Cakegate - I find myself thinking I’d love to hear Jeremy Harry’s take on this. Linda Smith and him on TNW together was amazing.

Hardy and TNQ. Tired fingers.

One of my proudest moments was when they read out a newspaper cutting I had sent in. It really was literally cut out of the newspaper (the Yorkshire Post as I recall) that’s how long ago it was.

@LightDrizzle

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”.

Oh I miss her.

I started listening during the Miles Jupp years and I bloody loved it. Still listen now and it is still funny but Miles did it for me 🥰

I've been listening since Barry Took, but I think Miles was my favourite.

Hugo Rifkind can do no wrong in my eyes.

Mine too. Also rate Helen Lewis. Sometimes the journalists are funnier than the comedians.

Whatscratch I did listen occasionally during the miles jupp years........ but not as obsessively as I did when Sandi presented it. And not at all in the last two.

I think the chaos of guest hosts made me happy to have one a series. I’ve grown to like Andy Zaltman as chairman now he’s relaxed into the role - he didn’t need the gimmicky sound effects, he’s funny without them.

If you didn’t hear much of Miles Jupp it’s worth going back to listen to those series, if that’s something you’d enjoy. He was really good at bringing the best out of the guests and not hogging the laughs while still being funny. You hear a lot of the whole panel laughing.

I started listening practically in my cradle, so my first News Quiz presenter was Barry Took. I also remember when it was repeated on Monday at 6.30, rather than Saturday lunchtime. The news moved a lot more slowly in those pre-internet days.

Been listening since whenever, but more so since moving to Australia. Here it's Saturday morning breakfast listening, so very little behind actual broadcast.

Always a moment when the new bod kicks in, but Andy Zaltzman is a worthy successor.

I remember the shock of listening to ISIHAC the first time in my 20s and how absolutely disgustingly outrageous Humph was. It was so funny hearing that filth from the mouth of what even then was a very elderly (and rather posh sounding) man

I think Jack Dee is a brilliant successor - such dry and wry wit.

The News Quiz used to be my favourite but I think they need time to grow into and relax with the format. Revolving participants aren't a great idea imho.

Dead Ringers is brilliant though. Always hilarious.

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

I loved them too, but I suspect it would be really difficult nowadays because there aren't nearly so many local papers around and those were the best source of daft stories.

I miss the way they always used to give Alan Coren the stories about parrots and cats. He moaned about it, but he always knew the answers.