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Mock The Week jokes pre-prepared, says Ross Noble – Daily TV round-up

Comic says that the show's spontaneity is all faked.

Comedian Ross Noble has slammed topical TV show 'Mock The Week', accusing it of planning out all its jokes in advance.

Noble claims that the long-running quiz show's spontaneity is all faked, and that some parts of the show seem to tee-up comics to use jokes from their own acts.

Asked why he's never appeared on the Dara O'Briain-hosted show, but had appeared many times on its rival 'Have I Got News For You', he told the Radio Times 'Because it’s terrible'.

“If you watch 'Mock the Week', watch when the camera goes wide, look at the scripts – they’ve got pages and pages of them,” he said.

[Milton Jones on why Jeremy Clarkson was his worst audience member]


“You watch 'Have I Got News For You' and they show a wide shot, there are no notes there.

“You watch' Mock the Week', there are A4 pages spread out if you look at the desk in front of them.

“When you see spin the wheel, what subject could be coming up now and you do a little bit of stand-up about it.

“It’s really weird that when the wheel spins, the topics that come up usually relate to something that is in that person’s act.

“I’ve not been on that show but they clearly get them in advance.”

So far neither the BBC or the production company that makes the show, Hat Trick, has commented on Noble's claims. [Radio Times]

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The BBC has defended a joke featured on 'Have I Got News For Your' which implied that Prince Harry used cocaine. “'Have I Got News for You' is a satirical news quiz and the audience is used to the often irreverent humour,” read a statement. “This line was a play on words as part of a section on the surnames of those involved in the christening and was clearly tongue-in-cheek.” [Digital Spy]