Have I Got News for You the BBC two years later. In April 2003, three-time guest panellist Stephen Fry announced that he was boycotting the show following the sacking of Angus Deayton. Fry described Deayton's disposal as "greasy, miserable, British and pathetic". On 23 November 2007, Ann Widdecombe appeared as a guest host for the second time, with Jimmy Carr as Hislop's teammate. Due to Carr's risqué material, Widdecombe vowed she would never appear on "Have I Got News for You" again. She said, "His idea of wit is a barrage of filth and the sort of humour most men grow out of in their teens.
Have I Got News for You the only person to have appeared in every episode — despite suffering from appendicitis during one 1994 edition and having to go to hospital immediately afterwards. Apart from Merton, there are twelve other people who have appeared as a panellist after being a guest host: Clive Anderson, Gyles Brandreth, Marcus Brigstocke, Jimmy Carr, Jeremy Clarkson (who subsequently appeared as a guest host again), Alan Johnson, Charles Kennedy, Richard Madeley, Richard Osman, Robert Peston, John Prescott and Liza Tarbuck. The only guests to have also worked on the production off camera are Kevin Day and John O'Farrell who have both had