Have I Got News for You specials. "List complete up to 14 December 2018" In 1993, in the final episode of series 5, The Rt Hon. Roy Hattersley (then an MP, having recently stepped down as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party) cancelled his appearance on the show at the last minute; the third time he had done so. Unable to find a suitable replacement at such short notice, they decided that Paul's guest would be a tub of lard instead, billed as 'The Right Honourable Tub of Lard MP'. In a 1994 episode, Deayton read out the following: "The BBC are cracking down on references
Have I Got News for You of show business that goes on in putting on a show," continued Merton. "We found very early on that it's worth seeing the questions beforehand so that you can work out your depth of ignorance. If you really don't know, you think, 'Well, I've really got to try and say something here.' It's much better to be doing that for ten or fifteen minutes before the show than be doing it when the cameras are rolling, in front of an audience, going, 'Well, who's he?'" Norman Tebbit wrote an article in "The Mail on Sunday" criticising the whole programme: 'Well,