| Description | The News Quiz is a topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The series was created by comedy producer John Lloyd based on an idea from Nicholas Parsons. The show was first broadcast in 1977. The programme is usually recorded in front of a live audience on Thursday evenings at the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House . It is then edited into a 28 minute show and broadcast first on Friday evening at 18:30, then repeated on Saturday lunchtime. Each week, four panellists appear on the show. They are usually either comedians or journalists, and sometimes politicians. Journalists predominated in the early years. The supposed purpose of the show is to test contestants' knowledge of the events of the previous week by asking questions which are usually oblique references to those events. However over time this has given way to a general free-for-all where panellists contribute their own humorous and satirical remarks once the question has been answered. The participants frequently wander off topic. The host ends the discussion of each question with a summary of the events it refers to, usually with a scripted comic punchline, before asking the next question. It is not uncommon for the show to get through only two rounds of the panel before the final section is reached. Before the host announces the largely symbolic scores, the panellists read out statements from newspapers and other media which they find amusing. Hosts for the show have included Barry Norman, Simon Hoggart, Barry Took, Sandi Toksvig and Miles Jupp. |