The News Quiz

The News Quiz is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

History

The News Quiz was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently it was chaired by Simon Hoggart, Barry Took (until 1995), and then again by Simon Hoggart until March 2006. Hoggart was replaced by Sandi Toksvig in September 2006, who in turn was replaced by Miles Jupp in September 2015. The series was created by John Lloyd based on an idea from Nicholas Parsons.

Originally Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams and Punch editor Alan Coren acted as team captains.

It was adapted for television in 1981 under the title Scoop, running for two series, and later inspired the television programme Have I Got News for You.

In 2012 the BBC piloted an American version hosted by Lewis Black.

On 28 June 2013, the News Quiz paid tribute to Radio 4 announcer Rory Morrison, who used to read the news cuttings on the programme.

Transmission

The programme is usually recorded in front of an audience on Thursday evenings at the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in central London. It is then edited and broadcast first on Friday evening at 1830, then repeated on the Saturday lunchtime. The final 28 minute show is significantly shorter than the original recording. In 2012 the BBC began making an extended version for BBC Radio 4 Extra.

News

News is packaged information about current events happening somewhere else; or, alternatively, news is that which the news industry sells. News moves through many different media, based on word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, and electronic communication.

Common topics for news reports include war, politics, and business, as well as athletic contests, quirky or unusual events, and the doings of celebrities. Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies, laws, taxes, public health, and criminals, have been dubbed news since ancient times.

Humans exhibit a nearly universal desire to learn and share news from elsewhere, which they satisfy by traveling and talking to each other. Technological and social developments, often driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased the speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content. The genre of news as we know it today is closely associated with the newspaper, which originated in China as a court bulletin and spread, with paper and printing press, to Europe.

Friday Night

Friday Night may refer to:

Art, entertainment, and media

Film

Music

Jeremy Hardy

Jeremy James Hardy (born 17 July 1961) is a British comedian, widely known for his left-wing politics.

Career

Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton. He started his stand-up career in the early 1980s, and won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is best known for his radio work, particularly on The News Quiz, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and his long-running series of monologues Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. His experiences in Israel during the Israeli army incursions of 2002 became the subject of a feature documentary Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army (2003), directed by Leila Sansour.

He made his television debut in the late 1980s in various comedy shows including Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and has presented a television documentary about the political background to the English Civil War as well as an edition of Top of the Pops in 1996. Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001.

Katy Brand

Katherine Frances "Katy" Brand (born 13 January 1979) is an English actress, comedian and writer, known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4.

Early life

Brand was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. She is an alumna of St. Clement Danes School, where she was in the house of Clement. Following a summer holiday in Cornwall at 13 with friends who were evangelical Christians she embraced their faith and attended church five times a week. Motivated to read theology at Keble College, Oxford, she then lost her religious beliefs while a student. Interviewed for the Evening Standard in 2007, she commented: "After about a year, I realised it was mostly rubbish and that things are never as simple as they seem when you are 13".

Career

After graduation, Brand did not work as a performer, gaining employment in television production instead, but her social encounters with university contemporaries ultimately convinced her to try working as a comedian.