We write the three jokes Angus does at the top and the end.
So what do Thompson and Swash do, exactly? `Well, we choose who goes on the show. So I got Swash " that is Swash.' Swash smiles, flings a piece of paper in Thompson's direction and disappears. `Sorry, sorry.' `In the beginning,' he says, `I produced the show on my own' " at this moment a man opens the door " `but then I needed someone for the vital job of staying up all Thursday night through to Friday evening. Looking like a trendy professor, with a tarantula of greasy hair hanging over his brow, he shuffles over. Thompson's offices bristle with prosperity (there's pot-pourri in the toilets), but when the man himself appears, 30 minutes late, he is diffident. Roughly nine million people, for instance, managed to catch Paula calling Ian Hislop `the sperm of the devil'. In his spare time he has managed to steer HIGNFY through 10 award-winning series, with audience figures climbing steadily. The indefatigable Thompson has also written biographies of Richard Ingrams, Tin Tin's creator Herge and Peter Cook (forthcoming). So what's the secret? Is it the satisfying drubbing meted out to Cheshire cats like Melvyn Bragg and Cecil Parkinson? The exposure of little-known and topical tales of corruption? Or the permanent possibility that one such as Paula Yates will come on and throw a fit? One man who might know is the brains behind the programme, 35-year-old Harry Thompson, who also produced the show's Radio 4 precursor, The News Quiz, as well as being responsible for Harry Enfield and Chums, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and They Think It's All Over. Have I Got News For You is that rare thing " popular satire.
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