Clive Myrie has returned to our screens after reporting from Ukraine and will be returning as a guest host on Have I Got News for You to mark its 63rd season.
The Mastermind host will be joined by writer Helen Lewis and comedian Andy Hamilton with Ian Hislop and Paul Merton resuming their regular spot as team captains.
While it’s bound to be a highly entertaining show as always, Clive knows better than to make any jokes about anybody’s wife, following Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday, after Chris made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith.
In case you missed it, Will stormed the stage at the awards ceremony and slapped Chris after he made a joke which referred to Jada’s hair, likening her to bald fictional character and action figure G. I. Jane, even though the actress suffers from alopecia.
But Clive knows better than that, of course.
Tonight the panelists will be returning to screens after a busy week of news – from developments about the war in Ukraine, the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, that Oscar moment, and fines being issued following the police report into Downing Street ‘partygate’.
Opening the show, Clive brings the humour to the forefront, as he jokes: ‘Good evening. Welcome to Have I Got News For You, I’m Clive Myrie. Now, just to be on the safe side after what happened at the Oscars, I’ve cut all the jokes about Ian’s wife.’
‘And I’m going to repeat the ones about Rishi Sunak’s wife,’ replies Ian, referencing the Chancellor comparing himself to Will Smith.
Discussion soon moved on to the war in Ukraine, as Clive asked the panelists: ‘This is of course the war in Ukraine, which appears to be entering a new phase after negotiations between the Russians and Ukraine. How did the head of the Russian negotiations team explain the withdrawal of forces from around Kyiv?’
‘It’s a new phase of the war, it’s called “defeat”‘, replied Ian.
‘Yeah, he said Russia was “reducing its combat operations to build trust”. I’m sure that’s worked well,’ joked Clive. ‘Who was involved in the negotiations?’
‘Roman Abramovich, the former-ish owner of Chelsea. Except he got poisoned in a way that sounded quite suspicious. Him and a couple of Ukrainian MPs woke up the next day with temporary loss of vision and peeling skin. Which as far as I know, happens to about 100,000 British holiday makers every year,’ joked Helen.
Speaking of the potential of the war growing and creating even more disasters, Clive added later in the segment: ‘The good news is that the world is still intact, we’re all still here.’
‘Well you don’t know, there’s the repeat to come…’ Andy pointed out.
‘Yeah, if the globe is wiped out via a nuclear Holocaust, won’t you look silly!’ added Paul.
Before returning to the UK last month, the 57-year-old journalist was updating viewers on Russia’s tragic invasion alongside the corporation’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, with many watching at home concerned for their safety and commending his brave reporting.
Susanna Reid, Piers Morgan and many more shared their applause on Twitter, with Piers writing: ‘Tremendous reporting, Clive. The BBC at its best.’
When the invasion began, Clive and Lyse swiftly put on flak jackets after they were interrupted by an air raid siren during a live broadcast from a rooftop opposite St Michael’s Cathedral.
He later told the PA news agency: ‘You’ve got to be aware that you are in the middle of a warzone, a live warzone, and anything could happen.
‘None of us are stupid enough to stay out there reporting while bullets are raining down, that would be madness and frankly no story is worth that, but the advice was we could still keep broadcasting as long as we took the minimal protection of putting on safety gear.
‘So that’s what we did and it meant we could continue telling the story, getting that across to our viewers so that they understand what is going on.’
Have I Got News For You returns tonight (April 1) at 9pm on BBC One.
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