HIGNFY

The joys of spare ticket syndrome have stuck again as I've just spent a very pleasant evening watching a recording of Have I Got News For You.

Alongside Ian Hislop was BBC newsreader Kate Silverton, and with Paul Merton was poet, broadcaster and 'professional northerner from Barnsley', Ian McMillan. Hosting the evening - Jeremy Clarkson.

A good evening started with Jo Caulfield doing some stand up to warm up the audience and then into the show. The actual recording started at 7.50pm and ran for 2 hours - with a few retakes it meant it finally finished at 10.10pm.

OK, it wasn't a completely riotous 2 hours of non-stop humour - inevitably there were a few misses - but much was good quick witted stuff. Kate Silverton was told she looked like a particular C4 style/clothes show presenter, Ian McMillan told a great joke about a Yorkshire tombstone amongt other slightly surreal observations, Ian Hislop had his usual pithy observations, and Paul Merton had a couple of great one liners and flights of fancy - one answer he gave in the "missing words" round was superb and had Jeremy Clarkson in tears.

Clarkson held the whole thing together well but a particular highlight was Paul Merton telling some old gags - probably dating back to his early stand up act 20 years ago - while we all waited for the retakes to be set up. Simply excellent.

Tomorrow night, BBC1, 9pm.