40 Fun Facts About Mock the Week

Which Irish comedian hosted every BBC episode of Mock the Week from its 2005 launch?

Dara Ó Briain chaired all 21 BBC series and came back for the 2026 revival. He names each round's winner himself, because no real score is kept.

Mock the Week ran for 17 years from 2005 on which British television channel?

BBC Two showed more than 230 episodes before the run ended in November 2022. The show came back on a different channel in 2026.

Mock the Week is often likened to which older BBC panel show captained by Ian Hislop and Paul Merton?

Have I Got News for You also picks over the week's headlines, but it has no stand-up or improvised rounds, and it keeps a proper score where Mock the Week's host simply names a winner.

Mock the Week's creators earlier devised which improv show hosted on Channel 4 by Clive Anderson?

Whose Line Is It Anyway? began on BBC radio in 1988 before moving to television. Producer Dan Patterson worked on every episode of both shows.

Mock the Week's Hugh Dennis plays history-teacher dad Pete Brockman in which BBC family sitcom?

Outnumbered was semi-improvised, which suited a panel-show regular, and it earned Dennis a BAFTA nomination for best male comedy performance in 2010.

Mock the Week regular Hugh Dennis played the Bank Manager asked for a loan in which 2016 comedy-drama?

Fleabag made Dennis's Bank Manager a main character in its first series, and he returned as a guest in the second.

Which Glasgow-born Mock the Week regular, known for his bleak jokes, quit the show in 2009?

Frankie Boyle announced his exit on the show's Facebook fan page, then complained that the producers and the BBC Trust had been too cautious about his material.

Which Mock the Week regular of series 4 to 9 went on to front the BBC Three topical show Good News?

Russell Howard left the panel in 2010, a year after his own show began, and did not appear again until the 2026 revival.

In which improvised Mock the Week round do panellists step up with one-line ideas on two topics until buzzed?

Scenes We'd Like to See gives the panel two set-ups, such as adverts that never made it to air, and the host buzzes after each gag so the next comic can step in.

Before comedy, Mock the Week's Hugh Dennis worked in marketing at Unilever, managing which deodorant?

Lynx was in his care while he gigged at weekends. He stayed at Unilever for six years, leaving only when his radio sketch show was picked up for television.

Mock the Week's theme tune, News of the World, is a 1978 single by which British band?

The Jam put it out as a stand-alone single that reached number 27. Unusually, bassist Bruce Foxton wrote and sang it instead of frontman Paul Weller.

After the BBC dropped Mock the Week in 2022, which channel revived it with new episodes in 2026?

TLC had turned free-to-air in Britain only weeks earlier, and its revival stretched episodes to about 45 minutes, up from 30 on the BBC.

Which British comedy channel drew high ratings with frequent repeats of Mock the Week's BBC episodes?

Dave, since rebranded U&Dave, became the show's second home, where old episodes went on drawing high viewing figures.

In Mock the Week's Headliners round, a news photo comes with which clue to the story's headline?

Four initials stand for the headline's words, so the panel spends the round inventing rude or absurd expansions until the host coaxes out the real one.

Which Mock the Week regular of series 3 to 14 got his first television writing job on Spitting Image?

Andy Parsons rose to be one of the puppet satire's main writers. On Mock the Week he took more turns in the stand-up round than anyone else in its first decade.

Which Mock the Week regular of series 10 to 12 played adviser Ollie Reeder in The Thick of It?

Chris Addison became a regular in September 2011 after several guest spots, and he also starred in the political satire's spin-off film, In the Loop.

Which Scottish impressionist, famed for mimicking politicians, was a Mock the Week regular for two series?

Rory Bremner sat opposite Hugh Dennis in 2005 and 2006, then left. He later said he had been uncomfortable with how competitive and aggressive the show had become.

Which comedian became Mock the Week's only regular panellist when the show was revived in 2026?

Rhys James had sat on the panel for the last new BBC episode in 2022. Hugh Dennis, the BBC run's mainstay, could manage only three shows of the first revival series.

Hugh Dennis correctly predicted in 2022 that Mock the Week would outlast which prime minister?

Liz Truss resigned in October 2022, but the final episode had been filmed the night before, so the show outlived her premiership without getting to joke about its end.

A Mock the Week joke about the Queen saw the BBC's director general questioned on which news programme?

Newsnight put the gag, from a round imagining lines cut from the royal Christmas message, to director general Mark Thompson. It was one of the two jokes that stirred the most controversy in the show's history.

Which comedian, at 6ft 8in, was the tallest performer to appear on Mock the Week's BBC run?

Greg Davies made his debut in 2008, years before he became the Taskmaster. The shortest guests, Sandi Toksvig among them, stood 4ft 11in.

Mock the Week's host fronted the 2016 BBC revival of which hit game show from the late 1990s?

Robot Wars came back for three series with him as presenter, one of several science and technology shows fronted by a comedian who studied theoretical physics.

Mock the Week's host presented the astronomy series Stargazing Live alongside which physicist?

Brian Cox and the comedian, a keen amateur astronomer, broadcast live over three winter nights a year, at first from Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Which comedian left Mock the Week's early guest roster in 2006 to join The Daily Show in New York?

John Oliver was on the panel for the very first episode in June 2005, and a year later became The Daily Show's Senior British Correspondent.

Which Dublin-born comedian was the most frequent guest panellist of Mock the Week's BBC run?

Ed Byrne appeared more often than several of the show's official regulars, and by its tenth birthday he already had a clear lead over every other guest.

A 2008 Mock the Week joke about which double Olympic champion swimmer's looks earned a BBC Trust rebuke?

Rebecca Adlington had just won two golds in Beijing. The Trust censured the comedian the following year, and her agent said the rebuke did not go far enough.

Which former psychiatric nurse said in 2009 she had stopped doing Mock the Week because it was too combative?

Jo Brand added that some male stand-ups she knew had tried the show once and felt the same. Its early series had a bearpit reputation that later softened.

Alongside Mock the Week, Hugh Dennis co-hosted which BBC Radio 4 topical comedy from 1998 to 2024?

The Now Show paired him with Steve Punt, his double-act partner since their Cambridge days, for stand-up, sketches and songs about the week's news.

By his own account, which agency tried to recruit Mock the Week's Hugh Dennis while he was at Cambridge?

MI5 gave him a preliminary interview, he said in 2016, but he took it no further after being told the job would mean roughing people up.

Which stand-up was Mock the Week's studio warm-up act for many years before appearing as a panellist in 2010?

Micky Flanagan was not the only warm-up man to reach the panel. Another, Ben Norris, was drafted in at the last minute when a regular fell ill before a recording.

Mock the Week's three DVDs of 2007 to 2010, packed with unseen material, were released under which title?

Too Hot for TV and its two sequels each added three extended episodes with material judged too rude to air, and the first two also came out as audio CDs.

Which comedian was the most frequent female guest of Mock the Week's BBC run, with 31 appearances?

Angela Barnes was also half of a milestone in 2017, when she and Kerry Godliman became the first two women to share a Mock the Week panel.

Which Canadian comedian returned to Mock the Week in 2026 for her first appearance since 2015?

Katherine Ryan came back for the first revival series, as did Sara Pascoe, who had not appeared since 2016.

Which Mock the Week regular guest from 2015 is best known for co-hosting the food podcast Off Menu?

Ed Gamble made 36 appearances on the BBC run, which was more than one of the show's official regulars managed.

Which Mock the Week guest, known for deadpan one-liner puns, wrote the novel Where Do Comedians Go When They Die?

Milton Jones made 50 appearances on the BBC run, second among the show's guests, and published the surreal, partly autobiographical novel in 2009.

Which one-liner comic, who made 18 Mock the Week appearances, is married to fellow stand-up Sarah Millican?

Gary Delaney saw his profile jump after his first appearances in 2012. One early gag about Jersey drew complaints, which the BBC dismissed as obviously tongue-in-cheek.

Which comedian was announced in 2023 as executive producer of an American Mock the Week that was never made?

Trevor Noah, fresh from seven years hosting a nightly satire show, teamed up with co-creator Dan Patterson for Amazon, but the project is said to have fallen victim to the 2023 writers' strike.

Hugh Dennis missed only one BBC-era Mock the Week, a 2011 special within which comedian's 24-hour charity marathon?

David Walliams stayed on screen for all 24 hours of the Comic Relief panel-show relay, and joined the Mock the Week panel himself for its leg.

Why was a Mock the Week recording in its first series scrapped, giving rise to the first compilation episode?

The London bombings of 7 July 2005 left several panellists unable to reach the studio, so clips were shown instead. Viewers liked the format, and compilations became a fixture.

In Mock the Week's Between the Lines round, one panellist gives a press conference while the other plays what?

A translator, who breaks in after each bland official statement to say what the speaker really means. The round became a regular feature after the 2026 revival.