When former BBC series Mock the Week returns on a completely different channel next month, there’ll be one big difference that’s relieved host Dara Ó Briain: the panellists will be able to joke about politics with abandon.
The corporation cancelled the satirical panel series in 2022 after 17 years “to create room for new shows”, but Irish comedian Ó Briain is back for a brand new nine-episode edition, airing on new free-to-air channel TLC.
Ó Briain, 53, is particularly excited to be on another channel as he won’t have BBC bosses breathing down his neck about “balance”.
He told The Telegraph: “What I won’t miss is the people with stopwatches timing how much we did of each [political] party, because you had to have BBC balance.”
But, he said, save for the introduction of a few new rounds, the show won’t feel very different, adding: “Personally, it’s not like, ‘Oh, finally Dara is off the leash!’”
Ó Briain also praised the BBC for permitting the show a final series after announcing its cancellation.
“The BBC, to their eternal credit, gave us a victory lap. We got to sit there in tuxedos and play montages of old panellists and say, ‘We’ll never see you again.’ We’ve done the full arc on the show. And now we have a fourth act. This is gravy, my friend.”
Mock the Week’s format sees six comedians answering questions about the past week’s news, with the wittiest answers awarded points.
New episodes will be double the length – increasing from 30 minutes to one hour – and will stay true to the classic format, with the return of rounds “If This Is the Answer, What Is the Question?” and “Scenes We’d Like to See”.
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Guests include Katherine Ryan, Rhys James, Sara Pascoe and Mock the Week legends Hugh Dennis (who appeared in every episode of the original run), Russell Howard and Ed Byrne.
Other stars on the panel will include Angela Barnes, Ahir Shah, Milton Jones, Sarah Keyworth, Lou Sanders, Glenn Moore and Ellie Taylor, with more set to be announced.
Ó Briain agreed that the show is challenging for comedians, a notion that was fuelled by Ava Vidal in 2010, when she called it “the toughest gig in television” in a 2010 column written for The Independent.
“It is not an easy booking. There are seven people trying to get their voices heard. It suits some people better than others. It wouldn’t suit me. I could never guest on Mock the Week.”
He also addressed criticism he faced in 2014 for his response to the BBC announcing the end of “all-male panels” on comedy shows.
At the time, he told Radio Times: “I wouldn’t have announced it, is what I’d say, because it means Katherine Ryan or Holly Walsh, who’ve been on [Mock the Week] millions of times, will suddenly look like the token woman.” He also suggested that the imbalance was due to more men finding success in comedy.
“A certain number of women want to go into comedy and they should be cherished and nurtured, but you’re not going to shift the fact that loads more men want to do it,” he said.
Clarifying his stance in the new interview, Ó Briain stated: “I didn’t object to the rule; I objected to the publication of the rule. I felt that it would make people go, ‘Oh, is that the state-sanctioned token woman?’”
Mock the Week will premiere on TLC on 1 February at 9pm.
