The News Quiz: A Vintage Collection

Archive highlights from the popular Radio 4 comedy

By: BBC Radio Comedy

Narrated by: Alan Coren, Barry Took, Full Cast, Simon Hoggart

A headline-crunching celebration of Radio 4’s hugely successful topical comedy quiz show

The News Quiz made its debut on Radio 4 in 1977, and four decades later it’s still playfully making and breaking the headlines of our daily news.

Among the vintage gems in this collection are 25 Years of the News Quiz, in which Alan Coren, Andy Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, John Sergeant, Linda Smith and Francis Wheen take a trip through a quarter of a century of headline news, with Radio 4 newsreaders providing cuttings (and giggles) from 1977 to 2002. Meanwhile The Archive Hour: Headlines, Deadlines and Punchlines, presented by Matthew Parris, features interviews with chairmen and panellists past and present including Barry Norman.

Also included are Barry Took and Simon Hoggart’s own selections of funniest moments from the 1980s to the 2000s. The plethora of guest players featured includes Clive Anderson, Joan Bakewell, Jo Brand, Rory Bremner, Peter Cook, Edwina Currie, Nigel Dempster, Roy Hattersley, Tony Hawks, Jeremy Hardy, Ian Hislop, Richard Ingrams, Clive James, Boris Johnson, Charles Kennedy, Miles Kington, Maureen Lipman, Stuart Maconie, Steve Punt, Willie Rushton, John Sergeant, Linda Smith, Mark Steel, Janet Street-Porter, Sandi Toksvig, John Wells and many, many more.

If you enjoy your news humorously grilled, with a side order of biting wit, this vintage collection is highly recommended.


Some of the humour on this release reflects the era in which it was first broadcast.