Has it really been 28 years of BBC show?

It’s a sure sign that time is flying by when you see advertisements for Now That’s What I Call Music 99 (and you don’t know any of the songs on it).

Likewise, when you read that the satirical BBC panel show Have I Got News For You is returning for an eye-watering 55th series.

Apart from the fact it would take up considerably less time, I would much rather sit down and listen to every Now... album than be forced to endure every episode, going back to 1990, of HIGNFY (as they call it in the ‘industry’). If you were so minded - ie: incredibly bored - this might actually be possible by using the series record function on the ‘Dave’ TV channel. A debate has been swirling around the return of the series, following comments by the MP Nadine Dorries that the show is “too vicious” for most female guests and does not “lend itself to women feeling comfortable”.

She may well have a point. But, just as pertinently, the longrunning comedy also hasn’t lent itself to being funny for a good many years.

There are already too many outlets for the smug, ill-informed, right-on worldviews of millionaire comedians (mainly on BBC panel shows) and this one has surely outstayed its welcome.

Whatever you think of politicians, there’s only so long you can stay carping on the sidelines without getting directly involved. And 28 years is probably too long.

The crowd are just as bad on these satirical shows. They insist on clapping everything - a joke they find amusing, a political point delivered with cringeworthy sincerity - like a bunch of demented seals. And how come they all seem to react in exactly the same way, like something from Stepford Wives.

I thought HIGNIFY was surely finished a few years ago after a brilliant send-up by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, in which Paul Merton’s act relied solely on surreal observations involving animals and guests would get the audience onside by saying ‘oh my god, the Daily Mail!’ in an incredulous voice. At this rate, its longevity could make Last of the Summer Wine look like Eldorado.