...but they'll be in a different room!

Have I Got News For You producers are planning a return to filming with a studio audience… but they will be in a different room from the show.

Programme-makers Hat Trick plan to put the panellists and host in one studio, and a socially distanced audience of about 70 in a separate screening room to record their laughter.

A camera and two microphones will feed the footage back to the main studio, trade website Broadcast reports.

The air is to give the comedians, journalists and politicians some reaction to work off – something that was missing from the last series, which was filmed with each participant in their own home.

The next series of Have I Got News For You, the 60th, is due to be broadcast in October, and filmed at the newly reopened Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, West London.

Meanwhile, QI is set to resume filming in front of a studio audience at Television Centre from Monday. Social distancing means fewer fans than normal will be admitted.

Published: 14 Aug 2020