As the format goes back to its radio roots

Paul Merton is returning to host of Room 101 as the talk show format returns to radio.

The Have I Got News For You regular hosted the TV version of the show from 1999 to 2007, each week asking a guest to talk about their pet hates, which could be banished forever.

It was revived from 2012 to 2018 with Frank Skinner in the chair, and the single guest replaced with a panel of three competing to get their objects or concepts into Room 101.

The latest incarnation, which will air in the summer, will see the show return to the one-on-one format.

The show – named after torture room in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four which contained ‘the worst thing in the world’ – started life on Radio 5 in 1992 with Nick Hancock in the chair. He also hosted the first three series of the TV incarnation.

The new series will be the first time Room 101 has broadcast on Radio 4, and news of its comebacke was announced today as part of a raft of new commissions for the channel. 

Published: 16 Jan 2023