Paul Merton and Ian Hislop could do a sketch show together: "The chemistry is certainly there"
The Have I Got News For You team captains have been working together for 28 years. Could they make it as a comedy double act?
They may captain opposing teams on Have I Got News For You, but Paul Merton and Ian Hislop reckon if they worked together they could make an excellent comedy double act.
A new magazine photoshoot for Radio Times features Merton and Hislop in bed together in homage to Morecambe and Wise. In another shot, Private Eye editor Hislop poses as a newspaper vendor, with Merton as his customer in a pinstripe suit and bowler hat.
On the suggestion that they should team up for a sketch show, Merton said: "I think that’s something that we probably could do, because of the relationship between me and Ian, and the fact we’re very different.
"We’re physically different, educationally different, and that’s what a lot of double acts have. I was dressed in the bowler, Ian was doing his best at a working-class accent."
"It’s terribly good," confirmed Hislop.
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"Circa Kind Hearts and Coronets," Merton continued. "'Cor blimey, guv’nor.'
"So, yes, maybe we will do something one day. The chemistry is certainly there. Maybe a Comic Relief thing, or a Christmas one-off…"
Read the full interview in Radio Times magazine, out now
