milestones

Well Í think it's a safe assumption that this week's show was the last this season. And what a good one it was. Sheila Hancock, Gyles Brandreth and Ian McMillan all have fun individual styles which are different from Paul. It was a good competitive show and the usual Nick-baiting had a different tone to it as well. I thought it was a very good season.

I must write about Claire Jones who has now produced 167 shows - one more than David Hatch, making her the most prolific producer in the show's history. I can't claim she's been more influential than Hatch who is the show's founder. But she has had to take the helm of the show in the seasons following the death of Peter Jones (which was just a year after the death of Derek Nimmo) and the seasons following the death of Clement Freud. The list of people introduced to the show by her is a strong one - Ross Noble, Sue Perkins, Marcus Brigstocke, Charles Collingwood, Liza Tarbuck. She also brought back to the show two of the current semi-regulars, Sheila Hancock and Gyles Brandreth. The show as it is today is largely her creation and it's arguably as successful as ever.

The other milestone is to note Nicholas's 800th show. Noted.

Here's the revised list of panellist appearances this year over 26 shows.

Paul Merton 24
Gyles Brandreth 9
Tony Hawks, Sue Perkins 8
Graham Norton 6
Jenny Eclair 5
Julian Clary, Sheila Hancock, Josie Lawrence, Liza Tarbuck 4
Pam Ayres, Alun Cochrane, Charles Collingwood, Kevin Eldon, Dave Gorman, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Ian McMillan, David Mitchell, Justin Moorhouse, Chris Neill, Ross Noble, John Sergeant 2
Stephen K. Amos, John Bishop, Shappi Khorsandi, Fred MacAulay 1