Chris Addison is all by himself
Nov 19 2010 By Roz Laws
Roz Laws chats to comedian Chris Addison about stand up and his life as a student in Birmingham.
Viewers of Have I Got News For You may have been mightily impressed by recent host Chris Addison’s linguistic skills when he suddenly came out with the French word for duck-billed platypus.
But the comedian confesses that l’ornithorynque didn’t exactly roll off his tongue without warning.
At the risk of sparking complaints that too much of the quiz is planned in advance, Chris admits that he had been trying to slip it into the conversation ever since his Twitter followers voted for the secret word.
At first he thought he had failed in his mission, as the exchange was missing from the regular Thursday night show – but it made the cut on the extended Saturday edition.
“We were discussing the proposed joint military action between the French and English and I told Ian Hislop that the first French word I learned was l’ornithorynque, which is true,” reveals Birmingham graduate Chris.
“The whole show took two-and-a-half-hours to film, so it’s amazing it didn’t end up on the cutting room floor.
“We finished 10 seconds before overtime kicked in at 10pm. Have I Got News For You used to take about 90 minutes but has been getting steadily longer.
“These panel shows can take an age to film, much to the shock of the studio audience. 8 Out of 10 Cats has been known to run longer than three hours.”
The edition of the BBC1 news quiz was also notable for another reason. On Paul Merton’s team was BBC political editor Nick Robinson, of whom Chris has been particularly scathing in the past.
Chris wrote that Nick’s reporting makes him throw shoes at the TV.
“It’s the unbearable well-this-is-what-they-say-but-we-all-know-better-don’t-we-ness that has me unlacing my footwear,” wrote Chris in his blog, while going on to attack his infantilising form of delivery in The New Statesman.
So was the atmosphere rather frosty when they met in the studio?
“Well, both of us knew the score and there was no attempt to conceal what had taken place.
