Have I Got News For You host reveals big difference between UK and US version
Roy Wood Jr. made his debut on the BBC original this week.
What did you miss?
The One Show played host to comedian Roy Wood Jr. on Friday, 8 November, where he joined Alex Jones and Tom Allen for a chat about Have I Got News For You.
Since September, Wood Jr. has presented the US edition of the long-running news and entertainment panel show for CNN and had just wrapped his first foray onto the BBC One programme before sitting beside fellow studio guests Daniel Mays, Mark Gatiss and Fiona Shaw.
Inevitably, the 45-year-old spoke of the main difference between the show on the other side of the pond and the original, which began broadcasting all the way back in 1990.
What, how and why?
Wood Jr., who stars in the upcoming black comedy Outcome alongside Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz and Jonah Hill, shared: "It's fun to be able to be a part of the American version of Have I Got News and then come over and get a taste [of how] you all have run that mothership for [34] years so far.
"The biggest difference for me was learning 'OK there's certain words that are just not gonna connect comedically,' because it's been 10, 15 years since I've set foot in England and so to come back like, 'Oh yeah I can't say potato chip, I have to say crisps,' because something that silly will throw off the whole joke and it's like, 'Oh well chips are crisps, fries are chips, cookies are biscuits. Remember that and you will survive the next day and a half.'"
Read more:
Ian Hislop amuses viewers as he jokes about cab 'shooting' on Have I Got News For You
Adrian Dunbar jokes about Line of Duty acronyms as he hosts Have I Got News For You
Carol Vorderman is asked if she'd 's***' Laurence Fox on HIGNFY
He also seemed taken aback by how the English apparently like to take tea breaks at work.
"We operate at such a speed and I feel like Americans, we are so go-go-go and we don't want to take a break but this country you all sit and stop, like you will stop for tea, you will stop to just drink a beverage," commented Wood Jr.
"You will happily stop to take in information presented with nuance. In America it's all 'I gotta go go go, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!'"
What else happened on The One Show?
Elsewhere on the show, Bad Sisters actress Fiona Shaw recalled meeting the Apple TV+ comedy's creator and star Sharon Horgan in a coffee shop before signing on the dotted line for season two.
"When we first met we did have coffee and they were explaining it to me and obviously it's quite hard to explain because the plot is so convoluted; utterly mad but very, very good and so she was only trying to describe the first two episodes," she said, which included the introduction of Shaw's newcomer in a religious situation.
Horgan worried this might've put her off the job and proceeded to rattle off "the whole plot in 20 seconds", with Shaw admitting: "I had no idea what she was saying [...] I was hooked."
The One Show airs weekdays on BBC One from 7pm.
