Four years ago, the BBC shocked comedy fans when it announced that the popular panel show Mock the Week was being cancelled.
The satirical show, which ran for 21 series and 245 episodes, starred Dara Ó Briain as host and Hugh Dennis alongside a revolving selection of top comedians.
The comics would then poke fun at the week’s news and events, lampooning everyone from prime ministers and presidents to warlords and weirdos.
Sadly, the fun and games came to an end in August 2022 when Dara joked that ‘the UK has finally run out of news’ after the BBC cancelled the show.
Still, you can’t keep a good comedy show down, and in 2025 it was announced that TLC was working on reviving the show.
At the time, not a lot was known about the revival, but we now know that the show will return for nine episodes on February 1 and that Dara will be returning as host.
‘I’m genuinely delighted to be back doing Mock the Week and on TLC,’ Dara said in a statement announcing his return.
‘From what I remember, it’s a show that thrives on silly jokes from smart people, and any actual insight is purely accidental.
‘Also, from what I remember, my job was mainly just pressing a buzzer and handing out imaginary points. I can still do that. Here, have some imaginary points! That’s how easy it is. Also, it’s coming back just in time to confuse people who had only just heard it had been cancelled. See you there!’
Along with Dara, the show will be reviving fan favourite segments, including If This Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, Wheel of News, Picture of the Week and the legendary Scenes We’d Like to See.
Perhaps most excitingly, there will also be brand-new rounds, created especially for the revival, as the new show won’t be 30 minutes long; it’s going to have an expanded 60-minute format.
So far, some of the hottest names in comedy – including Rhys James, Sara Pascoe, Angela Barnes, Ed Byrne, Ahir Shah, Milton Jones, Katherine Ryan, Sarah Keyworth, Lou Sanders, Glenn Moore, Ellie Taylor and Russell Howard – have signed up for the show.
Dara’s old friend, Hugh Dennis, is also set to appear, although his exact role has yet to be revealed.
Will you be watching the revived Mock the Week?
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Yes
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No
While fans will be delighted that Mock the Week is set to return, the show wasn’t without its detractors.
The series faced criticism from some comics, including Rory Bremner and Jo Brand.
Rory complained to The Telegraph that the show felt uncomfortable and that it was highly competitive and quite aggressive.
Jo, meanwhile, said she wouldn’t appear on the show anymore as she, too, felt it was dominated by established figures.
Mock the Week's most controversial jokes
David Blunkett’s blind joke: In a deleted scene (which was later released on DVD), the comedians were asked ahead of a question about David Blunkett not to refer to his blindness in their answers. Cue Frankie Boyle and Hugh Dennis cracking joke after joke about his disability.
The Queen and ghosts: Perhaps the most infamous joke in Mock the Week history saw Frankie Boyle claim that Queen Elizabeth is so old her vagina is ‘haunted’… except he didn’t use the word vagina.
Richard Hammond’s crash: In an episode broadcast after Richard Hammond’s near-fatal crash, Frankie Boyle joked that a new anti-speeding advert should be footage of the Top Gear host trying and failing to remember his wedding day. This prompted Dara to tell Frankie he’d crossed a line in the sand.
‘But I don’t do Mock The Week anymore, and neither do some male stand-ups I know who have tried it once,’ she told The Guardian.
‘We just didn’t like the prospect of having to bite someone’s foot off before they let us say something.
‘Regular panellists on shows can be terrifying. They own that space, and many guest comics suspect they are favoured in the edit, while their own hilarious jokes end up being ejected into the ether.’
Mock the Week will launch on free-to-air TLC from Sunday 1st February at 9pm
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