When Mock the Week returns on TLC next month, host Dara Ó Briain says he will not miss the BBC's strict 'balance' rules that required timing jokes about each political party. The satirical panel show, cancelled by the BBC in 2022 after 17 years, will air a nine-episode series on the free-to-air channel.
Ó Briain, 53, told The Telegraph: 'What I won’t miss is the people with stopwatches timing how much we did of each [political] party, because you had to have BBC balance.' However, he noted that aside from a few new rounds, the show will feel familiar, adding: 'Personally, it’s not like, “Oh, finally Dara is off the leash!”'
The comedian praised the BBC for allowing a final series after the cancellation announcement. 'The BBC, to their eternal credit, gave us a victory lap. We got to sit there in tuxedos and play montages of old panellists and say, “We’ll never see you again.” We’ve done the full arc on the show. And now we have a fourth act. This is gravy, my friend.'
New episodes will be double the length, from 30 minutes to one hour, retaining classic rounds like 'If This Is the Answer, What Is the Question?' and 'Scenes We’d Like to See'. Guests include Katherine Ryan, Rhys James, Sara Pascoe, and original regulars Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard, and Ed Byrne, with more names to be announced.
Ó Briain also revisited his 2014 comments about the BBC's all-male panel ban, clarifying: 'I didn’t object to the rule; I objected to the publication of the rule. I felt that it would make people go, “Oh, is that the state-sanctioned token woman?”'
