Line #14 Series/Newsnight


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/newsnight.jpg]]
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3	British weekday current affairs programme, running continuously on weekdays since 1980. It currently airs at 10.30pm on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Two]], after the BBC One news.
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5	Famous for its style of interviewing, which involves [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking the same question several times]] to a politician who is clearly trying to avoid answering (most famously [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KHMO14KuJk Michael Howard]], who was asked the same question - "Did you threaten to overrule him?"[[note]] "him" being the Director of Prisons[[/note]] -- ''twelve'' times and still waffled around without giving an answer -- even though the answer turned out, apparently, years later, to be "no"[[note]] Although according to documents released the year after this was a lie and the real answer was 'Yes'[[/note]]). Jeremy Paxman (a rare newsreader example of the DeadpanSnarker) is the best known presenter.
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7	Once upon a time, the other star was Peter Snow, whose enthusiasm in explaining wars with [[TheBigBoard sandpits]] or elections with a "[[ThingOMeter swing-o-meter]]" was a joy to behold.
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9	For some years, the final half hour on Fridays was given over to ''Newsnight Review'', which covered the arts and had a panel of famous artists and critics reviewing new movies, music, exhibits, etc. (Cuttingly satirised by ''[[Series.DeadRingers Dead Ringers]]''.) In 2013 the show was renamed ''The Review Show'', shunted to [=BBC=] Four, and then axed. The rest of the week, this time was given over to ''Newsnight Scotland'' in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Scotland]], until it too was axed in 2014.
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12	!!This show contains examples of:
13	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The [[Quotes/NonAnswer "Did you threaten to overrule him?"]] incident. Ultimately subverted, in that Howard never answered the question (until years later.)
14	* TheBigBoard: The show used to have a sandpit for illustrating military activities.
15	* CallBack: The notorious 1997 "Did you threaten to overrule him?" incident was, as noted above, revisited in 2004, and again for a gag item in Jeremy Paxman's last edition in 2014:
16	-->'''Paxman''': Michael Howard -- did you?
17	-->'''Howard''': No, Jeremy, I didn't. But feel free to ask the question another eleven times.
18	* ExactWords: When a Conservative MP proposed that BBC One should return to playing the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" at the end of the broadcast day, Kirsty Wark announced that the show would oblige... and played the Music/SexPistols' "God Save the Queen" over the credits.
19	* HereThereBeDragons: at the time of the Falklands War in 1982, the opening credits were an animation of a camera panning over a large and reasonably well-detailed world map. Except... the Falkland Islands were thought so irrelevant and insignificant trhat they were omitted from the map. There was a large blank space just off South America where a major war had broken out over an apparent blank void. It had been thought completely implausible that anything of any importance could ever happen there....
20	* OvershadowedByAwesome: All the hosts who aren't Paxman.
21	* UltimateJobSecurity: Probably the reason why Paxman was able to get away with insulting the show's editor, the audience and the BBC live on air for years, with no consequences.
22	** Paxman seriously considered quitting in November 2012 due to the way the BBC were handling [[NoodleIncident the Lord McAlpine problem]]. Almost anyone else would have been politely asked to leave after what he said about management during that period.
23	** Paxman did eventually quit in June 2014.

Context Series / Newsnight