After a very helpful e-mail I have been directed to the Guardian Newspaper’s website in order to find out more about the Have I Got News For You debacle I was discussing yesterday. This particular article [News Unlimited] alleges that a good portion of the transcript is in fact accurate, but that the crucial middle section is a fake:
“Paul Merton is always a man to push the televisual boundaries of libel laws as far as they will stretch but the transcript went a lot further than anything you would have seen on the show. The trouble is – according to sources – a huge chunk of the middle section of the email is fabricated.
In one particularly terse exchange appearing in the “transcript”, for example, Merton supposedly attacks Saville about his personal hygiene. In another, the comedian seemingly loses the plot completely and launches into an incoherent rant before being asked by a rattled Angus Deayton if he wants to stop the recording. ”