Have I Got News for You will return this Friday with all the panellists taking part remotely from the safety of their own homes.

Reported exclusively by the i, the popular BBC show will go ahead tomorrow, despite the Covid-19 lockdown, with team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, host Steph McGovern and panellists Miles Jupp and Helen Lewis speaking to remotely-controlled cameras from their front rooms.

Producers Hat Trick confirmed that the show would return with a virtual reality version of the regular studio set.

Executive producer Richard Wilson said that show must go on despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to inews, he said: “We said – and the BBC agreed – that Have I Got News For You must go on by any means necessary. People need a release from the current situation and it’s wrong to shut everything down.”

“Paul and Ian are in their homes but they will appear on set like a hologram Michael Jackson. We’ve created a digital version of the set as a backdrop but we don’t want it to look too polished.”

The show will now be recorded on Wednesday rather than Thursday, allowing more time to edit the feeds from five separate cameras.

Photo: BBC