Dara O Briain has called Mock The Week’s criticism of a lack of diversity among its panellists “bang on.”
The satirical panel programme first aired in 2005 and lasted 17 years until being cancelled last year.
Now, the former presenter has admitted that the criticism of the show’s lack of female guests throughout the years was justified.
‘There was bits during the earlier years of it which were very combative, very elbow-sy and there was no space to mess around,’ Dara, 51, said.
‘It had a weird relationship with people … To say it’s not as good as it used to be, or it was wrong sort of thing and there were things on which it was wrong…
‘I think that’s bang on,’ he added when appearing on the latest episode of Desert Island Discs, which is released today.
He added: ‘I think they would argue, and certainly it’s true, that it accurately reflected the lack of diversity that was in that section of the comedy world at the time, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have done more, and then did more, hopefully, later, in terms of bringing new talent in.’
Speaking more about it, Dara stated at the time the ‘reason’ would have been: ‘If you skim through the programme for the Edinburgh Festival in 2008 it’s a sausage fest, it’s all dude, bloke, bloke, bloke, bloke, bloke… If you do it now, it will be completely different…So, as I’ve always said, it happened because a generation of female comics knocked the door open.’
Hugh Dennis, Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard, and Andy Parsons were regular Mock The Week panelists, however female comedians Katherine Ryan and Jo Brand, both of whom participated on the program, later spoke out about the lack of representation.
Speaking about the axing of the show, Dara said that while it ‘could have gone on…equally you don’t get that kind of innings normally’.
But he said it was bittersweet because, after years of people taking aim saying the series was rubbish, ‘the minute it got axed’ their opinion changed and they instead claimed to be ‘fond’ of it.
Dara picked eight songs to bring with him to the desert island, including Gloria Estefan’s Cuba Libre, Deee-Lite’s Groove Is In The Heart, and Mozart’s Requiem.
Because he enjoys stargazing, he picked an astrophotography gear as his luxury item to bring to the island.
Dan Patterson, the show’s creator, disclosed to Metro.co.uk last year that he was assigned the duty of calling Dara, who was on vacation at the time, and informing him that Mock the Week would not be returning.
He stated that they were all “stunned” by the series’ demise, which had been announced “out of the blue.”
While he said the programme had been a terrific launching pad for so many comedians, he was delighted it had a “chance to go out on our terms.”
Desert Island Discs airs on Sunday at 11.15am on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4.
Mock the Week is streaming on BBC iPlayer.