shows and early writing: 1990–98 During the 1980s several independent producers realised that BBC Radio 4 had a number of comedy shows that could be successfully converted to television. Among them was the company Hat Trick Productions, who decided to adapt The News Quiz for television in 1989. Jimmy Mulville, the company's managing director, asked Thompson to produce this venture, which first appeared in 1990 as Have I Got News For You. Thompson selected Angus Deayton to present the show, with Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as the team leaders. He oversaw the production of the show for 93 episodes over five series. He later remarked that when the show first began, he was extremely confident, considering it to be "the best comedy show on TV. It never occurred to me that anything else could be better… I know it sounds arrogant". Have I Got News For You initially screened on BBC2, but proved enough of a success that by 2000 it had been moved to BBC1. Moving on to produce other comedy panel shows, in 1995 he began work on They Think It's All Over, a BBC sports show. He followed this in 1996 by the creation of a music quiz show, Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 1998 he was part of BBC Radio 4's five-part political satire programme Cartoons, Lampoons, and Buffoons. Later comedy career: 1998–2005 In 1998 Thompson produced and co-wrote the first series of Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show, where he was instrumental in the creation of the comic character Ali G, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Thompson later wrote for spin-off Da Ali G Show. Defending the humour in the show, he publicly announced that "You'll never see anything PC or right-on in my shows. I get accused quite a lot of straying into bad taste, but I think you can laugh at almost anything." In 2003 Thompson, alongside Shaun Pye, created and wrote the adult cartoon comedy Monkey Dust. The programme was known for its dark humour and handling of taboo topics such as bestiality, murder, suicide and paedophilia. There were three series broadcast on BBC Three between 2003 and 2005; no further series were made following Thompson's death from lung cancer. In 2003 The Observer listed him as one of the 50 funniest or most influential people in British comedy, citing Monkey Dust as evidence: "the most subversive show on television. The