Orwellian nightmare
Room 101 refers to a secret chamber in George Orwell's bleak novel 1984. In the novel, when the hero Winston asks what's inside, the reply is "the worst thing in the world." Bizarrely, Orwell's own inspiration for Room 101 lies back at the door of the BBC, as it was the office number of a senior BBC programme editor who often rejected or edited Orwell's work. Orwell took revenge by making the editor's room a fictional place of great horror and evil.

The changing keeper of the key
The programme is more or less a two-hander, with guest celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Spike Milligan and Jim Davidson (who is often a popular choice to be sent in Room 101 himself) putting forward their cases to the host. The host decides if their choices deserve to be thrown into Room 101. At first, the programme was presented by Nick Hancock, who then moved on to They Think it's All Over. Now the keys to the Room are kept by Paul Merton, who is also a regular on Have I Got News For You. On Paul Merton's first show, the celebrity guest was actually Nick Hancock.

Merton's half hour
Born Paul Martin, he changed his surname to Merton after the area where he grew up. For years Merton was a successful comedy writer and a regular at The Comedy Store. He also wrote sketches and gags for Sticky Moments with Julian Clary. He often showed off his razor sharp spontaneous wit on Whose Line Is it Anyway, which was completely improvised. With his morose delivery and image, he has often been compared to Tony Hancock so Merton made a short series of Hancock sketches in which he played the main part.

A lovely room
In one episode, Stephen Fry, was despairing of the amount of venom and hate that is on telly every night. So he suggested that there should be a show called Room Lovely that was filled up with nice things, like flowers and bunny rabbits. It hasn't been commissioned yet, but it's really only a matter of time.

Courting controversy
One edition of the show caused a bit of a stir when the old Ice Queen herself, Anne Robinson wanted to banish the Welsh in Room 101. This prompted a string of letters from Welsh people accusing her of racism. Though, if these people had actually paid attention to what she said, they'd have heard that the reason for her choice was out of envy. As an Irishwoman, she explained, she was jealous because the Welsh always seemed to dominate at everything they tried.