The producer of Have I Got News For You says the BBC has grown nervous about making jokes about Donald Trump while the US President's $10 billion lawsuit against the corporation is still live.

Jimmy Mulville, founder of Hat Trick Productions and producer of the satirical news quiz for more than 25 years, told the Insiders: The TV Podcast that the lawsuit has created a chill inside the BBC. He argued the corporation "cannot pay Trump public money" to settle the case and urged BBC leadership to "calm down" about the legal action. Deadline

Trump filed the $10 billion suit over the BBC's edited coverage of his January 6 speech, which aired as part of a Panorama documentary. The BBC has asked a US court to dismiss the case, arguing in its motion that Trump failed to "plausibly allege" the corporation acted with malice in airing the programme. PBS NewsHour Trump is seeking up to $10 billion in damages for the alleged harm caused by the edited footage. Forbes

The lawsuit's fallout has already touched BBC leadership. The Panorama editing scandal that underpins the case led to the departure of BBC executives Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, according to Deadline's reporting on the lawsuit. Deadline

Mulville also called on the UK's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, to step in. He said Burnham would win public support for standing up to Trump on the matter.

The producer's own business is now entangled in the transatlantic media landscape Mulville was discussing. Hat Trick produces a US version of Have I Got News For You for CNN, which would fall under David Ellison's control if Paramount completes its long-pursued takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Mulville joked that Ellison and his family had "bought an apartment up Trump's ass" as they work to close the deal — a quip about the political access corporate mergers can require. Deadline

The US version of the show has drawn scrutiny before. An internal BBC report previously criticised the CNN adaptation for being anti-Trump, prompting Mulville to push back publicly. Deadline Despite the controversy, launching the show in America helped Hat Trick return to profit; the company paid an interim dividend of £1 million, with £900,000 going to Mulville and his wife. The Guardian

The BBC was approached for comment on Mulville's claims about its nervousness over Trump material but had not publicly responded at the time of reporting.

What gives the story its bite is the collision of three forces that rarely meet so directly: a sitting US president suing a public broadcaster, a long-running comedy show whose entire premise is mocking people in power, and a corporate merger that could put the satirists under the ownership of a mogul courting that same president. For the crew and writers behind both versions of Have I Got News For You, the question is whether the jokes keep flowing — or whether a legal filing changes what a broadcaster is willing to air.