The reference to Noel Edmonds was down to Noel having a massive argument with the BBC in the first week of January 1998. Noel was angry at the production quality on Noel's House Party, budget cut to the show and a producer working on it who didn't care about the show, forcing Noel to pull the show off air on 3rd Jan 1998 until the programme was restructured two weeks later.
I can remember watchiing this when it went out; I pissed myself laughing at the 'Tory Party membership' sketch, especially when Darth Vader came on "... the most evil man in the universe!"