Armstrong and Miller Time

When looking in charity shops I am principally hoping to find another batch of old comics, or maybe some Choose Your Own Adventure books, but I buy other stuff as well. Such as this:

Children's Hour was the second Radio 4 series from Armstrong and Miller, in which they starred as newspaper critics Craig Children and Martin Bain-Jones (characters the duo later reprised for their Channel 4 sketch show), and as the little episode guide on the booklet tells us, it was broadcast in December 1998 (in the 11pm slot, which will become quite important later on).

Hmm. There's got to be a story there.

A little surprisingly, there's a whole Wikipedia page for Children's Hour, although it claims the week skipped was the 23rd December, not the 16th. It also gives a reason for the pre-emption: "extended news coverage".

The page cites the British Comedy Guide, which cites the self-styled encyclopaedia of contemporary British radio comedy, radiohaha. Although not updated since 2003, this remarkable site seemingly managed to stay online all the way up to last year; with the help of the Internet Archive, I was able to check the site itself and crucially, its short piece on Children's Hour, which says:

The final programme of the series (postponed by a week owing to extended news coverage)...

This was written, at the very least, shortly after the original broadcast; the terse little episode guide on the CD booklet was done in 2010. So perhaps Wikipedia is right, and the week skipped was indeed the 23rd. (The CD cover also claims the series guest starred Mitchell and Webb, who were writers on the show, which makes me trust it even less.)

But what could have been happening in the world that resulted in Radio 4 ripping up their schedule?

On the one hand, let's say Wikipedia is wrong and the CD is correct. I've had a look. I'm not one hundred per cent certain. But if the week skipped was the 23rd, it seems quite likely it would be this.

On the other hand: If the CD is correct and Wikipedia is wrong, then on 16 December 1998, President Clinton (facing impeachment from the House of Representatives; the articles of impeachment were not approved until the 19th) ordered airstrikes against Iraq in retaliation for its failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Which perhaps seems a more likely reason for extended news coverage, especially late at night. And perhaps the radiohaha quote is a little ambiguous: "the final programme was postponed by a week" could mean the series finished a week later than originally scheduled, rather than the last episode being the one delayed.

Edit! Steve Williams has suggested that it is indeed the CD that is correct, and Wikipedia has in all likelihood misinterpreted the "postponed by a week" quote:

I would think it would be the 16th they skipped, as you suggest there were strikes on Iraq late that night, and I think the story broke about 10pm, I remember several newsflashes on BBC1 and News at Ten being extended on ITV. Seems likely Radio 4 would have rolled with it a bit as well

That seems pretty certain that the week skipped was the 16th and not the 23rd, but any more information would be welcome.