Ian Hislop

Ian Hislop (born July 13, 1960) is the editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye; a team captain on the popular satirical current affairs quiz Have I Got News For You and a comedy scriptwriter.

Early life

Hislop was born in Mumbles, South Wales. Educated at Ardingly College, where he started his satirical career directing and appearing in reviews and where he became Head Prefect, and then Magdalen College, Oxford, he graduated with a degree in English literature in 1981. At Oxford he founded and edited the magazine Passing Wind, in which he interviewed Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams. He joined Private Eye immediately after leaving Oxford, and became editor in 1986 upon Ingrams' departure.

Private Eye

In his role as editor of Private Eye Ian Hislop has become the most sued man in English legal history . The most famous libel case involving him and Private Eye was brought by the publishing magnate Robert Maxwell. After the case he quipped: "I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech." Ordered to pay £600,000 in damages after being sued for libelling Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Hislop told reporters waiting outside the High Court "If that was justice then I'm a banana." However, the award was dropped to £60,000 on appeal, and Private Eye's attacks on Maxwell were fully vindicated by the revelations of massive fraud that followed his death.

On Have I Got News For You, when talking about current affairs, he often adds "allegedly" at the end of a sentence that might otherwise be slanderous.

Have I Got News For You

Hislop is the only person to have appeared in every episode of Have I Got News For You's fifteen year history, despite suffering from appendicitis during one edition and having to go to hospital immediately afterwards. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Other television and radio work

Hislop has also presented TV and radio shows. Documentaries he has presented include 'School Rules', a three part Channel 4 series on the history of British education; an edition of the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' in which he attempted to trace his genealogy and 'The Lost Generation', a four part series on Channel 4 detailing the lives of numerous individuals and groups of people lost in the First World War.

Recently, he has also written and presented factual programmes for Radio 4 about such subjects as tax rebellions, female hymn composers and patron saints of the British Isles.

He has also been a comedy scriptwriter for Harry Enfield (providing the Tim Nice-but-Dim character), Spitting Image and My Dad's the Prime Minister.

External link

• Ian Hislop interview (Evening Standard)