Ian Hislop | |
|---|---|
 Hislop in 2022 | |
| Born | Ian David Hislop (1960-07-13)13 July 1960 (age 64) |
| Education | Magdalen College, Oxford (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Employer | Pressdram Ltd (Private Eye) |
| Known for | Private Eye Have I Got News for You Spitting Image |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingWill |
Ian David Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is a British journalist, satirist, and television personality. He is theeditor of thesatirical magazinePrivate Eye, a position he has held since 1986. He has appeared on many radio and television programmes and has been a team captain on theBBC satirical quiz showHave I Got News for You since its inception in 1990. Hislop has frequently been involved in legal battles, asPrivate Eye has often been sued forlibel over the years. Despite these challenges, Hislop has remained a key figure in British satire and journalism.
Hislop was born on 13 July 1960[1] inMumbles,Swansea, to a Scottish father, David Hislop, fromAyrshire, and a Channel Islander mother born inJersey, Helen Rosemarie Hislop (née Beddows), who left for Wales in her late teens.[2]
Hislop did not know his grandparents. His paternal grandfather, David Murdoch Hislop, died just before he was born. His maternal grandfather, William Beddows, was originally fromLancashire.[2]
When he was five months old, Hislop's family began to travel around the world because of his father's job as a civil engineer.[2] During his infant years, Hislop lived in Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong.[3] Hislop has said he possibly went to school withOsama bin Laden while in Saudi Arabia.[4][5] When Hislop was 12 years old his father died; his mother died when he was 32.[2] On his return to Britain he was educated atArdingly College, an independent boarding school, where he becamehead boy, and began his satirical career directing and appearing inrevues alongsideNick Newman.[3]
Hislop's and Newman's association continued when they attendedOxford University together; later they worked together atPrivate Eye and on comedy scriptwriting jobs. Hislop applied to readphilosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, but changed toEnglish literature before arriving atMagdalen College. His Oxford tutors includedBernard O'Donoghue,John Fuller andDavid Norbrook. While at university, Hislop was actively involved in student journalism;[6] he relaunched and edited the satirical magazinePassing Wind.[3] He graduated with a2:1 in 1981.[7][8]
At Oxford, Hislop revived and edited the magazinePassing Wind,[6] for which he interviewedRichard Ingrams, who was then editor ofPrivate Eye, andPeter Cook, then the majority shareholder. Hislop's first article in theEye appeared in 1980 before he sat his university finals. A parody ofThe Observer magazine's "Room of My Own" feature, it described anIRA prisoner on thedirty protest decorating his cell in "fetching brown".[9] Hislop joined the publication immediately after leaving Oxford, and became editor in 1986 following Ingrams's departure. This met opposition fromEye journalists Peter McKay andNigel Dempster,[10] who attempted a revolt against Hislop with the former taking Peter Cook out for lunch in an attempt to dissuade him from appointing Hislop. Cook, reportedly drunk after the lunch, instead announced Hislop was "welcome aboard". The new editor, dismissive of society gossip,[3] sacked both McKay and Dempster from the magazine without hesitation.[10]
As editor ofPrivate Eye, Ian Hislop is reputedly the mostsued man in English legal history,[10][11] although he is not involved in as manylibel actions as he once was.[12] A libel case was brought againstPrivate Eye and Hislop in 1986 by the publisherRobert Maxwell after the magazine accused him of fundingLabour leaderNeil Kinnock's travel expenses as a means of gaining a peerage.[13] After the case Hislop quipped: "I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech". After his death in 1991, Maxwell was revealed to be an extensive fraudster, illegally drawing on his companies' pension funds; his last writ for libel against theEye and Hislop was about this "malicious" and "mendacious" claim.[9]
Another libel case in May 1989 threatened the magazine's existence when it was ordered to pay £600,000 in damages following an action for libel bySonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper,Peter Sutcliffe. Hislop told reporters waiting outside theHigh Court: "If that's justice, then I'm a banana." The award was dropped to £60,000 on appeal.[14] In an interview withThird Way Magazine in 1995 he explained his intentions in his work: "Satire is the bringing to ridicule of vice, folly and humbug. All the negatives imply a set of positives. Certainly in this country, you only go round saying, 'That's wrong, that's corrupt' if you have some feeling that it should be better than that. People say, 'You satirists attack everything.' Well, we don't, actually. That's the whole point."[15]
In April 2017, Hislop won theLondon Press Club's print journalist of the year award; in his acceptance speech he said thatPrivate Eye obtaining its bestABC sales figures since the magazine's launch 55 years earlier proved that "journalism is A, worth doing, and B, worth paying for both in terms of paying journalists and the public paying up for it".[16]
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In January 2022, Hislop alongside fellowEye journalistsRichard Brooks andSolomon Hughes presented evidence onMPs' conduct to theHouse of Commons' Standards Committee.[17][18]
Hislop is credited as the author of the recentPrivate Eye annuals.
Hislop's television debut was on the short-livedChannel 4 chat showLoose Talk in 1983, an experience he disliked so much that he included it on his list of most hated items when he first appeared on the BBC showRoom 101. Hislop, usually in partnership withNick Newman, was a scriptwriter on the 1980s political satire seriesSpitting Image, in which puppets were used to depict well-known figures, mostly politicians.[11] He even had a puppet of himself, which sometimes appeared as a background character in sketches.
Hislop has been a team captain onHave I Got News for You, against the team led byPaul Merton, since it began in 1990. He is the only person to have appeared in every episode of its run, even filming an episode in the seventh series in spite of suffering fromappendicitis, when he had discharged himself from hospital immediately before the show.[20]
With regular writing partner Nick Newman, Hislop wrote theBBC Radio 4 seriesGush, a satire based on the firstGulf War, in the style ofJeffrey Archer. With Newman he also wrote the family-friendly satirical sitcomMy Dad's the Prime Minister and in the early nineties for theDawn French vehicleMurder Most Horrid. Hislop and Newman wrote theRadio 4 seriesThe News at Bedtime, a satire onfairy tales which aired over the 2009 Christmas season. The series starredJack Dee as John Tweedledum andPeter Capaldi as Jim Tweedledee; the two present the "news of the day" in the world of fairy tales, while arguing with each other as did theirnamesakes.[21]
Hislop has presented serious television programmes. These includeSchool Rules, a three-part Channel 4 study on the history of British education; an edition of theBBC'sWho Do You Think You Are?, in which he attempted to trace his ancestry, andNot Forgotten, a four-part series on Channel 4 detailing the impact on British society of theFirst World War. A further programme,Not Forgotten: Shot at Dawn, was broadcast in January 2007, and a sixth episode,Not Forgotten: The Men Who Wouldn't Fight, featuring the stories of conscientious objectors such asRonald Skirth,[22] was aired on 10 November 2008. He also presented one episode of the BBC'sGreat Railway Journeys, in which he travelled in India ("India East to West" from Calcutta to Rajasthan). In May 2007 he presented a programme on BBC Four,Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys, celebratingRobert Baden-Powell's book which inspired theScout movement (he is also an Ambassador forThe Scout Association).[23]
He has also written and presented factual programmes for Radio 4 about such subjects as tax rebellions, female hymn composers, scouting and patron saints ofBritain and Ireland.[24] In 2007 he became the only person to make a second guest appearance onRoom 101. He has also been a screenwriter for comedianHarry Enfield.[25]
Hislop has presented several programmes forBBC Four, dealing with topics such as theBeeching Axe and the role of thePoet Laureate. The former,Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails, about theBeeching Report and its impact on the British railway network, was first aired on 2 October 2008, and achieved the second-highest audience to date for any BBC Four programme (and the highest for a documentary) with 1.3 million viewers.[26] The latter,Ian Hislop's Changing of the Bard, launched the May 2009 BBC Four Poetry season, and Hislop recounted the history of the post from the first official holder,John Dryden, to the then recently announced first female, first Scot and first openly bisexual laureate,Carol Ann Duffy. His series onVictorian social reformers,Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders, aired onBBC Two beginning on 29 November 2010. His programme on the history of banks,When Bankers were Good, first aired on BBC Two in November 2011, and dealt with famous bankers from history, such as theRothschilds, theGurneys and theLloyds, as well as 19th-century philanthropists and reformers such asCharles Dickens andElizabeth Fry.
He has also appeared onQuestion Time. In one edition he made an open attack onJeffrey Archer, who had been imprisoned forperjury, when his wife,Mary Archer, was a fellow panellist. She was noticeably angry that the matter had been raised.[27] In 2004,Question Time's 25th anniversary celebrations included a vote in which viewers chose the confrontation as the best moment in the programme's history;[28] it won 51% of the votes, double the number for the second-placed entry.[27] In another episode he criticised the premise of capital punishment, something which had been advocated by Conservative panel memberPriti Patel,[29] and more recently has discussed Britain'svote to leave theEuropean Union.[30] In 2003 he was listed inThe Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.[31]
Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip - An Emotional History of Britain,[32] about how ameme for repression of emotions spread through British culture, began on 2 October 2012 and ran for three episodes onBBC Two. Beginning on 9 April 2014, Hislop presented a three-partBBC Two seriesIan Hislop's Olden Days.[33] In 2016, he presentedThe Secret of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the personal and creative story behindthe symphony. Later in the same year, Hislop gave the prestigiousGeorge Orwell Lecture at London'sUCL.[34] The following year, he fronted the BBC Two documentaryWho Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row. The programme examined attitudes to immigration from the Victorian era to theFirst World War.[35]
Hislop has also curated an exhibition for theBritish Museum, calledI Object: Ian Hislop's Search for Dissent, which was presented from 6 September 2018 to 20 January 2019.[36] As the editor ofPrivate Eye, Hislop has received an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Media at theCampaign British Media Awards 2019. Hislop has also been recognised for his broadcasting career, having produced TV and radio documentaries on immigration and the First World War.[37]
Hislop married authorVictoria Hamson in 1988; they have two children, Emily andWill.[38] They lived inSissinghurst in Kent,[39] but later moved toChelsea. In 2012 council planners refused Hislop's plans to extend his five-storey townhouse in Chelsea, describing the proposals as "detrimental" to both his own property and the rest of the terrace.[40]
In 2010, Hislop played a small role in the Greek television seriesThe Island, which was based on his wife'sbestselling novel. The series premiered on 11 October 2010 on Greece'sMega television channel.[citation needed]
His son,Will Hislop, is an actor, writer and stand-up comedian.[41]
In Caroline Chartres's bookWhy I Am Still anAnglican, Hislop opens his chapter by saying "I've triedatheism and I can't stick at it: I keep having doubts. That probably sums up my position."[42] In 1996, Hislop presented an award-winning documentary series forChannel 4 about the history of theChurch of England, calledCanterbury Tales. His other works include the four-partBBC Radio 4 seriesThe Real Patron Saints.[43]
On 4 September 2009, Hislop appeared at "The Gathering", organised by theArchbishop of Canterbury,Rowan Williams, atCanterbury Cathedral to discuss religion, society and journalism, among other issues, in front of an audience of about 1,000.[44][45]
Hislop has mocked all major British political parties during his career. Appearing onQuestion Time on 18 September 2008, he praisedLiberal Democrat Treasury spokesmanVince Cable for his analysis of the2007–2008 financial crisis, and expressed support for the Liberal Democrats, jocularly stating "I'm standing for them".[46]
In a 2009 "Five minutes with" interview with Matthew Stadlen forBBC News, Hislop stated that if he were required, "at the point of a gun", to stand in an election for any British political party, he would stand for the fictional "Vince Cable forTreasurer Party".[47] After the formation of thecoalition government in 2010, Hislop remarked in an interview, "I like the idea of this coalition neutralising the loonies on both sides".[48]
He has also been highly critical of the leadership of theEuropean Union, calling for a referendum on theTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in a 2003 recording ofHave I Got News for You.[49] However, referring to Britain's vote toleave the European Union, Hislop said onQuestion Time that "after an election or a referendum, even if you lose the vote, you are entitled to go on making the argument".[30] A joke on the front ofPrivate Eye titled "BREXIT LATEST" mocking the reaction to Brexit received "fifty or so" letters of complaint in the next issue.[50] Hislop mocked this, saying that "There was one [letter] from a vicar, too, who told me that it was time to accept the victory of the majority of the people and to stop complaining. ... I wrote back and told him that this argument was a bit much, coming from a church that had begun witha minority of 12."[51] He has expressed dismay over the level of public debate in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU and the election ofDonald Trump, describing it asOrwellian in nature, saying that "one is unsure whether to feel relieved at the sense ofdéjà vu or worried about the possibility ofhistory repeating itself, not as farce, but as tragedy again".[51]
A variety ofdahlia, first bred in 2010, is named "Ian Hislop" after him.[52]
Her two children are grown up. Her daughter, Emily, lives in Colombia, so she is dying to visit her, or for her to come back. Her son, Will, an actor and comedian who has become a viral sensation during lockdown, is in London.
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| Preceded by | Editor ofPrivate Eye 1986–present | Succeeded by Incumbent |
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