IAN HISLOP - PART 1
INTERVIEW BY ANDY CAPPER
PHOTOS BY ALEX STURROCK
For those of you without taste or eyes, Private Eye is a fortnightly satirical newsprint magazine that contains more actual news than all the other British newspapers they made during the two weeks it takes to put their issue together. In fact, it is one of a very small number of news publications that remains worth a shit.
Not only is it consistently hilarious, informative and subversive, it wields a mighty punch. Private Eye has acted like a sharpened pin to the whoopee cushion of incessant lies and deceit that has become the common currency of modern British politics. Its relentless and savage satire remains perhaps one of the truest checks on UK executive power. Without the magazine’s fortnightly needling, the spin of Blair’s authoritarian 90s rule may well have slickly skated into the imperious presidential model of government that smiling Tony always seemed to have such a massive hard-on for.
It is no coincidence that, as the longest-serving editor of the magazine, Ian Hislop is the most sued man in Britain and that the magazine keeps a “fighting fund” on hand to payroll the endless litigation they face.
We met him in his offices in Soho and drank tea with him while staring at all the amazing stuff on the walls and trying to concentrate on asking the questions. (He has a piano in there on which they play Mozart while they’re coming up with jokes). He is my hero.
Vice: So what is the day-to-day of doing this job? I’ve always been fascinated by how Private Eye works. It’s so consistent.
Ian Hislop: Nearly everybody works somewhere else. The journalists tend to have other jobs, and most of the writers do as well. The week before we go to press people turn up in batches really and the journalism tends to get done in there [the main office down the corridor] and the jokes tend to get done in here [his personal office]. The jokes are collaborative. There are usually three or four people doing it.
Who’s in charge?
Essentially me.
Which other papers do your journalists work for? Do they write under different names?
A lot of them don’t admit they write for us, which is fine.
Why do they write for you, though?
I think it’s about the mischief really. And they can write stories they can’t write in their own papers really because most of the national press have some other agenda depending who owns them or how friendly they are to the people you’re trying to write about.
Who owns you guys now?
We used to be owned by the comedian Peter Cook ( Bedazzled, Derek & Clive) but then he died and he left most of the shares to his sisters and to his wife.
So it’s still completely independent.
The rest of the shares are owned by a sort of rag-bag of people that Peter borrowed money off in the 60s, so people like Jane Asher and Dirk Bogard, but he died so it’s now his nephew. It’s a pretty odd bunch.
When Private Eye was started, what do you think was its purpose? Was it set up to be a counter-culture magazine?
Well, no. It was started by a group of friends who went to college together. They thought they were funny, they made each other laugh and they thought: “This is better than working.” I think that’s what it was about. No one consciously starts a counter-culture because they’re not aware of being counter-culture, it’s just what they are. I think they were basically bolshy and quite rebellious people. Most of them didn’t have fathers. They’d either died in the war or died early and the sons didn’t get proper jobs and so they thought, “We can do this.” The essential component was making each other laugh and then as it developed [founder] Richard Ingrams said, “We don’t only want to make people laugh we want to tell them things that they didn’t know”, so a sort of journalism culture attached itself, mostly because they had this brilliant man called Paul Foot. He was a very good journalist.
He was the guy who really brought the journalism into it?
Yeah, and sadly he’s not with us any more.
Who’s taking care of that now then?
I had to hire three people to replace Paul. One is a man called Richard Brooks, who is absolutely brilliant. He used to work for Customs and Excise and we lured him over to the dark side because most journalists are illiterate financially. He isn’t but his record on public finance is just fantastic. He’s done some extraordinarily good stuff. I don’t want to be that specific, but a lot of the best columns we run are by people outside the office. We run a health column that is entirely written by pissed-off doctors.
So your contributors are mainly people who have contacted you with dirt on people and you’ve kept them on as contacts.
Absolutely. There’s the local council column that is written by local journalists who can’t get stuff in their own papers so they send it to us. Council advertising is quite heavy and you know what you can’t get in, but all that stuff comes from them. The TV column is also written by an insider.
Is he a secret insider?
Yes, and he would definitely be fired if they knew who it was.
Ha ha. Who is the person who writes from inside of the Houses of Parliament?
That’s a couple of people. Most of whom we don’t say who they are.
And so how many is your core team of contributors?
About 20.
And that’s in the UK only. Have you ever thought of exporting Private Eye in to different countries?
No, we’re not like you. We stay inside this country. It’s what we do well. We know this place. We don’t sell outside.
CONTINUED
IAN HISLOP | 1 | 2 | 3 | >
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Oct 14, 2009 wrote:
how he is a homophobe? | | Anonymous, on Oct 1, 2009 wrote:
sycophantic is not the word. I like Ian Hislop and private Eye as much as the next man but jeezzzzz. | | Anonymous, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote:
ha ha. such a sickeningly toadying article. starting a piece with ’this man is my hero’ makes it the least balanced piece of journalism I’ve read in some time. | | Anonymous, on Jun 16, 2009 wrote:
we are all so well fed yet all so angry!!!stop crying about the content and be more content in 2009.... | | Anonymous, on May 27, 2009 wrote:
to the ranter. u fuckwit the funniest things in life are politics and important shit. | | Anonymous, on Feb 18, 2009 wrote:
@the ranter: i think Vice is informal but informed. what’s wrong with with being entertained while you read the news? | | Anonymous, on Feb 9, 2009 wrote:
"I hope that the editor of VICE reads this, cause I bet he (yes a man cause only men get to be editors)"
sexist cunt... much? | | Anonymous, on Feb 3, 2009 wrote:
wow, dude, was the office coffee machine not working? girlfriend wouldn’t let you put it in her ass? did you ever stop and think that maybe different people write different articles and maybe these different writers have different styles? who says all content in a mag has to be alike? certainly not me, or any of the thousands of people that read this one and lots of others as well. | | Anonymous, on Feb 3, 2009 wrote:
To the fuck-wits who think VICE IS funny, yes you above VICE is funny, but it also chooses to addresses some political issues and health issues that really require a little bit of decency, and so what if I wanna write like the “financial times” the inept writer above, you might take heed and be told that the financial times deals with the economy, not health issues, so you could have at least said something like the guardian or the times, it really only proves my one point that VICE readers are totally ignorant inept stupid people and that goes for the people who write the articles as well. VICE either be a comic or give up trying to write informative political/health related articles cause you really deserve not to be published!!! If you are trying to claim to have a intelligent/quirky/humorous publication by having articles on great writers such as Martin Amis and also writing about political turmoil and sex then I think you really need to rethink what actually you are aiming for, cause your magazine fucking sucks and is again another example of the wasted youth that follow in its foot steps thinking that everything is funny and nothing is taken seriously, cause you would much rather consume your fucking fast food/ American apparel clothes and listen to shite music while you all read utter junk like VICE. No wonder most of you will end up with low-life jobs with nob-end families that just reproduce inept inbreed dickheads, vicious circle.
I hope that the editor of VICE reads this, cause I bet he (yes a man cause only men get to be editors) sits on his fat stinking arse wearing his hoody, when to be honest the hoody was designed for the younger generation and to be honest it looks a bit wrong on a bolding middle-aged man who lick cocaine off the toilet seat in Hoxton. Well Mr Editor give yourself a massive slap on the back for contributing absolutely fuck all to the world, other than contrived shit. | | Anonymous, on Dec 12, 2008 wrote:
Glorious. | | Anonymous, on Nov 20, 2008 wrote:
Hislop is a pompous homophobe though, I can’t watch HIGNFY any more, he is far to fucking annoying | | Anonymous, on Nov 18, 2008 wrote:
I can’t believe Ian Hislop is in Vice. I wonder if he reads it. | | Anonymous, on Nov 17, 2008 wrote:
Now, if only the quality of Vice’s editorial and feature writing to take a lesson from Private Eye. The we could have less Smash Hit’s style photo-stories about twats shoving stuff up their arses or admiring the poor people on the night buses. | | Anonymous, on Nov 16, 2008 wrote:
he looks like the test tube baby man next dor in the pics
still a dapper tho. HIGNFY is essential | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
jack osbourne.... ha ha.yes spot on.
| | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
Love the guy, but have you noticed he looks just like Jack Osborne with his new glasses? | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
Hislop is a f*ckin’ legend. Gaun yersel, wee man! | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
great article. thanks. | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
reactionary. foo | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
really good choice for interviewee, thanks | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
beano rocks! | |
| Mehdi, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
Ian Hislop (and Paul Merton, I’d add) are to thank for raising our awareness of what really happens inside governmental buildings.. to have the guts to take on the PM and his ilk deserves taking your hats off to.. | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
Ian Hislop is #1 | | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
private eye is reactionist bullshit. always has been.
| | Anonymous, on Nov 14, 2008 wrote:
I get all the news I need from the Daily Mash. | | Anonymous, on Nov 11, 2008 wrote:
Oh dear. It was all going rather nicely til the question about shagging Edwina Curry.
Private Eye is brilliant. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence should read it. Everyone else should carry on reading the Beano and watching Loose Women. | | Anonymous, on Nov 7, 2008 wrote:
uh it looks like you kind of fucked up the questions and answers on the first page. unless the guy actually said "So your contributors are mainly people who have contacted you with dirt on people and you’ve kept them on as contacts.
Absolutely." to himself. | |
| Nacnud, on Nov 7, 2008 wrote:
so pretty much everyone with half a brain gets your vote then? | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
He’s definitely in the Do’s otherwise your all muggy little cunts you hear you fucking muggy little cunts. | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
Ian Hislop is my hero. Anyone who has a dislike for Piers Morgan gets my vote. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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