Ian Hislop

Whan an omnishambles: Ian Hislop on state of the media

We first met Private Eye editor Ian Hislop in 2008 when we went round to his office and drank tea and bitched about the state of British media. Looking back at the last decade of British journalism seemed like the kind of thing we should do on our anniversary, so we called on Hislop again.

Inside the private world of Ian Hislop

Ian Hislop has been puncturing egos in Private Eye and on Have I Got News For You for quarter of a century. How does he fare when the focus is on him?

Youth and experience on Have I Got News for You this week. Wet-behind-the-ears comedian Jack Whitehallp.o[ takes the presenter's chair, while "Bletchley Park Baroness" Trumpington is, at 90, the programme's oldest ever guest. But Ian Hislop and Paul Merton must be careful how they handle her. When Lord King of Bridgwater dared to suggest, in a House of Lords speech, that Baroness T looked old, she promptly gave him two fingers. Lord Sugar's wry sidekick, Nick Hewer, completes the line-up.

Angus who? Tonight marks 10 years since the job of host was given over to a succession of guest presenters following the Deayton sacking. The vast majority of the temporary emcees have excelled in the hot seat, thanks largely to a sharp presenter's script and Paul Merton and Ian Hislop keeping the conversation fizzing. Tonight, Homeland actor Damian Lewis takes the chair for the fifth time as UKIP's Nigel Farage and The Simpsons' Harry Shearer join the panel.

It's back and Friday nights make sense again. Nothing starts the weekend in quite the same way as this half-hour dollop of headline-based sarcasm, joyful meanness and unashamed unpleasantness. It's the best way to unpack the accumulated stresses of a working week. Some of the guests might occasionally be dull, like those terrified politicians who try too, too hard to be funny, but what the heck, team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop have seen it all before and the pace never flags.

Making her debut as host is Clare Balding, newly anointed National Treasure after stints commentating on the Olympics and the Paralympics won her a devoted following.

MediaGuardian 100 2012 - 46. Ian Hislop

Private Eye hit its highest circulation for more than 25 years as it turned 50 - and its editor has never had a higher public profie.

Why British satire is hard bloody work

Peter Cook's old Establishment club is back in London after 50 years - will it bring some Armando Iannucci- or Ian Hislop-esque hard satire to the live circuit?

Susan Calman happy to be same-sex marriage role model

Susan Calman can cope with the rapier wit of Paul Merton and Ian Hislop on Have I Got News For You. She can hold her own with Stephen Fry on brainbox show QI [on later in the year].

But the Glasgow comic has no answer for the homophobic abuse she has experienced in her home town.

Growly Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street director of communications and strategy, diarist, Burnley supporter and ebullient Tweeter, chairs for the first time. So expect lots of needling from Ian Hislop, who'll doubtless have something to say about Campbell's appearances before the Leveson Inquiry (he's the first of tonight's Leveson alumni; Steve Coogan turns up on Graham Norton).

But the big question is will Campbell have the skill to rein in guest panellist, big, loud hirsute Ross Noble, who tends to overwhelm any panel show he's on if he's not kept in order? Returning to the show is Lord Sugar's flint-eyed right-hand man, and Countdown host, Nick Hewer.

Jeremy Clarkson is in the host's chair once again, always a gleeful prospect for anyone who enjoys watching him being needled by Ian Hislop. Remember when Clarkson threw his pen at Hislop, who'd had the temerity to cast doubt on Clarkson's authorship of his newspaper columns?

Their exchanges should be even more spicy, considering Private Eye's pursuit of Clarkson after he imposed a super-injunction on his ex-wife (a legal stricture Clarkson himself broke late last year).

Surely everyone will have some sport with guest Nancy Dell'Olio, a woman who has turned preening self-obsession into a profession.