IAN HISLOP
Ian Hislop is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He was educated at Ardingly College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He has been editor of Private Eye since 1986. He is a regular team captain on the BBC show Have I Got News for You. In 2018, Ian curated an exhibition at the British Museum, I Object: Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent. He has appeared on BBC Question Time, written and presented documentaries for television and radio about various subjects including the Patron Saints of the British Isles, History of Tax, Female Hymn Writers, Dr Beeching, Victorian Philanthropists, Benefit Systems, the First World War, and The Stiff Upper Lip. In 2024, he had two series on Radio 4: Ian Hislop’s Oldest Jokes and Orwell vs Kafka, with Helen Lewis. In 2024, Ian was presented with a Fellowship Award by the Society of Editors. Ian co-wrote a dramatisation of The Wipers Times with Nick Newman, which was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Single Drama of 2014. Nick Newman and he premiered their play about Spike Milligan in 2022, followed by a UK tour.
JOHN O’FARRELL:
John O’Farrell is one of Britain’s best-known comic authors and scriptwriters and one of few to achieve best-seller status with both fiction and non-fiction. His novels have been translated into over thirty languages and adapted for TV and radio. Titles include, Things Can Only Get Better, The Best A Man Can Get, May Contain Nuts, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain and The Man Who Forgot His Wife plus three collections of his satirical columns for The Guardian. His sixth novel Family Politics was published in paperback in November.
He was one of the lead scriptwriters for Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You (on which he has also appeared). Having written on the original animation classic Chicken Run, he recently co-wrote Chicken Run Dawn of the Nugget. He co-wrote the book for the hit Broadway musical Something Rotten! and with the same team adapted Mrs Doubtfire into a musical which played at the Shaftesbury Theatre. His most recent show Just For One Day, the Live Aid Musical opened in the West End in May, following a sell-out run at the Old Vic.
