--- name: "Ian Hislop" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ian-hislop" fi1m_id: "ian-hislop" imdb_id: "nm0386810" tmdb_id: 119805 wikidata_id: "Q1655550" roles: ["Writer"] born: "13 July 1960" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_as: "writer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-10-07T17:12:03.761518+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ian Hislop ## Identity Ian Hislop - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ian-hislop - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** ian-hislop - **IMDb ID:** nm0386810 - **TMDB ID:** 119805 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1655550 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hislop, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1655550, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386810/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/119805 Writer. Born 13 July 1960 in Mumbles, Swansea, Wales, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer - **Born:** 13 July 1960, Mumbles, Swansea, Wales, UK - **Active:** 2013–2019 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 1 acting, 1 writing, 1 other - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 80 (1), 2010s 76 (2) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hislop, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1655550, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386810/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/119805 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*Have I Got News for You*](https://film.one/tv/have-i-got-news-for-you.md) (80) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Wipers Times*](https://film.one/film/the-wipers-times.md) (74) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Ian Hislop > Ian Hislop is good at letting the self-important make fools of themselves. His writing with Nick Newman finds humour in historical voices, though *The Wipers Times* also shows a fondness for its characters that makes wartime look too tidy. In *The Wipers Times* (2013), General Mitford’s exchange with a pompous officer turns on the distance between the officer’s importance and what he actually has to say. Ian Hislop and Nick Newman understand that the joke needs the man to remain entirely serious. We laughed because Michael Palin makes the officer’s pomposity seem so needless. The writing gives Palin something precise to work with, without requiring the other character to recognise his own absurdity. His early television writing included *Spitting Image* (1984), alongside Newman and others, before the partnership moved into longer stories. Their screenplay for *A Bunch of Amateurs* (2008) puts a fading Hollywood star among amateur theatre-makers, a premise that offers another opportunity to examine self-importance. Historical comedy has become a recurring interest, with *The Wipers Times* drawing on a real First World War trench newspaper. The later stage play *Spike* (2022) concerns Spike Milligan and the early years of *The Goon Show*. Hislop and Newman’s use of original satirical material matters in *The Wipers Times*. Their research gives the humour voices from the time, rather than leaving everything to a present-day writer’s idea of what soldiers might find funny. Andy De Emmony’s film is warm and dry, and Ben Chaplin and Palin give it welcome ease. It is worth an evening for those pleasures, particularly when the dialogue trusts us to hear how little substance there is beneath an inflated military voice. The weakness is the film’s affection for its characters, which makes wartime feel rather too tidy. Wanting these newspaper-makers to be good company is understandable, but the warmth leaves too little room for discomfort. Hislop’s ear for a pompous sentence is more convincing here than the film’s account of the soldiers’ circumstances. Start with *The Wipers Times* for a soldiers’ comedy, rather than for a searching account of the trenches. ## Biography Ian Hislop is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster. He is editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye and has co-written several television programmes and films with his long-term collaborator Nick Newman. Hislop co-wrote the BBC factual drama *The Wipers Times* (2013), which dramatised the story of a satirical trench newspaper produced during the First World War. He has been a team captain on the BBC quiz show *Have I Got News for You* since its launch in 1990. *Sources: bbc.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) ### Performed in (1) - *Years and Years* (2019), Fi1m 79, as Ian Hislop — [page](https://film.one/tv/years-and-years.md) ### Wrote (1) — the average rests on these - *The Wipers Times* (2013), Fi1m 74, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-wipers-times.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Have I Got News for You* (1990), Fi1m 80, as Self - Team Captain — [page](https://film.one/tv/have-i-got-news-for-you.md) ## Complete filmography (21) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Ian Hislop's Fake News: A True History* (2019), as Presenter - *Years and Years* (2019), series, as Ian Hislop — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/tv/years-and-years.md) - *The Wipers Times* (2013), Writer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/the-wipers-times.md) - *The Island* (2010), series, as Marcus Fielding - *Ian Hislop's Changing of the Bard* (2009), as Presenter - *A Bunch of Amateurs* (2008), Writer - *Not Forgotten* (2005), series, Actor - *Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters* (2003), Actor - *My Dad's the Prime Minister* (2003), series, Creator - *Gobble* (1997), Writer - *Harry Enfield and Chums* (1994), series, as Additional Writing - *Murder Most Horrid* (1991), series, Writer - *Plunder* (1990), series, Actor - *About Face* (1989), series, Writer - *Spitting Image: The Sound of Maggie* (1989), Writer - *Spitting Image: Bumbledown – The Life and Times of Ronald Reagan* (1988), Writer - *Spitting Image: The Ronnie & Nancy Show* (1988), Writer - *Spitting Image: A Non-Denominational Holiday Special* (1987), Writer - *Spitting Image: Election Special '87* (1987), Writer - *Spitting Image: The 1987 Movie Awards* (1987), Writer - *Spitting Image: Down And Out In The White House* (1986), Writer ## Gallery - ![Ian Hislop](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-b00d47061518.jpg) Ian Hislop — ian_fromblighty, CC BY 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Ian_Hislop_-_2009.jpg/1280px-Ian_Hislop_-_2009.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Ian Hislop has been editor of Private Eye since 1986 and is probably best known for his role on the BBC show Have I Got News for You. His guests on the night ar (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-5a99f8d9e844.png) Ian Hislop has been editor of Private Eye since 1986 and is probably best known for his role on the BBC show Have I Got News for You. His guests on the night ar (2022) — British Library, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Ian_Hislop.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ian Hislop chats to a resident at Nightingale House,Nightingale Lane, London.](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-da1aa3e2067f.jpg) Ian Hislop chats to a resident at Nightingale House,Nightingale Lane, London. — Brian Minkoff-London Pixels, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Hislop.jpg/1280px-Hislop.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Ian Hislop](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-91cda4f1a57d.jpg) Ian Hislop — Image via TMDB - ![Ian Hislop](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-aeb5a404312c.jpg) Ian Hislop — Image via TMDB - ![Ian Hislop](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-46130255fca8.jpg) Ian Hislop — Image via TMDB - ![Ian Hislop](https://film.one/media/person/778436/gallery-c7ebc95384ce.jpg) Ian Hislop — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ian-hislop