A Bunch of Amateurs

AuthorsIan Hislop and Nick Newman

Ian Hislop and Nick Payne

Ian David Hislop is an English journalist, satirist, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye. He has appeared on many radio and television programmes, and has been a team captain on the BBC quiz show Have I Got News for You since the programme's inception in 1990.

He was educated at Ardingly College, an independent boarding school, where he became Head Boy and began his satirical career directing and appearing in revues alongside Nick Newman.

Hislop and Newman's association continued when they both attended Oxford University, later working together at Private Eye and on a number of comedy scriptwriting jobs. Hislop applied to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, but changed to English Literature before arriving at Magdalen College. While at university, Hislop was actively involved in student journalism. He relaunched and edited the satirical magazine Passing Wind. He graduated with a BA in 1981.

Hislop joined Private Eye immediately after leaving Oxford, and became editor in 1986 following Ingrams's departure. As editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop is reputedly the most sued man in English legal history.

In April 2017, Hislop won the London Press Club's print journalist of the year award; in his acceptance speech he said that Private Eye obtaining its best ABC 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.”

Nick Newman (born 17 July 1958) is a satirical British cartoonist and comedy scriptwriter.

The son of an RAF officer, Newman was born in Kuala Lumpur and schooled at Ardingly College where his satirical career began, working on revues with Ian Hislop. In his last term at Ardingly, Newman was 'asked to leave' (thrown out), after wiring up the chapel to play rock music during a chapel service. Despite this incident Newman managed to secure a place at Oriel College, Oxford where he read history and continued collaborating with Hislop, who was studying English at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Newman's career as a cartoonist began in 1976, when he sold his first drawings to Yachting Monthly - and by 1981 he was working regularly for Private Eye. Since 1989, he has been pocket cartoonist for The Sunday Times. His cartoons and strips have appeared in many other publications including Punch and The Spectator. He also draws for Times Higher Education (THE), Estates Gazette, The Wisden Cricketer, the Wisden Almanack and The Big Issue. The Cartoon Art Trust voted him Pocket Cartoonist of the Year 1997 and Gag Cartoonist of the Year 1998 and 2005. He won the Sports Journalists' Association's award for Sports Cartoonist of the Year in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

He has produced many cartoon anthologies and books, including three Wallace & Gromit adventures (with Tristan Davies. Pub. Hodder & Stoughton).

Hislop and Newman wrote for Maureen Lipman and co-wrote several episodes of Murder Most Horrid for Dawn French. Newman and Hislop's credits also include two series of My Dad's the Prime Minister for BBC 1, sketches for The Harry Enfield Show, creating the character Tim Nice-But-Dim, and the BBC Radio 4 series Gush, a satire based on the first Gulf War, in the style of Jeffrey Archer.

In 2008 they co-wrote A Bunch of Amateurs – starring Burt Reynolds, Sir Derek Jacobi and Samantha Bond – which was the Royal Film Performance for that year.