Gyles Brandreth - 50 Years of Private Eye

In the early 1960s, some senior politicians said we had never had it so good as a nation, others said the face of an aging post-war government that seemed to be running out of steam had been ruined. It was treated with less respect and more skepticism, so in the decade that would bring Americans their Summer of Love, we Brits got there first with the summer of Saturn spearheading this very British revolution. He was a

private

detective. It began life as a school magazine at Roseberry School and was the brainchild of Willie Rushton, Chris Booker, Richard Ingram and Paul, Foot and Foot Engrams continued study at Oxford and it was here that the magazine proper was eventually printed.

The first issue was published on October 25, 1961 and cost six books at the time, with 300 copies made. Distributed in cafes around Soho it now costs £1.50 and sells around 200,000 copies a fortnight. The single image on the magazine's cover became its trademark while inside readers found a mix of current affairs. , cultural reviews, satirical caricatures and now famous but previously unreported scandals in sections like salsa HP times have changed since the magazine's first publication, but its offices in Soho are not in this seedy corner of Soho, but I think which is a healthy thing that everyone should remember the misery of the world as they go by.

Through the door it was reported that today's editor was the most in-demand man in Britain. He in his life from the beginning what was

private

. At first I think it was the jokes. They were disrespectful jokes about people and institutions that people had traditionally been very fond of. different, I think after that the stories encouraged people and suddenly we had this double barrel effect and then came the talk, what did satire mean in those days? It meant a new attitude of questioning, a new attitude of disrespect towards a society that the end of the 1950s in Britain had been quite different and that was quite shocking, so that's how the main thing sets up: can you go too far? can you be too incendiary?

I think you can. I mean, I try hard not to because then I think you lose me and people. I think what you need to do is be able to justify the joke, not only has he made fun of the country's elite private detective, he also pioneered investigative journalism and soon gained a reputation for publishing stories that were too controversial for the newspapers. conventional, I think. When you look back at 50

years

, people will point to the Profumo affair, the great Robert Maxwell saga that will probably address the Bristol Hart scandal. I was in the middle of some things that look like dollars but actually make a huge profit. impact on your life we ​​have been there hitting as a result of your fearless reporting Private Eye has received many private libel lawsuits I was involved in one of the largest libel payouts in British legal history Sonya Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper received six hundred thousand pounds after he accused her of profiting from her husband's notoriety, when the appeal noted that this was more than double what the victims' families had received, the fine was reduced to sixty thousand pounds and prompted a reform in the law of defamation.

BBC Private Eye media correspondent Colin Douglas has been the court jester willing to say funny things that other people aren't willing to say, but also with a serious intention to expose the great and the good and all their weaknesses. There have been times when it has been very strong, other times when you feel like it is much less relevant. I think the fact that it's a funny magazine, a satirical magazine, has sometimes detracted from its journalism because you don't know what's a real fact and what's just a joke, you love it or you hate it. The private detective has been telling stories for half a century that other magazines and newspapers couldn't or wouldn't.

I know from my time in politics that the media can be a cruel mistress. but if satire is really telling the truth with a smile on your face, then I'm all for it, my god, what is this god? These 4 pounds and 50 thank you very much.