Ian Hislop: The wit-finder general

Master of satire, scourge of the politically inept, the editor of 'Private Eye' has, bizarrely, turned his considerable talents to writing a TV sitcom with family values at its core. But, then again, moral outrage and a conservative mindset have always gone hand in hand

The real giveaway with a new TV comedy series co-written by Ian Hislop is the slot it has been granted in the schedules. Early Sunday evening on BBC1 is a time and a place we associate with Songs of Praise, The Antiques Roadshow, or perhaps an escapist wildlife documentary. So when My Dad's the Prime Minister – a venture into sitcom by the editor of Private Eye – begins airing at five past six tonight, we should be thinking less of scathing satire than of old-fashioned family values. The idea is that mum, dad and the kids will sit down to watch it together much as a previous generation might have done with a Sunday teatime dramatisation of David Copperfield.

My Dad's the Prime Minister looks at life through the eyes of a 12-year-old who, like other children of his age, finds his father acutely embarrassing. Only his plight is worse because the dad in question runs the country. Those expecting a TV offshoot of St Albion Parish News – the Private Eye feature that casts Tony Blair in the guise of a sanctimonious vicar – might be disappointed to find that while there is still a place for political in-jokes, the series is notable mainly for its often hilarious and rather touching home truths.

Hislop, who admits that he is a source of embarrassment to his own offspring, was quoted last week as saying that he and his co-writer Nick Newman wanted to write something that would make children think that "we're all right really". For a man whose livelihood depends to a large extent on not minding if he has upset people, it's an admission that in this area of his life at any rate, he needs the same reassurance as the rest of us.

At 42, Hislop is in his satirical prime. With all of 17 years behind him as editor of the Eye, and no sign of relinquishing the position, he has, in career terms, outlived most of those who have been on the receiving end of his barbs, and he now occupies a uniquely powerful position in British public life. As one third of the trio that has made Have I Got News For You, the most successful comedy show of its kind in TV history, he has extended his particular brand of humour to an audience of millions and gained instant recognisability. No conventional beauty, Hislop has been happy to turn his looks to comic advantage, and it surprises some people – men, anyway – to discover that he has a large female fan base. Departures into presenting radio and TV series on religious and historical subjects have conferred a measure of Renaissance manhood on him, and the combination of all three roles has given him access to a world of celebrity that many people in his position would find hard to resist. But not Hislop.

"The really fascinating thing about Ian is his sheer normality," says a friend who has known Hislop since they were at Oxford University together more than 20 years ago. "He's got a very nice wife and two sweet children, and he goes home to them and doesn't play the fame game." Attempts by enemies such as Piers Morgan, the editor of The Mirror, to dish dirt on Hislop have got nowhere, and even non-fans admit that the morality that underpins Hislop's attitude to those who would abuse power or take themselves too seriously is of a kind that stops well short of "holier-than-thou".

But the sheer nastiness of some of what the Eye does is undeniable, and gossip which Hislop would say should be shrugged off by those affected can be deeply damaging. Of course, the worst thing you can do is rise to the bait.

You could argue that this is what being the editor of Private Eye is all about, but reservations about Hislop persist. "I do think he lacks empathy," one former associate says. "He can be very mistrustful of people." Others speak of a coldness to his cleverness that he has worked hard to excise from his TV performances, and Hislop's unforgiving treatment of Angus Deayton when the private life of the Have I Got News For You host was exposed in the tabloid press last year struck many people as unduly harsh. "The fact is that Ian doesn't like Angus and never has," according to someone who knows Hislop well.

Hislop's parents' records of Beyond the Fringe and Flanders and Swann shaped his taste in jokes when he was growing up. From producing a school magazine at Ardingly College in West Sussex, he honed his skills on a magazine at Oxford that he used as a stepping stone to Private Eye by interviewing two of the Eye's then most important figures, Peter Cook and then editor Richard Ingrams. Hislop made Ingrams laugh. He became part of the team, and was made stand-in editor when Ingrams went away. He took over in his own right at the age of only 26, and Eye lovers wondered what would happen to it. But they need not have worried.

"He's kept the best of the Eye's traditions, and introduced some new ones," says the veteran satirist Graeme Garden. "I'd say he's got it about right." An expanding readership obviously agrees, with Hislop succeeding in raising circulation some 30 per cent to around 200,000 copies per fortnight.

The production process all revolves around the afternoon joke-writing sessions that Hislop has with long-time Eye men Ingrams, Christopher Booker, Barry Fantoni and Francis Wheen, while the sections dealing with exposés of scandals in business and government tend to run themselves. New talent doesn't get much of a look-in, especially female talent, and one former staffer complained that much as she enjoyed working there, she found the atmosphere deeply misogynist.

A rather different impression of Hislop is provided by a woman guest at one of Private Eye's celebrated lunches. "He's much sexier in real life," she says. "This is because he's smart, and kind and – this is what impressed me most, inclusive. He seems very self-possessed without being arrogant, and I loved the way he wasn't at all up his own arse. When I asked him about Angus Deayton he wasn't like some people would be and say: 'I couldn't possibly discuss that.' He was just normal and did discuss it like any normal person would. He was also not indiscreet but sort of gently gossipy, giving his opinions about people."

Hislop also revealed that his children's friends didn't have a clue who he was until Anne Robinson chaired Have I Got News for You and, as fans of The Weakest Link, they all tuned in. That's the Hislop one former colleague knows – not remotely taken in by his own publicity, or "by the pretty girl chatting him up". "He's very ethical, and I find that admirable. He doesn't do advertising. I remember one day he came across a child begging at Oxford Circus, and he spent hours trying to sort it out."

Friends agree that much of Hislop's moral rootedness derives from the the length and strength of the relationship he enjoys with his wife, Victoria, whom he met when they were both at Oxford. After making a home in south London, they moved to the Kent village of Sissinghurst a few years ago with their daughter, Emily, and son, William. Hislop is no recluse, involving himself in village activities and playing cricket for a local team.

Satirists have tended to the conservative, going right back to the Roman writer Juvenal. Suspicious of attempts at progress, they see human nature as essentially unchanging, forever prey to baser instincts. That Hislop finds consolation in family life only puts him more firmly at the heart of this tradition.