7 things you didn't know about Ian Hislop

IAN Hislop is best known as the editor of Private Eye and razor-tongued panellist on the long-running topical quiz show Have I Got News For You. In Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders at 9pm on Monday on BBC2, he'll be looking at some of history's greatest reformers and philanthropists.

1 In this three-part series, Ian reveals who his heroes are. They include Dr Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905) who was a 'missionary turned children's home founder with a controversial genius for publicity'. Another is campaigning journalist WT Stead (1849-1912) who died during the sinking of the Titanic after 'buying a 13-year-old girl for £5' to highlight the scandal of child prostitution.

2 Viewers on Monday will also see Ian in Birmingham's Shakespeare Memorial Room and on the towpath beneath Water Street. His Midland heroes include London-born George Dawson (1821-1876), who moved to Birmingham's Mount Zion Baptist Chapel in 1844 and advocated political service as a civic duty.

3 Ian was born on July 13, 1960 in Mumbles, Swansea. His engineer father David, who died when his son was just 12, was Scottish and his late mother Helen was from Jersey. He grew up in Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.

4 Ian is a man of many talents including broadcaster, author and after dinner speaker. Last May, his Radio 4 play Greed All About It, about the Wapping dispute, starred Sally Hawkins.

5 After losing a legal battle with the late Robert Maxwell, Hislop quipped: "I've just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech."

6 Ian is the only person to have appeared in every Have I Got News For You episode - and more than once on Room 101 after he was invited to turn the tables on Paul Merton, his fellow star on HIGNFY.

7 The father of two is an ambassador for the Scout Association.