Have I Got News For You panellist and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop to visit Pontefract

Mr Hislop – the editor of Private Eye magazine – will take part in an “in conversation” event at Pontefract Town Hall to discuss satirical prints from the 18th century on loan from the British Museum.

The golden age of satire? Late-Georgian satirical prints is a British Museum Spotlight Loan and will look at how a small group of printmakers – Gillray, Cruikshank, Rowlandson and Newton – mercilessly taunted the worst excesses of the British monarchy between 1790 and 1820.

Mr Hislop will open the exhibition on Saturday, May 11 in the Nelson Room at Pontefract Town Hall, 4.30pm to 6.30pm..

Tickets are £5 and available through www.eventbrite.com.

Pontefract features in one of the prints and was no stranger to Georgian satire.

The exhibition includes a copy of The Dunniad, a mid-Georgian book which collected satirical commentary on Pontefract politics.

Tom Hockenhull, curator of the Spotlight loan, said: “These prints are clever, dangerously subversive and viciously funny.

“I’m delighted that they will be shared with a wider audience through this partnership exhibition.

“They provide a rich and complex source of information about the period, and I look forward to seeing how each venue approaches the material.” The exhibition runs from May 11 until July 20 at Pontefract Museum and entry is free.

Other objects from Wakefield Museums’ collections include Spitting Image squeaky dog toys of 1980s politicians and an issue of Private Eye from Pontefract’s Poulson Affair, which forced the resignation of the Home Secretary.

The resignation followed the Pontefract businessman John Poulson’s conviction for bribery.

Ian Hislop was also curator of the recent British Museum exhibition I Object: Ian Hislop’s search for dissent.

The Pontefract Museum exhibit will travel to Nottinghamshire and Whitehaven.