162: Private Eye - Year In Review 2025

What is an 'Andy Burnham’ and can it be stopped? Why has Donald Trump made a photocopy of the UN and called it the Board of Peace? And was this episode description drafted by AI for an overworked journalist? (No, it wasn’t.) Ian, Helen, Adam and Andy explore these questions and more.

Why does the USA now have masked militias roaming its streets with almost no oversight? Why do some of the people who want to win London’s next Mayoral election seem to hate the city so much? And if Prince Harry texts you to recruit you for his next lawsuit, should you answer? Ian, Helen, Adam and Andy explore these questions and more.

It's the Eye Quiz of the last year! Adam, Helen and Andy get out the sleigh bells and the silly hats, and quiz each other on all the biggest, smallest and stupidest news stories of 2025. 

Ian Hislop, Jan Ravens, Lewis Macleod and Harry Enfield appeared live at London's Criterion Theatre for a special Christmas show (and to plug the Eye Annual, still available in all good bookshops).

Rotten Boroughs correspondent Saba Salman joins Adam, Helen and Andy to discuss the Reform Party, Your Party, the Democratic Party and Part 94 of who's going to own the Telegraph. 

The team discuss Donald Trump’s legal methods, the mayhem in the UK government (part 94) and what’s really going on at the Amazon climate summit. 

Ian, Helen, Andy and Richard Brooks discuss the week’s royal fallout, the forthcoming Budget, and get an update on all the murky business on Teesside. 

The team play a packed-out Cheltenham Literature Festival and answer the big questions: Do we owe Donald Trump an apology? How did things get so bad for Labour so fast? And will the Eye ever increase its font size? 

Adam, Ian and Jane Mackenzie discuss the new Archbishop of Canterbury and what makes her different from all her predecessors over the past 1500 years and the police forces prepared to break the rules to look after their own, while Helen and Andy discuss RFK junior and his very peculiar ideas about Making America Healthy Again

Ian, Adam, Andy and special guest Justine Smith discuss the chaos at Your Party, the scandal of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), and the ongoing perm-bloodbath at Reach Newspapers.