Private Eye at the V&A

I'm a huge fan of Private Eye. I like pretty much everything about it, its daring attitude, two fingers to the establishment. The fact that no one is sacred or untouchable. And I love that it's all still packaged in quite a lo-fi sort of way. I really like the way the Private Eye covers are put together - always very funny or pithy or bluntly to the point, but always very simply - a photo with a speech bubble or a quick and dirty photo comp. I think that visceral, very bare way of putting across points or thoughts of jokes is something that advertising people sometimes forget to do. Everything is so slickly put together or crafted to within an inch of its life. Sometimes that squeezes the energy out of the original thought.

Anyway, not surprisingly, when I heard they were having an exhibition at the V&A to celebrate the 50th birthday of the magazine, I had to pop along to see for myself. If you're a fan of the Eye it's well worth a visit, just to see the collection of classic covers chosen by Ian Hislop. But also there's also a fantastic display of original cartoon and illustration artwork by the likes of Willie Rushton, Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe. It's really great to see them in the flesh, with all of their corrections and redraws. Also there's a mock-up of the old production table with original paste-up artwork, and a recreation of the editor's office.