Richard Reid Ingrams Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Richard Ingrams is most famous as a magazine editor and journalist. He was one of the founders of "Private Eye", the fortnightly satirical magazine which has become a British institution since its inception in 1961, and became its second editor in 1963, replacing Christopher Booker. He remained in this post until 1986, when he astonished his own ...
It takes some time to realize that the printed word has no effect at all on the behavior of politicians. Important editors in ivory towers still like to think that their words can topple governments and change the course of events. It may be important for their self-respect that they should think this, but, in reality, nothing of the sort occurs.
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[on being prosecuted for criminal libel]: Though English laws fall into desuetude, they are seldom repealed until they become an embarrassment. They remain on the statute books like rusting weapons in an armory.
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A scandal can only flourish in the right soil. There must be a prevalent atmosphere for an incident, which might in other circumstances be totally ignored, to emerge as a symptom of all that is wrong with the times.
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The prospect of being jailed for criminal libel may have weighed heavily on Ingrams in 1976, but he did not show it in public; his only comment at the time was a joke to the effect that he hoped he would not be visited by the famous penal reformer Lord Longford. During the court case, it was announced that his opponent James Goldsmith had been awarded a knighthood in the retirement honors list of departing Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The knighthood was in part awarded "for services to ecology". As Goldsmith had never shown any great interest in ecological matters, Ingrams later joked that this citation really meant that he had "tried to rid the world of the pollution of 'Private Eye'". Years after the event, Ingrams said that he had become convinced that this joke was, in fact, the truth.
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In 1976, he was the subject of a private prosecution for criminal libel, brought by the multi-millionaire James Goldsmith. It was the first such prosecution to take place in Britain for 53 years. It was Goldsmith's avowed aim to close down the magazine "Private Eye", which Ingrams edited and in which, Goldsmith claimed, he had been libeled. Ingrams could theoretically have been imprisoned in the event of a successful prosecution. However, the case attracted many criticisms of Goldsmith from journalists, and he was subsequently foiled in his efforts to become the owner of various British newspapers. The case was eventually settled out of court.
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His first wife, Mary Morgan, died in 2006.
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His life has frequently been marked by tragedy. His father died when he was age 16. All three of his brothers (two of them younger) have long since predeceased him. He has also been predeceased by two of his three children. Many of his colleagues at "Private Eye" magazine have also died relatively young, including Peter Cook, William Rushton, Paul Foot and John Wells.
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His maternal grandfather was a famous 19th-century surgeon and the most senior of Queen Victoria's medical advisers.
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During the original run of the series, Fawlty Towers (1975), as television critic of "The Spectator" magazine, he wrote a scathing review of the program. John Cleese, whom he criticized personally in the same review, was a friend of Peter Cook, who was the owner of "Private Eye", the magazine which Ingrams edited, and took great exception to the review. Cleese's revenge was to write in a character called Mr Ingrams into a later episode, a guest whom Basil discovers blowing up an inflatable sex doll.
$19 Million
