Facts

Having found fame for his surreal sense of humour and deadpan delivery on hit BBC topical quiz show, Have I Got News For You, Paul Merton has extended his comic charms to travelogues and beyond.

Early Days

Paul James Martin was born on 9 July 1957 in Parsons Green, London, to an English train-driving father and an Irish mother who worked as an NHS nurse. His membership of actor’s guild, Equity, forced his surname change: they already had a Paul Martin. Fascinated by clowns and comedy as a child, he spent the first seven years of his working life as a clerk at the Tooting Employment Office, before taking the plunge on the comedy circuit, and finding fame at London’s Comedy Store.

Fringe Benefits?

A regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Comedy festival, Paul hasn’t always had the reception he wanted: in 1986, he had to be hospitalised, after being mugged whilst helping a friend put up promotional posters. Then in 1987, he had to forfeit the hiring cost of his Edinburgh comedy venue, when he broke his leg playing football with fellow comics, subsequently suffering an embolism, and contracting Hepatitis, whilst recovering in hospital.

TV Breakthrough

Paul’s initial breakthrough as a television performer came in 1988, on the BBC’s comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? But it was via topical quiz show, Have I Got News for You, first broadcast in 1990, that he became a household name. As a team captain, his surreal sense of humour, deadpan delivery, odd outfits and puzzled looks to camera made him the perfect foil to Ian Hislop’s intellectual, smug wittiness, and they have continued to anchor the popular show ever since.

Following the October 2002 departure of Angus Deayton, the show’s host, amidst a drug and sex scandal, Paul took over the host’s chair for a single episode, and pilloried Deayton mercilessly, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with some of the more lurid tabloid accusations of the time. Deayton has never been replaced; his role has been filled by a succession of guest hosts ever since.

Downs

Paul has spoken candidly about bouts of severe depression, which he has suffered at different times of his life. In 1990, shortly before his breakthrough on Have I Got News for You, he began experiencing paranoid delusions, and he checked himself into the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in London for six weeks. He attributes the episode to overwork and the stress of impending fame.

Pet Hates

In 1999 Paul replaced Nick Hancock as host of Room 101, a chat show in which guests are offered the chance to discuss their pet hates and consign them to the oblivion of Room 101. He went on to host 64 editions of the popular BBC2 show. In 2007, his final guest was Ian Hislop, his co-anchor on HIGNFY, and Ian deliberately selected items in order to wind Paul up, such as the films of Charlie Chaplin and the Beatles (Paul being a huge fan of both.)

Send In The Clowns

Paul has claimed that his initial love of comedy stemmed from seeing clowns in the circus, as a child. He has always had a passion for the early silent film era comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and fronted the 4-part BBC4 documentary, Paul Merton's Silent Clowns, in 2006, showcasing their comedy craft. The series became the basis for a 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, a follow-up UK tour and a supporting book, also written by Paul.

Deadpan Michael Palin?

In 2007 Paul presented a four-part travel documentary, Paul Merton in China in which he travels around the country exploring some lesser known aspects of the Chinese culture. His ability to go off-topic was somewhat limited by the constant presence of government officials who were keen to control the output, but the show proved a hit, and led to the two follow-up series: Paul Merton in India, which saw him travelling around the Indian sub-continent in search of off-beat subject matter; and Paul Merton in Europe in which Paul goes in search of the esoteric a little closer to home.

Shanghai High

Paul suffers from severe vertigo, which caused a headache for the Paul Merton in China production team, as he couldn't stay in any of the high-rise hotels in Shanghai during filming.

Third Time Lucky

Paul married fellow comic Caroline Quentin in 1990, but the relentless media scrutiny of every aspect of their private lives, as the UK’s premier comedy couple, took its toll, especially as the marriage broke up, and they were divorced in 1998. Paul subsequently had a relationship with producer and actress Sarah Parkinson; whom he married twice: unofficially in the Maldives in 2000, and then officially only three months before her tragic death from breast cancer in September 2003. He then met fellow improviser Suki Webster, in 2004, and they married in September 2009.

Kudos

Between 1994 and 2008, Paul has been nominated a total of eleven times for "Best Entertainment Performance" at the Bafta TV Awards, for his pivotal role in the BBC’s hit topical news quiz show, Have I Got News For You. He won the award once, in 2003.

His role on HIGNFY has also secured him five British Comedy Awards nominations, with wins as"Top TV Comedy Personality" in 1992, and "Best Comedy Entertainment Personality" in 1999.

He was nominated for a Bafta, in the Factual Series category, for his travel documentary, Paul Merton in China.