Paul Merton

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Merton often claims that he was inspired to go into comedy at an early age watching clowns at a circus, remembering, "I don't think I'd seen clowns before. I'd certainly never seen adults behave like this...From that evening, I wanted to be part of the process that was making all those people laugh." He gained his earliest professional credits under his birth name, including an appearance as a yokel in Time, an episode of The Young Ones in 1984. On joining Equity he found that the name Paul Martin was already taken by a juggler in Leeds, so he renamed himself after Merton, the district of London where he grew up.

Though he had harboured serious ambitions of becoming a performing comedian since his school days, it was not until April 1982, at the Comedy Store in Soho, that his dream was realised. Merton commented that he made his professional debut in Swansea in 1982 which led to having an "affection for Wales". "What we did over the course of two weeks was perform 10 shows and it meant that our first time on stage if we made a mistake on the Monday we wouldn't repeat that mistake the next day."

Merton recalls that on only his second or third night he found the dour role that has informed his comic approach ever since. After performing on the London Alternative Comedy circuit at places like The Comedy Store and Jongleurs, in 1985 his first foray to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was with the show Have You Been on Telly where he shared the bill with Morris Minor and the Majors and Mark Steel. He has been a member of the London improvisation group The Comedy Store Players since 1985, and still regularly performs with them.

Merton has performed in Paul Merton's Impro Chums at Pleasance as part of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival every year from 2008.

Merton was due to make his West End debut in the 2021 revival of Hairspray at the London Coliseum. However, after several delays to the show it was confirmed that Merton would not be joining the company.

Merton's breakthrough as a television performer came in 1988 with Channel 4's improvised comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which moved to TV from BBC Radio 4, though he had previously performed on the channel's Saturday Live and compered its series Comedy Wavelength in 1987. He remained on Whose Line until 1993. Have I Got News for You began in 1990, and two series of his own sketch show, Paul Merton: The Series, followed soon after. In 1995 he presented a documentary series celebrating the history of the London Palladium, entitled Paul Merton's Palladium Story. In 1996, Merton performed updated versions of fifteen of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's old scripts for an ITV series, Paul Merton in Galton & Simpson's.... Six of these scripts were previously performed by Tony Hancock. These were very badly received by critics, and although a selection of episodes was initially released on VHS, it was not until June 2007 that the complete series was released on DVD.

Also in 1996, Merton took a break from Have I Got News for You during its eleventh series, making only one appearance as a guest on fellow captain Ian Hislop's team. Merton later said that at the time he was "very tired" of the show and that he thought it had become "stuck in a rut". Nevertheless, he added that he felt his absence gave the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since". In 2002, following allegations in the UK tabloids linking the show's chairman, Angus Deayton, with prostitutes and drug use, the host was asked to resign from the show. Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure and was described as "merciless" in his treatment of his former co-star.

In 1999 Merton 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. His first guest was Hancock. He hosted 64 editions. In 2007, his final guest was Ian Hislop (who became the first interviewee to appear twice, having also been on an edition with Hancock). Hislop's selections deliberately included items that Merton was known to like, such as The Beatles and the films of Charlie Chaplin. Hislop's final choice was Merton himself, done to represent his departure from the show. Merton cast himself in the room to end the show, although on the condition that Hislop would go in with him.

Merton is one of the recurring stars from the 4 ITV Pantos. His best role came in 1999, where Merton starred alongside Ronnie Corbett as one of the ugly sisters in ITV's Christmas pantomime of Cinderella. His other co-stars were Julian Clary, Samantha Janus, Ben Miller, Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Alexander Armstrong. In the same year – to coincide with the launch of his first stand up tour in 10 years, and this is me...Paul Merton – he was given his own one hour South Bank Show special. The show charted his beginnings in the comedy business, to the development of his improvisational skills, his mental breakdown, and the popularity of Have I Got News For You.

He was rumoured to be a possible new host of Countdown to replace both Richard Whiteley and his successor, Des Lynam, but decided not to pursue this.

Merton is a keen student of comedy, particularly the early silent comedians and in 2006, BBC Four broadcast Paul Merton's Silent Clowns, a four-part documentary series on the silent comedy craft of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd. He examined their respective careers, interspersed with moments from a live show in which he presented clips of their work. Among the audience were many children, who were seeing the performers for the first time. Merton took a stage version of this show to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in late 2007 took the show on a UK tour. A tie-in book, Silent Comedy, was written by Merton and published by RH Books in late 2007. The Independent described it as "clearly a labour of love" but criticised the exhaustive and overly-thorough plot synopses of the films discussed.

Also in 2007 Merton presented a four-part travel documentary, Paul Merton in China, which was broadcast on Five from 21 May 2007. His second travel series, Paul Merton in India was transmitted from 8 October 2008 on the same channel. A third series, Paul Merton in Europe began broadcasting on 11 January 2010, again on Five. In 2015 he was commissioned by More4 to present Paul Merton’s Secret Stations, a travel documentary series about some of Britain's little-used request stop railway stations inspired by travel writer Dixe Wills' book Tiny Stations.

In 2009, Paul wrote and presented Morecambe and Wise: The Show What Paul Merton Did.

Merton hosted the British version of Thank God You're Here, which aired on ITV in 2008. In 2009, Merton directed and presented a documentary on the British films of Alfred Hitchcock, in a series of star-presented documentaries on BBC Four. In May 2010, Merton temporarily co-presented The One Show after Adrian Chiles left the show.

His three-part documentary series Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood about the early history of Hollywood was broadcast in May 2011 on BBC2. In Merton's third TV series for 2011, Paul Merton's Adventures, he travels around the world going on popular tourist trails, but still manages to find some extraordinary things.

In 2021, Merton returned to Channel 5 for a new travel show, Motorhoming with Merton & Webster, a 6-part hour-long series which sees Merton travelling around Britain with his wife Suki Webster in a camper van.

In the late 1980s, Merton appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Big Fun Show. After long-time Just a Minute panellist Kenneth Williams died in 1988, Merton (a fan of the show) contacted the producer at the suggestion of the host, Nicholas Parsons. He was invited to participate during the following year and has appeared regularly on the programme ever since. In 2016 Merton overtook Williams to become the second most regular panellist, surpassed only by Clement Freud.

Besides his work on Just a Minute, Merton was a semi-regular guest on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue from 1991 to 1998. Between 1993 and 1995, Merton was among the regular cast members on the Radio 4 improvisational comedy series The Masterson Inheritance. In 2000 he presented Two Priests and a Nun Go into a Pub, in which he interviewed British and Irish comedians who had (like Merton himself) been brought up as members of the Roman Catholic Church. In 2009, Merton started a Radio 4 series in which he reads Spike Milligan's war memoirs in an audio-book fashion.

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