Caroline Quentin
Who was the spouse of Paul Merton from 1990 to 1998?
Paul Merton Paul James Martin ( born 9 July 1957 ) , known under the stage name Paul Merton , is an English writer , actor , comedian and radio and television presenter . Known for his improvisation skill , Mertons humour is rooted in deadpan , surreal and sometimes dark comedy . He has been ranked by critics , fellow comedians and viewers to be among Britains greatest comedians . He is well known for his regular appearances as a team captain on the BBC panel game Have I Got News for You , and as the former host of Room 101 , as well as for several appearances on the original British version of the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway ? Merton appears as a panellist regularly on Radio 4s Just a Minute , first appearing in 1989 , and becoming the only remaining regular panellist in 2009 following the death of Clement Freud . He has also appeared as one of the Comedy Stores Comedy Store Players . Early life . Merton was born on 9 July 1957 in Parsons Green , west London , to an English Anglican father , Albert Martin ( a train driver on the London Underground ) , and an Irish Roman Catholic mother , Mary Ann Power . It was revealed on Who Do You Think You Are ? that Mertons maternal grandfather , James Power , was from Passage East in County Waterford and served as a lieutenant in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence . Merton attended St Thomass School , Fulham and St Teresas , Morden . He then went to Wimbledon College , a Jesuit-run secondary school that was formerly a grammar school and had just become a comprehensive , in a stream for boys who had failed the 11-plus , and he received A-levels in English and History . After leaving school , Merton worked at the Tooting employment office as a clerical officer for three years , quitting in February 1980 . Career . Merton often claims that he was inspired to go into comedy at an early age watching clowns at a circus , remembering , I dont think Id seen clowns before . Id 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 . Stage . 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 wouldnt 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 . 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 Mertons 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 . Television . Mertons breakthrough as a television performer came in 1988 with Channel 4s improvised comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? , which moved to TV from BBC Radio 4 , though he had previously performed on the channels 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 , , followed soon after . In 1995 he presented a documentary series celebrating the history of the London Palladium , entitled Paul Mertons Palladium Story . In 1996 , Merton performed updated versions of fifteen of Ray Galton and Alan Simpsons old scripts for an ITV series , Paul Merton in Galton & Simpsons... . 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 Hislops 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 shows chairman , Angus Deayton , with prostitutes and drug use , the host was asked to resign from the show . Merton hosted the first episode after Deaytons 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 ) . Hislops selections deliberately included items that Merton was known to like , such as The Beatles and the films of Charlie Chaplin . Hislops 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 ITVs 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 Mertons 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 Britains little-used request stop railway stations inspired by travel writer Dixe Wills book Tiny Stations . Merton hosted the British version of Thank God Youre 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 Mertons Birth of Hollywood about the early history of Hollywood was broadcast in May 2011 on BBC2 . In Mertons third TV series for 2011 , Paul Mertons Adventures , he travels around the world going on popular tourist trails , but still manages to find some extraordinary things . Radio . In the late 1980s , Merton appeared on BBC Radio 4s 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 Im Sorry I Havent 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 Milligans war memoirs in an audio-book fashion . Personal life . Merton married actress Caroline Quentin in 1990 ; they announced their separation in April 1997 , which was followed by divorce in 1998 . Merton subsequently had a relationship with producer and actress Sarah Parkinson ; they were married unofficially in a service in the Maldives in 2000 . They were officially married three months before her death from breast cancer on 23 September 2003 . He married fellow improviser Suki Webster in 2009 . Shortly before becoming a household name on Have I Got News for You , Merton booked himself into the Maudsley psychiatric hospital for six weeks , because of psychiatric problems caused by the malaria medicine Lariam . In an interview with The Guardian he was reported to have been hallucinating conversations with friends , and became convinced he was a target for the Freemasons . He used the Maudsley episode as a key framework in his 2012 tour , Out of My Head . He gave many examples of his experiences there , conversations with staff and fellow patients were played out as sketches with his fellow performers , Richard Vranch , Lee Simpson and Suki Webster . He stated that , during his time at the Maudsley , he was simultaneously appearing in Whose Line Is It Anyway ? on Channel 4 . Acclaim and awards . In a 2007 public poll featured in The Guardian , Merton was voted alongside the likes of Oscar Wilde , Spike Milligan , Noël Coward and Winston Churchill as one of the ten greatest wits of all time . The Comedians Comedian , a 2005 Channel 4 poll of fellow comedians , saw him voted among the top twenty greatest international comedians in history , with host Jimmy Carr crediting him for being responsible for more great lines than Angus Deaytons dealer . The Observers The A–Z of Laughter , a 2003 special compiled by expert judges which featured the 50 funniest acts in British comedy by letter , applauded Merton for bringing to Have I Got News for You a genuine surrealism that cuts through the clubbable smugness . Merton has accumulated multiple awards and honours . After seven BAFTA Award nominations for Best Entertainment Performance , he finally won the award in 2003 , defeating fellow Have I Got News for You star Angus Deayton , who had been dismissed from the show the previous October . He has since been nominated for a further three awards – a total of eleven nominations – including a nomination for his travel documentary Paul Merton in China . Mertons appearances on Have I Got News for You have seen him nominated for five British Comedy Awards , winning the 1992 Top TV Comedy Personality and 1999 Best Comedy Entertainment Personality awards . He has also shared a further three British Comedy Awards with the panel and crew of the show , winning Best new TV comedy in 1991 , Best comedy gameshow in 1999 and Best Comedy Panel Show in 2009 . He received the 2004 Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Non-Acting Performer , also for his work on Have I Got News for You . In 2008 , Merton presented Bruce Forsyth with a BAFTA Fellowship : Forsyth had given Merton his Best Entertainment Performance award in 2003 . Bibliography . Merton has written or co-authored five books : External links . - Paul Merton Official Website - Paul Merton at bbc.co.uk - Paul Merton at Comedy Store Players website - Interactive video talk by Paul Merton on early British silent film comedy for the British Film Institute - Paul Mertons Impro Chums at Edinburgh Comedy Festival