Paul Merton

Paul James Martin (born 9 July 1957), known by the stage name Paul Merton, is an English comedian. Known for his improvisation skill, Merton's humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy. He has been ranked by critics, fellow comedians and viewers to be among Britain's greatest comedians. He had regularly appeared as a team captain on the BBC panel game Have I Got News for You. He hosted Room 101 and appeared on the original British version of the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Merton appears as a panellist regularly on Radio 4's Just a Minute, first appearing in 1989, and became the only remaining regular panellist in 2009 following the death of Clement Freud. He has also appeared as one of the Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players. Early life Paul James Martin 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 Catholic mother, Mary Ann Power (medical nurse). It was revealed on Who Do You Think You Are? that Merton's maternal grandfather, James Power, was from Passage East in County Waterford and served in the British Army in the First World War but left to join the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. As a volunteer in the IRA he served as a 1st lieutenant in the East Waterford Brigade.