Biography

Angus Deayton was raised in Banstead, Surrey, and attended Oakhyrst Grange School and Caterham School. He went on to New College, Oxford, where he read languages and was accepted into the Oxford Revue, regularly performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here he co-formed the parody band the Ehe Bee Gee Bees in 1980, featuring songs written by Richard Curtis and Philip Pope]. One of their songs became a best-selling single, "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices", was a parody of the Bee Gees' famous falsetto style of singing.

Deayton's career began with Radio Active, a radio comedy show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the 1980s, itself the product of a 1979 Edinburgh Fringe show by the Oxford Revue in which he had starred. First broadcast in 1980, it ran for a full seven series in total, before transferring to television as KYTV[ between 1989 and 1993. Deayton frequently collaborated as a straight man alongside renowned comedy actor Rowan Atkinson, starring as a pool attendant and a man on a park bench in the Mr. Bean episode "The Curse of Mr. Bean". He would also star as one of the Jumping Jews of Jerusalem in the 1983 Blackadder episode "Born to Be King".

From 1998 to 1991, Deayton starred in all three series of the Emmy award-winning sketch comedy programme Alexei Sayle's Stuff, and in 1990 took on the role of the Meldrews' neighbour Patrick Trench in the BBC comedy series One Foot In The Grave. This year would be huge for Deayton, because he was also chosen as host of BBC panel show Have I Got News For You, a role which led to one Time Out writer calling him "TV's Mr Sex". His success in this format would make him a desirable presenter, hosting television specials such as the BBC's New Year's Eve show and the BAFTA Awards.

In May 2002, the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World reported that Deayton had taken cocaine and slept with a number of prostitutes. Although he joked about it during the following episode of Have I Got News For You, taking a good ribbing from recurring panellists Paul Merton and [o]Ian Hislop], when more allegations surfaced in October Deayton was sacked two episodes into the new series. One online poll on the BBC's own website suggested that 75% of respondents wanted to Deayton to remain as host, and in April 2003, Stephen Fry supported Deayton by refusing to appear on the programme again.

After his stint on Have I Got News For You, Deayton featured in a reunion of the Radio Active cast in a new episode in December 2002, and in 2003 he guest-starred as Downing Street's spin doctor in an episode of BBC political comedy Absolute Power. He has played the role of Don Cole in two series of Nighty Night, hosted Would I Lie To You? for series 1 and 2, and played Alan Derbyshire in series 1-3 of BBC Three's comedy Pramface, about two young parents who get unexpectedly pregnant and have to deal with the consequences.

In 2008 Deayton presented Comedy Sketchbook, a nostalgic look back at some of the greatest British sketch comedies of all time, and in that same year presented the British Comedy Awards, after host Jonathan Ross topped down because of the controversy surrounding The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls to actor Andrew Sachs.

In 2017 Deayton began work on the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Alone, about five single, middle-aged people living in a converted Victorian townhouse in North London.