Have I Got News for You Host Scandal: How Angus Deayton Lost the Job
For twelve years, Angus Deayton was the face of Britain's most popular satirical panel show — until two rounds of tabloid revelations ended his career as host overnight.
Who is Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton, born 6 January 1956 in Banstead, Surrey. Studied languages at New College, Oxford, where he joined the Oxford Revue and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. Before television, he was part of the comedy band The Hee Bee Gee Bees — a Bee Gees parody act co-written with Richard Curtis — and starred in the BBC Radio 4 series Radio Active and its TV spin-off KYTV.
In 1990, two things happened at once: Deayton was cast as Patrick Trench, Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour in One Foot in the Grave, and selected to host a new satirical panel show called Have I Got News for You. He beat Sandi Toksvig to the hosting job. His deadpan, sardonic delivery became the show's signature — a Time Out writer nicknamed him "TV's Mr Sex."
For twelve years, the lineup stayed the same: Deayton in the chair, Ian Hislop (editor of Private Eye) and comedian Paul Merton as team captains. The show became one of the BBC's flagship programmes.
The first scandal — May 2002
In May 2002, the News of the World published allegations that Deayton had used cocaine and slept with prostitutes. The story landed like a bomb — here was the host of a show that mocked public figures for their hypocrisy, caught in exactly the kind of story he'd normally be reading off the autocue.
The BBC initially stood by him, though reportedly halved his fee (he was earning around £50,000 per episode at the time). The next recording went ahead, and Deayton faced the cameras.
He opened the episode with:
"Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News for You, where this week's loser is presenting it."
He added: "There is, by the way, no need to adjust your set. My face is this red."
It could have been a moment of redemption. It wasn't. Hislop and Merton didn't hold back — they spent the entire episode tearing into him in front of the studio audience, with guest Ken Livingstone joining in. The tone was brutal. Whether that constituted good television or a public execution depends on whom you ask.
The second scandal — October 2002
Five months later, more stories surfaced. This time, the tabloids alleged an affair behind the back of his long-term partner Lise Mayer — the screenwriter best known as co-creator of The Young Ones with Rik Mayall and Ben Elton. Deayton and Mayer had been together since 1991 and had a son.
This was the breaking point. Two episodes into the 24th series, with Merton and Hislop continuing to mock him on air and openly implying he should resign, the BBC fired Deayton. He was out.
The fallout
The reaction was mixed:
- A BBC online poll showed that over 75% of respondents wanted Deayton to stay.
- Stephen Fry boycotted the show in protest, calling the sacking "greasy, miserable, British and pathetic." He refused to appear on Have I Got News for You again.
- Paul Merton, when asked by Michael Parkinson whether he and Hislop had stabbed Deayton in the back, replied: "No, we stabbed him in the front."
- Merton later admitted he "never liked" Deayton, finding him aloof and arrogant.
- Deayton didn't appear in the show's 30th anniversary documentary. By all accounts, he and Hislop have never reconciled.
What happened to the show
After Deayton's departure, Have I Got News for You switched to a rotating guest host format for the rest of the series. What was supposed to be a temporary fix turned out to be permanent — the show has used a different presenter every week since October 2002, and the format stuck. Over 135 different hosts have sat in the chair. The programme is still running.
What happened to Deayton
Deayton didn't disappear, but he never fully recovered the status he'd had before. After the sacking, he picked up presenting work — Hell's Kitchen on ITV, Before They Were Famous, the quiz show Bognor or Bust — but none of it came close to the profile of HIGNFY.
In 2007, he returned to the BBC as the first host of Would I Lie to You?, alongside team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack. He presented the first two series. Then in 2009, he was quietly replaced by Rob Brydon. No official explanation was given. When asked, Brydon said: "I don't know. I've always liked Angus."
He later took acting roles in Pramface (2012–2014) and Waterloo Road (2013–2015), and continued to appear in Comic Relief and Sport Relief broadcasts. But the presenting career at the level he once had — BAFTAs, primetime BBC panel shows, household-name status — never came back.