Have I got views for you: Paul Merton and Suki Webster see the funny side of life, love and marriage

Chatting to comedy king Paul Merton and Suki Webster – his partner in love and laughter – is a bit like being thrown in the ring with a comedy tag-team.

We’re just seconds into our Zoom interview when they turn the tables and ask if The Sunday Post’s publisher, DC Thomson, also prints The Beano and The Dandy.

“Desperate Dan,” Paul grins, clearly chuffed with the affirmative.

“Pansy Potter The Strong Man’s ‘Dochter’,” chimes Suki with a decent Scottish accent and a chuckle.

The husband-and-wife duo – here to talk about their new improv show at next month’s Edinburgh Fringe – have good reason for their question as Suki’s dad Bob Webster drew some of the cartoons.

“He did Pansy Potter and occasionally Desperate Dan,” she reveals. “When I was a kid, we nearly moved to Dundee, where DC Thomson is based. I could have been brought up in Scotland.

“We love coming to Edinburgh, it is one of the highlights of the year. It has become very important to me because I now have best friends there who I met through them sitting in the front row of the show.

“We have lunch and a few drinks and occasionally late-night karaoke…” she grins, as her hubby quips: “She doesn’t have a set number, but she always sings the same tune!” – and they’re laughing again.

Fringe memoires

The couple were festival regulars for 14 consecutive years before Covid hit. They returned in 2023 with Paul Merton’s Improv Chums that left audiences in hysterics and scored rave reviews.

In the run-up to this year’s all-new Paul Merton And Suki Webster’s Improv Show – with Mike McShane and Kirsty Newton – they’ve been trying out some of its content on audiences of their hit London residency at The Comedy Store.

But the Fringe wasn’t always a walk in the park, remembers Paul, who first appeared at the Pleasance in 1984.

© Steve Ullathorne

Now a household name, best known as team captain for BBC panel show Have I Got News For You, Paul says: “I played small venues in front of small audiences of about 10 people.

“I remember walking home in the rain because I couldn’t afford a taxi.” Back then, he was known as Paul Martin and, recalling a niche, but nice, review, he laughs: “It was 1986 in The Times Educational Supplement. They said, ‘If the right people see Paul Martin, he could be very big indeed’.

“Now when we go to Edinburgh our posters are up outside The Pleasance. We play a large venue, do really well with audiences, and have none of the traditional worries. It’s different from the early days.”

Shared love of the outdoors

Paul and Suki, who worked together for years before romance blossomed over a shared stomach bug contracted while on tour in India, have delighted fans with their Channel 5 show, Motorhoming With Merton And Webster, which they confess they “would love to bring to Scotland”.

“We wanted to do the North Coast 500 but didn’t get to Scotland. Hopefully that might happen in the future,” says Suki who celebrates her 15th wedding anniversary with Paul later this month.

She is Paul’s third wife, after his divorce in 1998 from comedian and actor Caroline Quentin, and the heart-rending loss to breast cancer of his then new bride Sarah Parkinson in 2003.

Room 101 star Paul – who in 1989 suffered mental health problems and a spell in a psychiatric hospital after “a bad reaction” to malaria pills that were later taken off the market – believes laughter is the best medicine for trauma and sadness.

And humour bonds the comedy couple. Suki says: “We got on so well during the filming of Motorhoming, even the crew were saying, ‘Do you two never argue?’

“We rarely do as we find most things funny most of the time. We make each other laugh each day.”

“That’s really important,” says Paul. “It is good for your mental health. There is always some humour somewhere, even in the darkest times.”

Remembering their late comedian friend Andy Smart – a guest with The Comedy Store Players for more than 13 years and a familiar face at the Fringe with the Steve Frost Impro’ All Stars – Paul says: “The funeral was full of comedians. There was a great deal of sadness there, but it was also a joyful occasion.

“Comedians’ first reaction to tough stuff is to make jokes about it. That’s what comedians do. Everybody was laughing. Andy would have found it funny himself. Humour is an incredibly important mechanism for coping.”

And remembering Frost’s funeral speech for their chum who died in May last year, Suki chuckles: “At one point Steve Frost knocked on his coffin and went, ‘Oi, oi, you’ve got over 300 hundred in.’

Paul Merton And Suki Webster’s Improv Show, Pleasance Courtyard, Aug 9-19