Their best-selling single "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)" (plus the B-side "Posing in the Moonlight") was a parody of the falsetto style of disco hits by the Bee Gees.

From 1988 to 1991, Deayton was a featured player in all three series of the Emmy award-winning sketch comedy programme Alexei Sayle's Stuff.

In 1990, Deayton was cast as the Meldrews' neighbour Patrick Trench in the British suburban sitcom One Foot in the Grave and was selected as host of Have I Got News for You.

Deayton's suave manner as host of Have I Got News for You led to his being nicknamed "TV's Mr Sex", by a Time Out listings writer.

One online poll, on the BBC's own website, showed over three-quarters of respondents wanted Deayton to stay on as the programme's host.

"[2] After his stint on Have I Got News for You ended,[12] Deayton's work included a reunion of the Radio Active cast in a new episode in December 2002.

In 2003, he guest-starred as Downing Street's spin doctor in an episode of the BBC comedy Absolute Power, starring Stephen Fry and John Bird.

Deayton appeared for the England team as a second-half substitute in the Soccer Aid match in support of UNICEF on 27 May 2006.

In November 2007, he was censured by the BBC for making a "pungently personal" joke about Jimmy Savile and his mother on the show.

[17] On 3 September 2007,[citation needed] Deayton hosted the third series of Hell's Kitchen, but was dismissed in 2009 after arguments with chef Marco Pierre White[18] and was replaced by Claudia Winkleman.

On 6 December 2008, he presented the 2008 British Comedy Awards, after host Jonathan Ross stepped down because of controversy surrounding The Russell Brand Show prank calls row.

[20] His feature film appearances include the mysterious, all-knowing man in That Deadwood Feeling (2009, co-starring Jack Davenport, Dexter Fletcher and David Soul), Swinging with the Finkels (2011, written and directed by Jonathan Newman, with Mandy Moore and Martin Freeman),[citation needed] and Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (2012).

[22] In December 2012, he appeared on the BBC Two programme World's Most Dangerous Roads, in which he and Mariella Frostrup were filmed driving along the east coast of Madagascar.