He starred in Bob Martin from 2000 to 2001, a comedy drama in which he played the title role of a failing television game-show host.

Born Michael Ciaran Parker in Bermondsey, on Sunday, 4 May 1952, he lived on the Dickens estate for the first 18 years of his life with his two elder siblings.

[5] Barrymore spent his early career working as a Redcoat at Butlins holiday camps and then in the West End theatre shows of London, where he met dancer Cheryl Cocklin in 1974.

[6] With Cheryl as manager and the mastermind behind Barrymore's rise to fame, he first won a 1975 edition of New Faces, became a regular panellist on Blankety Blank and then the warm-up man for Larry Grayson on the Generation Game[7] and also for Little and Large theatre shows.

However, before that he had his own show between 1988 and 1989, produced for the BBC entitled Michael Barrymore's Saturday Night Out;[11] it was set in Jersey and the theme tune, "Doin' the Crab" had been released as a single in 1987.

The Royal Variety Show performance brought the house down and cemented Barrymore's place at the heart of the British public.

He left after a couple of months and went on to write a best-selling book about his experiences, including rehab, and he also went on a stage tour called Back in Business in 1994.

[15] Barrymore won the National Television Award for Most Popular Entertainment Presenter five out of the first six years, last at the 6th NTAs in 2000.

Following Lubbock's death, both Bob Martin and My Kind of Music stayed on the air while the investigation was ongoing, but he did not record any further programmes for ITV.

[18][19] Many tabloid newspapers accused Barrymore of holding drug-fuelled orgies in his home and asserted he had some responsibility for the death.

Barrymore and two other people at the party, Justin Merritt and Jonathan Kenney, were arrested on suspicion of murder on 6 June 2001.

She provided the family's solicitor with both an affidavit and subsequent court testimony that her ex-husband had lied under oath, and could in fact swim; she also alleged he had rubbed cocaine onto the gums of other people as well as his own.

[21] In November 2002, Barrymore's lawyers successfully demanded that Essex Police re-investigate matters surrounding Lubbock's death.

[22] Barrymore told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We want to prove the fact that the anal injuries could not have happened at the house."

[19] On Barrymore's high-profile return to the UK in January 2006 to take part in Celebrity Big Brother, former solicitor, politician and local activist Anthony Bennett initiated a private prosecution, comprising six charges regarding Barrymore's alleged misuse of drugs on the night of Stuart Lubbock's death.

[24] In an interview with Piers Morgan in the December 2006 edition of GQ, Barrymore stated there were other witnesses to the events who were hiding information.

The dossier described a series of alleged failures by Essex Police in the original investigation, and claimed an elaborate coverup of the true circumstances of Lubbock's death had taken place.

[28][29] On 14 June 2007, Essex Police arrested Barrymore and two other men on suspicion of murder and sexual assault in the Lubbock case.

[38] In July 2008 Lubbock's father published the book Not Awight: Getting Away With Murder, co-authored with Bennett, explaining their theory that Stuart had died as a result of a violent attack on him, which Barrymore and his associates that night covered up.

[42] Essex Police subsequently acknowledged that Barrymore had been wrongfully arrested, although this was due to administrative errors and not to a lack of evidence.

The cash reward, funded by Essex Police and the charity Crimestoppers, was in response to a new Channel 4 documentary on the incident, Barrymore: The Body in the Pool, that aired on 6 February 2020.

In December 2005, it was announced that Barrymore was being paid £150,000 by Channel 4 to take part in Celebrity Big Brother commencing 5 January 2006.

[14] Remaining in the UK, Barrymore was booked to be the guest host on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project for the edition broadcast on 3 February 2006.

Barrymore's appearance on the Friday Night Project is the last time he presented a primetime television show.

[14] It was announced that for Christmas 2006, Barrymore would play the title role in Bill Kenwright's production of Scrooge – The Musical.

He performed the lead role at the Empire Theatre, Sunderland, but the production's scheduled transfer to the West End was cancelled.

In February 2010, he appeared on Irish television on The Saturday Night Show, where he unexpectedly performed numerous bizarre and controversial antics, including pretending to be Jedward's father.

She later said that Barrymore had problems with alcohol and depression, and as a result of his attack on her at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, she was placed by British police on the "at risk" register.

"[63] In mid-1995, at the height of his fame, Barrymore went to The White Swan gay pub in London's East End, where he gave an impromptu stage performance to the largely local crowd, singing the words: "Start spreading the news, I'm gay today", in the style of the "Theme from New York, New York".

Within 48 hours, every tabloid newspaper had printed its own version of the evening's events, including an untrue claim that Barrymore had thrown away his wedding ring.