[2] He was educated at Sexey's School, in Bruton, Somerset,[3][4] and rendered his national service in the Royal Signals,[5] being commissioned as an officer in 1950.

In 1962, Sherrin was responsible for the first satirical television series That Was The Week That Was[9] starring David Frost and Millicent Martin, and its successors Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life and BBC-3.

In 1978, he also hosted We Interrupt This Week, a lively and humorous news events quiz featuring two teams of well-known journalists and columnists sparring against one another.

[11] Sherrin wrote two volumes of autobiography, several books of quotations and anecdotes, as well as some fiction; and several works in collaboration with Caryl Brahms.

[16][17] He was diagnosed with unilateral vocal cord paralysis in January 2007; this diagnosis was later changed to one of throat cancer,[18] from which he died on 1 October 2007, aged 76.