Comic and ex-wife pocket £23m

FOR AN aspiring comedian, it must have been tough to see contemporaries such as Rik Mayall and Ben Elton become household names while he struggled to hold the attention of a TV audience.

Jimmy Mulville was eventually forced to accept that his talents would be better served behind the cameras, spotting rising talent and developing new shows.

And today Mulville will have the last laugh. He has sold a minority stake in the production company he formed in a dingy Soho back room to a City investment firm for £23m.

The deal, announced to the Stock Exchange this morning after a signing last night, makes multi-millionaires of Mulville and his business partner and ex-wife Denise O'Donoghue. They will receive just over £11m each through the sale - which values the company, Hat Trick, at around £50m.

Hat Trick is behind a string of the most popular, and longest-running, satirical TV comedy shows of the past decade. It is the team which brought us Room 101, Harry Enfield's TV Programme, Clive Anderson Talks Back, Drop The Dead Donkey, Father Ted, Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars At No 42.

They also made Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which ran for 10 years, and Have I Got News For You, which is now in its 13th year. Their supremacy is so great that, at this year's Bafta awards, Hat Trick gained three out of the four nominations in the best light entertainment category.

Today's deal sees private equity firm Kleinwort Capital take a 45% stake in Hat Trick. Mulville and O'Donoghue, both 48, and a smaller shareholder, Hilary Strong, retain a 55% stake - itself worth a further £27m.

Hat Trick was formed 17 years ago. Mulville had appeared in a series of Eighties comedy shows, including Who Dares Wins and That's Love, but none achieved significant success.

One of Hat Trick's earliest projects was a sitcom set in Roman Britain. Chelmsford 123 - starring Mulville - has long since been consigned to the darkest vaults of TV history. But when Mulville and O'Donoghue began concentrating on developing other performers they turned their firm into a veritable production line of highly influential ratings winners.

Last year Hat Trick's turnover jumped by a quarter to more than £20m, with operating profits of about £4m.

Mulville said he had previously been deeply suspicious of the City but insisted the deal would not change the culture at Hat Trick. 'They don't want to be visible,' he said of the new partners.

The founders hinted they may sell up completely within three to five years. For the first time, there will be outside directors on the board. Mulville and O'Donoghue say access to City funds will allow them to take more shows overseas, experiment with drama and even buy other independents.

'We felt we could work on a bigger stage,' said O'Donoghue, a former management consultant with a reputation as one of the toughest producers in the business.

The partnership of Mulville and O'Donoghue has been a roller-coaster ride worthy of a particularly melodramatic sitcom. They were married for 11 years until their divorce in 1998, during which time Mulville suffered bouts of alcoholism and cocaine addiction. They fell out with one of their founding partners, They Think It's All Over panellist Rory McGrath, who was sacked in 1992.

Then they endured another real life soap opera - the axing and non-replacement of Angus Deayton as chairman of Have I Got News For You.

Although Mulville made his millions after quitting the limelight, other comics have made a fortune while plying their trade.

Rowan Atkinson is worth an estimated £40m, partly thanks to a 15% stake in independent production company Tiger Aspect.

Griff Rhys-Jones and Mel Smith have netted about £23m each from the sale of stakes in the production company Talkback to Pearson in 2000.