Sean Hughes

Sean Hughes

Date of birth: 19-11-1965
Date of death: 15-10-2017
Best known for being a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 1996 to 2002, Sean Hughes came to prominence as the youngest winner of the Perrier award for comedy in 1990, at the age of 24. His show in which he played a lovelorn Morrissey fan alone in his bedsit – was one of the first to have a narrative, rather than being made up of unrelated stand-up routines. Two years later, he landed his own Channel 4 comedy Sean's Show, a sitcom in which he acknowledged the artifice of the format He also appeared in a string of TV and film roles, including: Coronation Street, Casualty, and the lead in the 2002 film adaptation of Spike Milligan's comic novel, Puckoon. In 2007 he made a return to stand-up after a decade away.
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Sean Hughes's homes given to Shelter

£4m of properties had been caught in legal limbo

Three homes owned by Sean Hughes have been given to a homeless charity after more than eight years in limbo.

The comedian left the properties in North London to Shelter in his DIY will – but ambiguities in the way her wrote it required the High Court  to intervene.

Now, a judge has ruled that the charity should receive the three houses in Crouch End, after his family also agreed that was what he wanted.

Hughes died in October 2017 at the age of 51, after suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. Having never married, he left his main £1.8million home and two others, worth £1.5 million and £650,000 respective, to Shelter. 

But while he was the owner of one home, the other two were in the name of a company of which he was the only shareholder, The Independent reports today. So it required a judge to decide whether that the shares in that  company – and therefore the properties – should go to Shelter.

Master Iain Pester, concluded that was the ‘correct construction of the will’ – after hearing that the executor of Hughes’ will and his family all agreed that Shelter should benefit. 

Hughes became the youngest winner of the prestigious Perrier Award  in 1990, at the age of 24. It led to his own sitcom, Sean’s Show, and subsequently the team captain’s role on Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 1996 to 2002.

He also played the lead in the film adaptation of Spike Milligan's comic novel, Puckoon, and wrote a number of novels.

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Published: 18 Mar 2026

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Products

DVD (2004)
Puckoon

Book (1998)
The Detainee

Agent

We do not currently hold contact details for Sean Hughes's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.

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