Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.6

Victor Spinetti from the Beatles movies

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.6
Channel Four
30 October 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
C+

The weakest sketch is the one about a murder in an ambulance, the strongest the one about an incompetent spy.  Another Comedy Store Player, Mullarkey, plays Mr. Bassett.  Felicity Montagu, who was on Josie twice, plays Various Characters here, while Neil McArthur makes his third and last appearance on this programme.

Paul Merton's first series is uneven, sometimes even within one episode.  It earns 2 C+s, 2 B-s, and 2 Bs, so it's easy to average.  I'm curious to see what if any changes were made when the programme came back in '93.  (It's been a long time since I've watched, and just once through.)

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.5

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.5
Channel Four
23 October 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B-

The newstand stuff is definitely the best part of this episode, from the "There are two tattoos that I do do" routine to Paul just telling a series of implausible stories.  It's sort of a shame to cut away to the sketches, although they're not bad.  This is the second episode for William Todd Jones and Neil McArthur.  Elderly Lady Gabrielle Blunt would be Lady in Deckchair the next series.

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.4

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.4
Channel Four
16 October 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B-

This episode gets a little too Monty-Pythonic for my tastes (more surreal than funny), especially the first half, with its layers of dreams, ultimately dreamed by a cat.  Still, the newstand stuff, especially Paul's video game and the bit about the first Tube station, is solid.  The best sketch is last, where Paul is a bishop admonishing a dead-raising priest.  (He's played by Lee Simpson, who you may recognize from his Whose Line Is It Anyway? appearance.  He didn't work with Paul there, but they've been Comedy Store Players onstage for years.)

Geoff McGivern makes his second appearance on the show, as the Elephant Man, while this is also the second for Judy Elrington and Tim de Jongh.  William Todd Jones is on for the first of two times.  Note that this time Caroline plays the wife of one of Paul's characters.

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.3

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.3
Channel Four
9 October 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B

Among the stronger sketches are Paul giving a newbie the lowdown on Heaven (not exactly Paradise), mistaking a man for Ringo Starr and hassling him about it, giving a school award and reminiscing about how he was punished for being working class, and using a videocamera to pirate what's supposed to be a new release but looks suspiciously like something from circa 1972, yellow credits and all.

Judy Elrington and Neil McArthur would appear respectively once more and twice more this series, while Kerry Shale, Jonathan Stratt, Bill Thomas, and Flip Webster would all return for the '93 series.

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.2

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.2
Channel Four
2 October 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
C+

This just isn't as funny as the initial episode, with the best line, about Paul "disturbing" a burglar by saying there's no God, early on.  Paul's then wife, Caroline Quentin, plays Dr. Gillespie.  Tim de Jongh would return for the fourth episode.

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.1

Paul Merton, The Series: Episode 1.1
Channel Four
September 25, 1991
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B

Not long after his frequent costar Josie Lawrence got her eponymous series, Merton got his, on the same channel and with the same director (and such familiar to WLIIA-viewers names as Mykola Pawluk and Denise O'Donoghue behind the scenes).  It's a definite improvement, and in fact did well enough with viewers and critics to return in '93.  Short absurd comedy sketches are loosely tied together with scenes of Paul running a newstand.  Sometimes he's interacting with customers and sometimes he's doing routines from his stand-up.  (In fact, three routines would pop up, more or less intact, on London Underground, more on that in its place.)  I laughed out loud several times and the pace, unlike on Josie, kept my mind from wandering.

Of Paul's supporting cast, Geoffrey McGivern was Ivor Biggun on the "Dish and Dishonesty" episode of Blackadder the Third and would return for the fourth episode of this series, while Roger Walker was Robert Leaven in the 1983 Timothy Dalton adaptation of Jane Eyre, and Colin Higgins (no, not the director of Foul Play) and Lou Hirsch would respectively be Comrade Butt and Jimmy Mundy on Jeeves and Wooster the following year.  I'm tagging Paul's cowriter John Irwin, who appears in this and most of the other episodes as "various characters."  Robert Harley also plays "various characters," although mostly in the second series.

Josie: Episode 1.6

Richard Vranch

Josie: Episode 1.6
Channel Four
5 June 1991
Variety
DVD
C+

The main two main things to watch on this final episode are Josie's real mum and dad in the studio audience, and Josie disappearing into the character of a televangelist.  With its C+ average, I can understand why this programme never really caught on.  It's not bad, but she needs either a stronger and more regular supporting cast (not just Vranch) and/or better writing.  The sketches generally are weaker than the production pieces, like the movie parodies.  As for the impro at the end, it's not really anything we couldn't see on Whose Line, and she's better off with Clive Anderson to sort through the suggestions.

John Cassady would be Prysock and Nigel Whitmey would be George on Jeeves and Wooster.

Josie: Episode 1.5

Josie: Episode 1.5
Channel Four
29 May 1991
Variety
DVD
C

Nothing too memorable here, other than a woman in the audience doing a Geordie (Newcastle-ish) accent better than Josie expects, and Richard Vranch uttering an audible full sentence.  Felicity Montagu was also on the previous episode, while Michael Fenton Stevens was on the first episode.  Damian Hunt would appear on Paul Merton: The Series as well.  Arthur Smith again co-wrote.

Josie: Episode 1.4

Glover and Lawrence, a long three years ago

Josie: Episode 1.4
Channel Four
22 May 1991
Variety
DVD
B-

Most of this is a well-done documentary parody, Edward and Mrs. Tufnell, where the future King of England falls for a working-class female criminal, with Lawrence playing both Mrs. T in "archive footage" and their 54-year-old daughter in contemporary interviews.  It's silly but also poignant and I wish this programme would do more things like it.

Jon Glover had appeared with Josie on the Whose Line Is It Anyway? pilot and has an unspecified role here.  Felicity Montagu would also appear in the fifth episode, but is perhaps more recognizable to American viewers as Perpetua in the first Bridget Jones movie.  Arthur Smith is again one of the co-writers.

Josie: Episode 1.3

The Masterson Inheritance

Josie: Episode 1.3
Channel Four
15 May 1991
Variety
DVD
C+

Besides Lawrence and Vranch, this episode is notable for featuring two other Whose Line Is It Anyway? performers: Neil Mullarkey and Caroline Quentin.  The latter was then married to Paul Merton and would later work with Merton, Lawrence, and others on the sometimes hilarious radio programme The Masterson Inheritance.  (Her WLIIA appearances would be after Paul left.)  Mullarkey and Quentin appear in easily the best sequence on this episode: a '60s parody of Georgy Girl and that ilk, called Fab.

Josie: Episode 1.1

Hoppy, the parody of Skippy

Josie: Episode 1.1
Channel Four
1 May 1991
Variety
DVD
C+

Ms. Lawrence's short-lived series is uneven, more interesting than funny.  It's a mix of music (with Vranch accompanying Lawrence), sketches, and even some impro.  WLIIA fans, especially Josie/Paul shippers, will want to see the sketch where they're a not very bright couple looking at their photo album, and licking each other's faces!  The other highlight is the too long, but somewhat amusing profile of a not very bright Australian actress now turned pop star.  I didn't get all the references, but I got the gist of what they were parodying.

Michael Fenton Stevens would appear in the fifth episode as well, but there doesn't seem to be a supporting ensemble as such.  Arthur Smith is tagged as one of the co-writers.  Geoff Posner directs this and the other five episodes.  We'll be skipping the second episode because it was burned without sound.