The South Bank Show: Paul Merton

The South Bank Show: Paul Merton
Channel Four
26 September 1999
Documentary
DVD
B

This isn't quite a biography but it does feature different points of a life, from a boyhood as Paul Martin to success as a comedian in the '90s.  If you want to know about Paul's (by then defunct) marriage to Caroline Quentin, you're out of luck, as there's just one sentence in passing.  However, we do see footage of him as a scruffy, bearded teen living on the dole, as well as a star in hit television programmes.  My favorite part was the taping of a Comedy Store Players session and the analysis by the team in a pub afterwards.  And Paul's honesty, including about his stay in a psychiatric hospital, is refreshing.  Note that Julian Clary appears not only in television clips but in an interview, where he indeed comes across as a good friend to Paul.

Paul Merton Live at the Palladium

Paul Merton Live at the Palladium
BBC
27 September 1994
Variety
DVD
C+

This almost hour and a half is uneven, although I suppose if you haven't heard Paul's stand-up, or watched Paul Merton, The Series, some of it will feel fresher to you, and a B- or B might be fairer.  The best bit is the lengthy three-man panto of Aladdin, with Paul apparently improvising jokes that not only play on the situation (including Vranch in a bikini!) but call back to earlier bits in the show.  John L. Spencer and Andy Wilson are both listed as director, but neither of them worked on any other of my shows, so I'm not tagging them.

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.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.10

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.10
Channel Four
19 January 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

The two main games to watch here are the American Musical, which has three pretty good songs and absolutely no logic (at least the one with Neil Mullarkey had some closure), and of course the Banking Rap where Tony manages to embarrass himself, his fellow contestants, Clive (a lot), and probably the studio audience.  Lee Simpson, another Comedy Store Player, makes his only appearance on the show.