London Underground: Steve Coogan

London Underground: Steve Coogan
BBC
1991
Stand-Up Comedy
VHS
B-

Coogan demonstrates dubbing bad '70s foreign films.

London Underground: Richard Vranch, Dana Gould, True Image, Michael Redmond, and Danitra Vance

Vance as That Black Girl on SNL

London Underground: Richard Vranch, Dana Gould, True Image, Michael Redmond, and Danitra Vance
BBC
1990
Stand-Up Comedy
VHS
C

The best comes last this time, with the marvelous Danitra Vance (who was the best of her era on Saturday Night Live and who would die too young, at 40, of cancer), but it is tough slogging, especially through Redmond, whom Smith claims is "the funniest Irishman in Britain."  Note that Vranch accompanies Smith on "the squeezbox."

London Underground: George Wallace, Chris Langham, B-52s, Helen Lederer

London Underground: George Wallace, Chris Langham, B-52s, Helen Lederer
BBC
1990
Stand-Up Comedy
VHS
C

While it's lovely to see and hear a "live" performance from the B-52s, and Chris Langham (who'd done impro on Whose Line Is It Anyway? the same series as Arthur Smith) proves to be a pretty good stand-up, Wallace and Lederer are unfunny.  And, no, music doesn't change the genre from stand-up comedy to variety.

London Underground: Emo Philips, Kit Hollerbach, Paul Merton, and Richard Belzer

London Underground: Emo Philips, Kit Hollerbach, Paul Merton, and Richard Belzer
BBC
1990
Stand-Up Comedy
VHS
C-

Merton is of course the best of the lot, although we'd hear some of these jokes on Paul Merton, The Series.  Smith does a nice job hosting, but the episode never recovers from opening with the painfully unfunny Philips.