Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.14

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.14
Channel Four
23 February 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
C

Sigh, this episode.  OK, so Tony/Sandi is a wondrous thing.  Look at that still!  He's playing a fanzine interviewer and she's Snow White and he is uber-naughty and she's playing it sweet, but she is totally his match, and there's loads of chemistry, no matter what their orientations, and did I mention that they're having a secret affair in this Party Quirks, which she's so good at she guesses the guests even when Host Tony can't?

But the episode kicks off with Authors, where he's extremely disgusting as the Marquis de Sade (actually worse than you might expect), and the other two players on this episode are friggin' Ron West and Rory McGrath, who are seldom if ever funny, I mean Ron has a line where he's a vicar and he says something about the eulogy "being doned today," and I can't believe how painful some of this episode is.  But the Sandi/Tony is a wondrous thing.  This episode, sigh.  It would be C- but I'll give a C because it ends with Sandi reading the credits as Mae West and because this is the episode where giggly!Tony begins to be a factor, although he's trying to be serious even in that still, although you know he's inwardly gleeful because Sandi helps him set up the "7-Up" joke.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 1 Compilation 2

Poor Paul Merton!

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 1 Compilation 2
Channel 4
9 December 1988
Improv Game Show
DVD
C+

The highlight here is definitely the alternate American Musical from 1.9, with Josie and Mike as "hang-gliders in love" (and he manages to do a "go down" joke relatively tastefully), who meet tripping Tony and out-of-place John in a maze.  (Josie gives John a sweet hug at the end.)

The weakest game is also from 1.9 though, the "burgundy handbag" Rap.  The two games from 1.7 are arguably better than what aired: Story, with some Tony/John (as Russians), and Party Quirks, where Tony makes the first of his "go upstairs" offers.  Josie and John do FATS and he's more flirty than usual, although awkwardly.  And Josie and Stephen team up again, this time for Every Other Line.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.7

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.7
Channel 4
4 November 1988
Improv Game Show
DVD
C+

Rory McGrath is definitely one of the more undeserving "winners" of Series One.  And Jonathan Pryce makes less of an impression on his return.  Even Tony isn't at his best, although he does get some, yes, outrageous moments.  A later Clive would never have chosen "pornography" as a topic with Tony around!  But it's what John does with the topic, as three distinct Bilko actors/characters (Phil Silvers as Bilko, Harvey Lembeck as Barbella, and I think Paul Ford as Col. Hall) that makes the episode worth tuning in.