The Paul Merton Collection [DVD]

Paul Merton has had an interesting career in the world of TV, and this 2 disk set showcases some of the finest Merton moments. The DVDs include his long career on Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Who's Line Is It Anyway?, Paul Merton: The Series and his short film Suicidal Dog.

Disk 1 has some of the finest moments on HIGNFY (Have I Got News For You), including the one where they tease Angus Deyton, and the one where Paul has a tub of lard as his guest and still beats Ian Hislop! Of course there's the crazy Bruce Forsyth moment where he plays an alternative version of Play Your Cards Right.

There's also the sketches he did on WLIIA (Who's Line Is It Anyway?) where his career started back in 1988, some of his funniest improv stuff is here and shows us why Merton got a stint on HIGNFY.

There are also a few interviews - mainly two with Michael Parkinson which are not too bad.

Disk 2 has a lot of Room 101 stuff, like the time Johnnie Vegas admitted to being addicted to internet chat rooms, Boris Johnson's fear of eggs, Jonathan Ross's hatred of dogs kissing humans and many more hilarious moments.

It also has Paul Merton: The Series on here which really was the reason why I bothered with it in the first place, but when I found that it wasn't complete I felt a bit depleted. It's all the best moments Paul Merton enjoyed, but this doesn't mean it's bad, it's just not the full thing, which I would have loved to have on here; but it's got some of the finest moments from the show, which is really good like the psychic, the news stand moments and of course that funny German POW sketch I'll never forget. It's not the way Paul does things, it's his tone.

Finally we have Suicide Dog, which is a short movie Paul made, as he loves silent cinema, and he's made a silent version as well as the original version. he mixes short movie with psycho-dramatic actions, even though it's not as funny as he is on HIGNFY or The Series.

This is a cracking set, featuring some of the finest moments from Paul's brilliant career. Just a pity they didn't include the full series of Paul Merton on here, but there you go, it's just a 6hr tour of Merton's career and brings the best moments to enjoy again and again.

Rent before buying though, not evenyone's cup of tea.

'The Paul Merton Collection' is a hugely enjoyable trawl through some of the highlights of his career, including 'Have I Got News For You', 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', 'Room 101', and the rather more obscure 'Paul Merton: The Series', plus 'The Suicidal Dog'. Anyone reasonably familiar with his career will probably know the first three well enough, and the compilations here cover all the bases you'd expect.

More interesting is the material from 'Paul Merton: The Series', which I've always found to be somewhat underrated - at least in part due to its relative obscurity. It's a lot of fun, though, full of surreal and whimsical sketches, my favourite being a 'Great Escape' parody involving an increasing number of crudely-made dummies to disguise the increasing number of escapees from a German PoW camp. Merton's famous monologue where he plays a policeman under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs also makes an appearance here. It's a shame this series hasn't been released in its own right, as a lot of the other material on the DVD will be familiar to most viewers already. One further exception to this is 'The Suicidal Dog', Merton's directorial debut. A wonderful little short film tucked away at the tail end of the collection, the influence of Merton's love of silent comedy is clear.

Given that much of this material hasn't made it - and may never make it - to DVD in its own right, this collection is more than welcome, and will provide several hours of top-class comedy entertainment. Highly recommended.

This DVD is a dream for Merton fans. It covers four of his TV works with excerpts from Have I Got News For you, Paul Merton the series, Whose Line is it Anyway and Room 101, along with two versions (one with sound and one "silent") of his rather weird film, "The Suicidal Dog".

There's plenty to enjoy here - with 5 hours 48 minutes of inspired comedy it would be churlish to complain. If you like Paul merton, even if you only know him from HIGNFY, I'd recommend this with no hesitation. Great stuff !!