User Reviews

Up and coming comedian Paul Squire proved such a hit at a Royal Variety Performance that he landed not one, but several series, of which this was the second, and, by far and away, the worst. Ghastly does not begin to do it justice as a description. He did his best with the cliched format and limited material, but it never rose above the average. It chiefly consisted of sketches interspersed with guest stars ( whoever was in the pop charts that week ).

It is true the alternative comedy brigade were not fans of Squire, but then they also did not like old school comics such as Benny Hill and Les Dawson, so he was in good company. Squire was not the only impressionist to do a belly flop on 80's television. Exactly the same thing happened a few years earlier to Faith Brown on London Weekend. Funny lady, shame about the show ( 'The Faith Brown Chat Show' in case you are wondering ).

If anyone's championing 'Paul Squire Esq' as a forgotten comedy classic, they need to think again. It was a sad misuse of a talented comic performer.

If you mention the name Paul Squire to anyone these days the reply you will probably get is ''who on earth is that?''. Paul fell victim to the 'alternative comedy' brigade when he first appeared in the 1980's. In the 'Summer Holiday' episode of 'The Young Ones', the characters played a game in which one had to guess the identity of a famous celebrity based on a description of what they are famous for. When the boys failed to correctly guess Rik's choice of celebrity, he revealed to them that it was Paul Squire, to which they all asked in unison ''who?'' whilst looking at Rik in confusion. Even Robbie Coltrane famously ranted about him in a sketch of 'A Kick Up The Eighties' in which he played a character who shouted inane abuse about celebrities. That should give you an idea of how much regard Paul was held in even back then.

Paul struck a chord back in 1980 entertaining audiences on 'The Royal Variety Show' with his talent for impressionism, doing ( very good ) impersonations of stars such as Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper and Michael Crawford. In 1981, ATV took him under their wing and gave him his own show entitled 'The Paul Squire Show'. The show was a modest success, managing two series. Two years later, the BBC tried giving him a vehicle to showcase his talents, the resulting show was 'Paul Squire Esq', a mixture of musical, sketch and stand-up comedy. It was a flop, running to only six episodes before being canned.

I realise I'm setting myself up for a backlash here but could not care less. I liked the show and I am not embarrassed to say so. There were some hilarious sketches, as well as some good stand-up gags from Paul and he could belt out a tune but his style of comedy was sadly not suited to the audiences of the era, he was more traditional in the same vein as Les Dawson. A great shame given his talent for mimicry. He did one more television show the same year this went out - ITV's 'P. S. It's Paul Squire', but that flopped too and Paul vanished from the airwaves forever after that.

Paul died in 2019. Such a pity that someone once tipped for stardom failed to get that big break. He later went on to say ''I don't know what it is but TV does nowt for me!''. Poor bloke deserved better.

Both the show and Squire have long since been forgotten. I have not seen Squire's other TV shows but would very much like to. Okay, so the format may have been clichéd but it is still immeasurably funnier than anything Ricky Gervais is doing or has done since!