REVIEW: Would I Lie To You, Series 14 Episodes One, Five-Ten

 REVIEW: Would I Lie To You, Series 14 Episodes One, Five-Ten

Would I Lie To You's latest series run came to an end this past Monday, so I thought I would take a look back at my thoughts on episodes one, five to ten. So without further ado, here are my views on the episodes in question:

Episode One

It's always great to see a celebrity you don't normally see on these sort of shows for once in Les Dennis. His confessions regarding the fake mental breakdown and keeping his own finger nails for picking his teeth were hilarious, and I love the notion of Les Dennis being driven to the Family Fortunes studio on a bouncy castle!

Lee Mack's 'dog that didn't exist' needs to be turned into a Not Going Out sketch, because that would be so much fun to see.

Other notable guests in this episode included presenters Richard Osman and Alice Levine, and comedian Lou Sanders.

Episode Five

It's kind of ironic having a vicar on a show like this, and so I found it absolutely hilarious when Lee Mack kept pointing out the irony of a woman of the collar being asked to be creative with the truth. To her credit Kate Bottley was very funny with some of her witty remarks; she fitted into the show well. Wasn't too keen on Ed Gamble, but Sara Barron was a decent panelist, and Claudia Winkleman was more bearable than she usually is on shows such as this. I was surprised the sun bed story was a truth, as I was convinced it was a lie.

Episode Six

This episode is a real showcase of how utterly bizarre Would I Lie To You can be. In this episode alone, we have Rob Brydon doing push-ups with Mr Motivator and the Secretary of the 'Egg Club' appearing in relation to one of the panelists, who had sent in a picture of his egg meal to see if it would gain entrance into the club.

And honestly, I think that unpredictable nature is why it works so well. It genuinely feels like a show where anything can happen, and so as a viewer you never quite know what to expect.

Other panelists featured in this episode included comedian Sara Pascoe, presenter Dan Walker and actor Nicola Coughlan.

Episode Seven

Joel Dommett is one of those celebrities who appears frequently on the television - and with good reason. He's funny, possesses a big personality and is immensely likeable. So it was no surprise to see that he would feature on episode six of Would I Lie To You's latest series.

Disappointingly, however, he seemed a little muted on the show tonight. I don't know whether it was the edit, or Joel Dommett was just unusually quiet on the set, but he did not seem himself in this instalment of the popular panel show.

Lee Mack had some great jibes tonight, especially his ribbing of David Mitchell over his book signing, and his claim that the only ones present were probably David's parents. I loved the image he conveyed in his lie about wearing a suit of armour on the train.

I really would have liked to have seen more from Joel Dommett though.

Other celebrity panellists in this episode included comedians Sindhu Vee and Alex Horne, and radio DJ AJ Odudu.

Episode Eight

Like in the previous instalment, this episode featured another former I'm A Celebrity campmate in Roman Kemp, and so a part of me was worried that like Joel Dommett last week, he would be sidelined for the majority of the show.

Thankfully that wasn't the case. The editing this episode was much better than in the previous one, with each celebrity getting a time to shine. Roman Kemp's story about interviewing Justin Timberlake naked was quite entertaining, and sounded hilariously awkward.

I also liked medical doctor Xand van Tulleken's musings about wheelchair racing as a medical student; that sounded exactly like a scene that somebody should convert it into a comedy.

Maya Jama's haunted car is another of those such stories that sounds ripe for comedic potential. If Truth Seekers ever gets the second series it deserves, and the creators happened to have been watching tonight's Would I Lie To You, they could do no worse than writing that in as a scene in their comedy.

I don't know what was up with Roisin Conaty, but she seemed a bit dim tonight. I'm still bemused by her reasoning that Xand van Tulleken was lying about a medical story because he's a doctor! Surely that would be more of a reason for him telling the truth?

Lee Mack as ever got some great witty remarks in this episode. My favourite was his jibe at David Mitchell, claiming he looked like he was trying to advertise face cream. Those two really should have a sitcom together.

Episode Nine

Out of all the stars who have appeared on Would I Lie To You, perhaps the one who I would least expect to appear on this show would be money saving expert Martin Lewis. And yet Martin Lewis is very much present. Although he doesn't seem entirely comfortable in this kind of light entertainment environment, which is also something I found with his appearance on All Star Musicals last year. Martin Lewis barely speaks throughout this episode's runtime, and at times you almost forget he is there.

Alex Jones and Johnny Vegas, on the other hand, seem much more comfortable. Alex Jones has a very funny story about spilling some green tea on an ancient letter, and causing the ink to disappear, and Johnny Vegas's tale about using a paint roller to scrub his back in the shower made me laugh. As did his claim that he and tonight's mystery guess Jonathan tried to hoodwink a St. Helens show by pretending to be Take That.

I have absolutely no idea who Anna Maxwell Martin is, but she didn't leave much of an impression on me. Her tale about mountain hiking was fine, but it didn't seem as elaborate as some of the stories you get on this panel show. As ever David Mitchell and Lee Mack were on top form when they tore apart her claim that the mountain was named 'cat bells'.

Not the strongest episode of Would I Lie To You overall, but even a weak episode of Would I Lie To You is a lot of fun to watch.

Episode Ten - Unseen Bits

Not a great deal to say about this one. As much as I like cream crackers, AJ Odudu's story about eating an entire packet in one go seemed crazy, and Sophie Hermann's flirting with David Mitchell was great fun to watch. I totally agree with David Mitchell on football being this boring and seemingly endless sport. His observation is absolutely spot on there.

It is disappointing however, after he barely appeared in the edit of his full episode, that Joel Dommett got short shrift here yet again. You would assume that there must be footage where he was more vocal which was left on the cutting room floor, so it's a little annoying that this series hasn't done such a great job at offering coverage for every celebrity on the panel.

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What are your thoughts on Would I Lie To You, Series 14 Episodes One, Five-Ten? Let me know in the comments.