Fast and Loose is an Improv Sketch Comedy series created by Dan Patterson, responsible for the original Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
Hugh Dennis of Mock the Week fame is the host, managing a rotating cast of comedians that include guest performers from Mock the Week, some new faces and even the occasional American Whose Line/Improvaganza alumnus, such as Wayne Brady and Jonathan Mangum.
After it was discontinued, the show was heavily retooled and sent to America as Trust Us with Your Life.
Tropes include:
- The Big Guy: Justin Edwards, Greg Davies, and Tom Parry. Humphrey Ker has the height for it though.
- British Brevity: Single-digit episode count.
- Butt-Monkey: Marek Larewood is basically this show's Jonathan Mangum.
- Casting Gag: Possibly for Hugh Dennis, whose old-school BBC-announcer voice gets extra airtime as he doubles up as host and announcer.
- Catchphrase: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the next X seconds at least, you're watching Fast And Loose!"
- "Would you please welcome your host, a man who sounds a lot like me— Hugh Dennis!"
- Deliberately Monochrome: "Early TV", meant to present how recent TV shows would be like if they were created in the '40s.
- Overly Long Gag: One game of "Forward/Reverse" basically had Jonathan doing the same full-on kiss with Jess, over and over. This
Crosses the Line Twice when Wayne gets subjected to the same thing... with Humphrey Ker.- Happens in another "Forward/Reverse", when Tom and Pippa were made to do the same full-on kiss over and over, resulting in Tom stating that his back was going.
- Precision F-Strike: Justin is the resident master.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Some of the cards have apparently been written just to get this out of Hugh.
- Strictly Formula: Moreso than Whose Line and even Mock The Week — all-player games start the show, "Sideways Scene" always ends the show (except for episode 6), and this time 'quickie' games, usually a quick Q&A session involving no more than three of the players, are used to fill up time between the usual games.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Several new games involve taking the premise wholesale from other actual shows, so this happens a lot ("Weak Links", "Dragon's Lair" etc.)
