Al Murray

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Al Murray (born Bedford, 1968) is an English comedian best known for his stand-up persona, the Pub Landlord, a xenophobic public house licensee. The bill matter "The Pub Landlord" is apparently to differentiate his character from a residential landlord. Image:Al-murray-comedian.jpg

The pub landlord is an English nationalist with a dislike for anything un-British, has a particular dislike of Australians and the French. Catchphrases include 'Timewaster!' and 'Is your dad proud of you son?'. The character first appeared in 1993 when Murray was the tour support act for Harry Hill, and subsequently featured in a short film, Pub Fiction (1995). Murray's theatre show with this character My Gaff, My Rules was shortlisted for an Olivier Award in 2002, and he has also appeared as the central character in the television series Time Gentlemen Please as well as a number of other television appearances. Subsequent theatre tours, ...A Glass of White Wine for the Lady and Giving it Both Barrels also ran to critical acclaim.

Often in his shows, as a deliberate comic interruption, he offers at glimpse at the extremely intelligent and sensitive man behind his antithetical persona. This often involves a modest and subtle demonstration of his knowledge of philosophical and literary debates. It is a testament to his skill as a comedian that he mainly uses this to deflate the egotism of anyone he invites on stage, who are mainly people with pretentious job names from the first few rows. Although quite a lot of his act involves light-hearted attacks on people from other countries, he is very kind to them as opposed to the former people.

When asked about the programme during live shows, in character as the Pub Landlord, Murray claims to be unhappy with the television series, this is a joke some have taken literally.

Murray has toured with other comedians (including Harry Hill, Jim Tavaré and Frank Skinner) and as other personas. He won the Perrier Award in 1999, after being nominated in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He started out with an act which involved sound effect impressions, including of guns and animals; a combination which prompted an equal number of plaudits for vocal skill and complaints of tastelessness.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

A quiz show Fact Hunt, presented by Al as the Pub Landlord and based on the fictional quiz show of the same name from Time Gentlemen Please was shown on late-night ITV in 2005.

During January 2006, he filled in for Tim Lovejoy on Virgin Radio

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Release List

My Gaff, My Rules
...And a Glass of White Wine for the Lady
Giving it Both Barrels
Don't touch it,it smells

Birthday May 10th

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Trivia

Murray is a direct descendant of William Makepeace Thackeray.
He is a graduate in history from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University after attending Bedford School.
He played drums in Harry Hill's band Pub Internationale, which is where the Pub Landlord act orginated.
He played drums in an alt-metal band called Geyser with Simon Oakes and Adam Wolters.