In 2003, Murray was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. He continues to perform as a stand-up and is a regular on British TV and radio.
Murray was educated at Bedford School.[9] He played percussion in the Bedfordshire County Youth Orchestra, which was based in Bedford; the orchestra played concerts with the Bedfordshire county choirs. He also performed in the Bedfordshire second youth orchestra, in Dunstable. With the orchestra he performed in Spain, France and Scotland.[10]
Murray later said of his time at school: "When I was nine I was sent to boarding school, which I despised. The first five years were hideous because I wanted to be at home. I guess I resented my parents a little and it put tons of distance between us. One of the things I took from boarding school is that it made me emotionally self-sufficient."[11]
Having started out by touring with comedians such as Harry Hill and Frank Skinner, Murray won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999, after being nominated in 1996, 1997 and 1998.[14] He started out with an act that involved sound-effect impressions, including guns, animals and a car boot. He made his first TV appearance on Channel 4's The Word in November 1991. With this act, he supported Jim Tavaré in Leeds in winter 1992.
In 1994–95, Murray was the drummer in the band Evangelista,[15] the house band at Stewart Lee and Simon Munnery's experimental Cluub Zarathustra in London.[15]Film maker Martin Pickles made a short film about the band in 2002. At this time the lead singer Reid said of Murray: "He's still not a household name, but anyone who's into comedy knows who Al Murray is".[16]
The Pub Landlord
Murray's principal character in performance is an English publican with conservative values and an animosity towards Germans and the French; he challenges audience members to name any country before producing some plausible instance of Britain bettering it. The character has a great love of the British 1970s rock band Queen, often getting musician(s) on his show to perform one of Queen's tunes in their own style. He has described his persona as a "know-all know-nothing blowhard who knows the answer to every question even though he hasn't been asked any of them".[17]
The character first appeared in 1994 during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in the show "Pub Internationale", with Harry Hill[13] and Matthew Bradstock-Smith (who played "Little Alan" as well as the keyboards in Hill's Edinburgh, radio and TV shows). The show featured the "Pub Band", with Murray playing the drums and compering. After trying out a character deemed not to have worked, at the opening show Murray suggested saying that the compere had not made it to the show and that the barman in the venue, the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, had offered to fill in. At the Edinburgh Festival,[18] Murray came up with "The Pub Landlord".[19]
Murray made his first television appearances on Harry Hill in 1997 playing Harry's big brother Alan ("If it's too hard, I can't understand it!"), and subsequently featured in a short film, Pub Fiction. He made a brief appearance as the Pub Landlord in Series 2, Episode 6 of Lee and Herring's This Morning with Richard Not Judy. Murray's Pub Landlord theatre show, My Gaff, My Rules was short-listed for an Olivier Award in 2002.[20]
The Pub Landlord is the central character in the television series Time Gentlemen Please. He has made many other television appearances, including the An Audience with... strand. He hosted three series of Al Murray's Happy Hour in a peak Saturday evening time slot for ITV in 2007–08.
Theatre tours have included ...And a Glass of White Wine for the Lady (another catchphrase) and Giving it Both Barrels.
The Pub Landlord has hosted television programmes including Fact Hunt, named after the fictional quiz machine of the same name from Time Gentlemen Please.[21] In addition, the character has ghost written four books: The Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense, The Pub Landlord's Think Yourself British, The Pub Landlord's Great British Quiz Book and Let's Re-Great Britain.
Other work
Murray has an interest in music and is a semi-professional drummer. As a teenager, he played in the big band at Bedford School,[22] and also played percussion in the Bedfordshire County Youth Orchestra.[23] He plays drums for the rock covers band T-34 and appeared at the Download Festival in 2010, returning once again in 2011.[24] Murray is a fan of the progressive rock bands Genesis, King Crimson and Yes.[25] He appeared in the documentary Genesis: Together and Apart,[26] and was announced as the host of the 2019 Progressive Music Awards for Prog magazine.[25]
Murray played in the Hampshire located Folk Rock band: Bemis[27] "Folk Rock That Breathes New life into The Spirit of Woodstock"
Murray presented Al Murray's Road to Berlin on the Discovery Channel. This was a series about the last phase of the Second World War, taking him from the beaches of Normandy, through Arnhem and up the Rhine, ending in Berlin. He drove around in a restored Willys jeep, and interviewed survivors from both sides of the war. In the episode about Operation Market Garden he parachuted, together with veterans, from an aircraft, to commemorate the battle.[29][30]
Murray starred in Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder, a sketch show, which aired in early 2009.[31] In late 2010, Murray made a documentary on German culture for BBC Four Al Murray's German Adventure in which he presented a different side of the German nation from the one portrayed by "The Pub Landlord" character.[32]
Murray invented his own potato crisps – branded "Steak and Al Pie" – as entered in a "crisp competition" hosted by Gary Lineker, used to raise money for Comic Relief. The other flavours were "Jimmy Con Carne" (Jimmy Carr), "Stephen Fry-Up" (Stephen Fry) and "Frank Roast Dinner" (Frank Skinner). The winner was Stephen Fry-up at 27%, with Al's in 2nd with 25%. The other two got 24% each.[33]
In April 2016, Murray played Nick Bottom in Shakespeare Live, a celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare, opposite Judi Dench as Titania.[34] In 2018 he starred in pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, as Jack's brother Al, in Jack and the Beanstalk, winning 'Best Newcomer' for this role, at the Great British Pantomime Awards in April 2018.[35] In 2016, Murray appeared in Taskmaster series 3.[36] He finished third overall.[37]
In October 2018, Murray fronted the History channel TV series Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The English, appearing both as Al Murray and his alter-ego The Pub Landlord.[38] The series looks at the historical rivalries between England and its closest neighbours and features comedians Antoine de Caunes, Elis James, Andrew Maxwell, Fred MacAulay and Henning Wehn representing their respective nations.
In April 2019, Murray started a podcast with historian James Holland called 'We Have Ways of Making You Talk', where they discuss battles and campaigns of World War II. Over 700 episodes have been released, including interviews with veterans and other historians, as well as Murray's narration of the book, 'The Cauldron' by Zeno.
In October 2021, Murray presented the Sky History programme Why Do the Brits Win Every War?[40] In each episode, Murray was joined by a different guest in examining conflicts against the Romans, Vikings, Scottish, French, Americans, and Germans. The programme features Bruno Tonioli, John Thomson, Sanjeev Kohli, Reginald D. Hunter, and Henning Wehn.
On 14 January 2015, Murray announced his formation of the "Free United Kingdom Party" (FUKP)[41] and declared his candidacy, deploying his Pub Landlord persona, for the seat of South Thanet[42] running against UKIP leader Nigel Farage, as parliamentary candidate in the 2015 general election.[43][44] Murray's agent, Dan Lloyd, told the BBC: "it's definitely happening".[43] The party's logo is an upside-down pound sign, not dissimilar to UKIP's purple and gold pound sign.[45] Murray said: "it seems to me that the UK is ready for a bloke waving a pint around, offering common sense solutions", adding: "let it be known that like many of the parliamentary hopefuls in the forthcoming election, I have no idea where South Thanet is – but did that stop Margaret Thatcher from saving the Falkland Islands? No!”[46]
Farage appeared to welcome his new opponent on Twitter, saying "the more, the merrier", and a spokesperson for the UKIP MEP said: "at last, serious competition in the constituency".[47] The Conservative candidate, Craig Mackinlay, said he enjoyed Murray's video and his proclamations but was not worried that the comedian would split the anti-UKIP vote.[48] Finally, the Labour candidate, Will Scobie, insisted it was "always good to have people putting their names forward to stand" and that Murray would "certainly make things interesting".[45] When nominations for South Thanet were released on 9 April 2015, it was confirmed that Murray would appear on the ballot paper with no description, rather than his FUKP name and emblem.[49][50][51]
The results of the election were announced on 8 May, revealing that Murray received 318 votes.[52] When it was announced that Farage had failed to get elected, coming second in the poll to the Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay, Murray's reaction – feigning shock and clapping on stage – garnered widespread media attention.[53] Speaking to the media during the vote count, Murray invited Farage to a drink in his pub to drown his sorrow at losing.[54]
Murray, together with Stephen Fry, supported Paul Chambers's High Court appeals after Chambers had been arrested for contravening the Communications Act 2003 when a joke tweet was regarded by police as "menacing" and a terrorist threat. An appeal against Chambers's conviction was successful.[55]
In August 2014, Murray was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[56]
Personal life
Murray married Amber Hargreaves in 2002. The couple, who have two daughters, separated in 2008.[57] He now resides in Chiswick.[58]
^Wintle, Angela (23 May 2014). "Al Murray: My family values". The Guardian (Interview). Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
^ abEvangelista were Pat Reid (vocals), Martin Ellis (guitar), Paul Ewart (bass) and Al Murray (drums). Reid and Ellis were at school together in Crosby, Liverpool. Reid was at Oxford with Murray. The line up included different bass players of which Paul Ewart was the longest lasting.
^Fall Apart: The Evangelista Story (2002), at 1.40. [1] This comment lead to great audience amusement when the film was screened at Pickles' 45th birthday in London in 2013. Half of the band can be seen in a video by Pickles: https://vimeo.com/77492045 Pickles also produced an Evangelista CD in 2003 featuring Murray. Contrary to the film the press release claimed the band was active 1992-1995.
^Stewart Lee discusses whether all of Murray's audience realise the character is satirical in his book How I Escaped My Certain Fate. London: Faber & Faber. 2010. pp. 293–294. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013.
