CityLife

Time for Landlord Murray to branch out

NEW DIRECTION: Al Murray

THE Pub Landlord would probably harumph, slowly shake his head and tut disappointedly into his pint of good old British lager at the news that his creator, Al Murray has invented a whole host of new characters for his new show on ITV1.

And what’s worse some of them aren’t even British! For many years The Pub Landlord was the only character that Murray focused his efforts on, so the new ones are something of a departure.

“It’s been 15 years since I came up with him. I was doing a show with Harry Hill called Pub International which ended with this band called The Pub Band which was us doing songs really badly and we needed a way to compere the show to link it together and we didn’t have one.

"So the night we opened I said why don’t I be a pub landlord and Harry said yeah, yeah whatever because he was worried about learning his lines and that was it. From there on I had an act. I went on (as him) that night and he worked.”

Murray went on to work the circuit as the Landlord and an opinionated, patriotic character beautifully developed – a typical public house Little Englander with some ludicrous ideas to annoy the continental neighbours such as growing a hedge down the English Channel to block out the light for the French.

“I’m fascinated by things like patriotism, there’s great swirling currents (of it) that run through society. I don’t wake up in the morning and clean my teeth in a British way.

"I always wanted the landlord to be silly and stupid and to be honest those people that paint union jacks on their faces strike me as a bit silly.

Scoundrel

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and all that. It’s just such an interesting thing and that’s where all that came from. I think it’s so rich as a source of satire, a very rich ingredient to play with as it were.”

After venturing into solo shows he was nominated for the Perrier award a record three times before finally winning after being nominated for the fourth time in 1999.

Since then he’s toured extensively with the character who increased in popularity when he landed his own ITV1 chat show, Happy Hour.

But now Murray feels it’s time to branch out with further personas.

“I’ve always been tempted to do it, because I am, after all, a character comedian and although people associate me with the one character and people are inclined to think it’s what I’m like, it is a character and that’s what I’m interested in doing - different personas.

"It’s been really fascinating.”

So he’s created camp German Horst Schwull and Barrington Blowtorch a ‘silver-tongued gentleman thief’ amongst many others, “all completely new.

"One or two have come out of situations I play out in the stand up but they’re all new. I’ve always done stupid voices; that interests me. I love the sound of word and language and voices, they came from that really.”

In the meantime the Landlord can bask in the glory of having the latest tour all to himself. “We’re going to fix broken Britain on this tour. I’m going to single-handedly promise to fix Britain.

Olympics

"To offer youngsters today five golden rules to live their lives by and I’m starting a truth virus about the 2012 Olympics that will sweep the country.

"Those are the broad outlines of the show and on the way I’ll prove the existence of God and explain the credit crunch,” he chortles.

Plus there’s a move up to the next level of venue, playing five nights at the Apollo in Manchester and elsewhere a number of arenas have been booked including the O2 in London.

“I’m very excited about it, we’ve had an enormous, ludicrous set made for a start and there’s a song at the end and it’s a bit more of a show you know? If you go up into a bigger room you’ve got to give people a little bit more value for money I think, especially the people at the back for whom it might be like watching telly.

"I went to see Queen at the O2 a while ago and the people at the back were clapping along to Radio Gaga exactly a second behind the people at the front but that’s quite interesting to watch, so God knows what it’ll be like on stage.

"It’s pretty cool doing it. I can’t believe it, I only ever wanted to get off bills on stand up nights to do extended sets, that was all I was ever really after creatively. That was my ambition. Got what I wanted,” he laughs just a bit chuffed.

Al Murray appears as the Pub Landlord at Manchester Apollo on Thursday, April 23 until Sunday, April 26. £25.