Al Murray

Al Murray - aka The Pub Landlord - treats us to more of his new comedy creations. The Fast Show aside, sketch-based comedies tend to be hit and miss affairs. Mind you, this one certainly has more hits than BBC3's Horne and Cordless, and you can't blame Al for wanting a few nights away from his Pub Landlord.

Al Murray - the world through the bottom of a glass

All hail Al Murray: he hasn't flinched from populating his TV sketch show with folk as fruity as a gay Nazi in pink PVC - even if he has been accused of gay bashing, not least in a scathing Times review.

The sketch show, RIP? You're joking

The critics have put the boot into Horne & Corden and declared the sketch show finished. Rubbish, says David Baddiel: sketch comedy is what we Brits do best. He and other comics reveal the secrets of their craft.

A hidden and unexpected gem in last year's schedules was The Convention Crasher, in which Justin Lee Collins did his best at being Louis Theroux, if Louis decided to hang out with Clowns and Magicians rather than Bloods and Crips. Surprisingly, this worked and gave JLC a little bit of cred, a little bit of "he's alright actually". So with Al Murray dipping his toe into the sharky waters of the sketch show (awful) ITV1 had room for a bit of light-hearted Friday chat. What does it tell us that Justin has been shovelled onto ITV2, on a Thursday? It means it's all back to default JLC: big beard, ironic retro t-shirt and shouting.

Bruce Dessau Review

At times it is so blatantly end-of-the-pier it seems like this kind of retro-humour must surely be being ironic and knowing. There is even a camp war reporter ("It's all kicking off. It's nuts") played by Mathew Horne, who, like Al Murray's current camp Nazi in his ITV1 sketch show is so over the top it is as if alternative comedy never happened.

Review in The Stage

It is hard not to like Al Murray, but with each episode of Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder it is getting progressively easier.

When it comes to character-based sketch shows, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse have set the bar high, and Al Murray has chosen to walk underneath it. This is very lazy comedy, both in the performances and in the writing. Is there anyone out there who really thinks the world needs another Dragon's Den pastiche?

Far from showcasing Murray's versatility, it merely serves to expose his very limited abilities as an actor, with most of the sketches chronically dependent upon ridiculous costumes and cod accents to get laughs.

The show is a huge and surprising disappointment, given Murray's comedy pedigree. None of the characters come within a mile of Murray's Pub Landlord for originality or sophistication, and some are so ill conceived as to be borderline offensive. The outrageous gay Nazi on Hitler's chief of staff would have been funny if it had mocked Nazis, or Hitler, or homophobia even. But the sketch's comedy ambitions fell far short of making any satirical point whatsoever, and Hitler came out of it better than Murray did.

Is Al Murray's gay Nazi homophobic?

Homophobia, gay stereotypes, anti-gay humour and backchat - unlike racism and sexism - has become acceptable. It isn't.

In Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder, the comic makes a break from the character of the pub landlord in a sketch-show format from the Viz school of comedy. I liked The PC PCs, forced to take control of a hostage situation because the firearms officers were off on a diversity course learning Latin. "Right!" bellowed Sarge at the hostage-taker. "We know you're in there, and more importantly, we know you 'ad an un'appy childhood." I also enjoyed the trailer for ITV1's compelling new autumn drama, "Gandhi", starring Ray Winstone ("If that Mountbatten comes in 'ere talking compromise, I'll tear 'im a new arsehole"). Not sure the sketch will repair ITV1's fortunes, but there'd surely be viewers for "Gandhi".

Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder is another sketch show to add to the pile; this one less interested in being knowingly hip or an intentional cult, and more a throwback to the mainstream Harry Enfield days of the early-'90s.

Al Murray thankfully rests his increasingly tiresome Pub Landlord persona, and instead gives us a confection of colourful characters. Hit-and-miss is always the phrase applies to sketch comedy, and so it comes to be used here. Murray is an amusing fellow, and there's good support from comedians Simon Brodkin and Jenny Eclair - but only a few sketches stuck in my mind: a married couple who converse in radio advert lingo, dastardly gentleman thief Barrington Blowtorch, and some politically-correct policemen. Worryingly, half the sketches were very thin, obvious or dumb (like a Geordie pretending to be gay to perv on his sexy friend, or a baby in a high-powered business meeting), while a character called Herr Schull (a gay Nazi in pink uniform) was a rather uncomfortable and vaguely homophobic caricature I thought we left behind in the '70s with Benny Hill.

We love the pub landlord, and this was Al's big chance to spread his wings. There's enough here to suggest that, if refined, it could be a very funny show, but about half sketches missed the mark; and some of those that did find the target were often heavily derivative (mostly a less macabre version of The League of Gentlemen).