DVD Review: Al Murray - Barrel of Fun Live
Published: Wednesday 1st December 2010
Is it time for Al Murray to call time on his pub landlord character? Such a suggestion might provoke a roar of disapproval from some. The landlord is, after all, one of the strongest comedy creations of the last twenty years. Yet on the evidence of this latest live DVD, filmed earlier this year at the Hammersmith Apollo, Murray is visibly struggling to keep the character fresh.
Part of the potential danger with Murray's xenophobic, jingoistic landlord persona has long been that, like Alf Garnett, he may become an unintentional rallying point for viewers who actually support the character's views. There is no danger of that whatsoever here. In fact while some of Murray's rhetoric does have a slightly comedic Fight Club element to it, his targets are generally soft ones. Yes, he does generate a cheer by presenting a Union Jack behind him and even provokes boos when the German and French flags are produced at one point, but it's clearly harmless fun. Even when he mocks the Pope for simply being German, this soon leads into a more serious attack on the Pope and the "bonkers mental" bastions of religion that more closely echo Murray's personal views.
And here's the real problem: Murray uses fairly standard targets for his material - namely recommending chat-up techniques, targeting fat people, gingers (although, perhaps surprisingly, he celebrates them, rather than criticises them arguing "they were here first") and, in an idea that could easily have come from his old comedy chum Harry Hill, he argues that squirrels should be public enemy number one.
The bonus features aren't bad with a fairly standard behind-the-scenes film and a spoof of a pretentious French art short attempting, with subtitles, to discover the truth behind the genius 'Alexander Murray'.
There's also a whole hour of footage of a bearded Murray recreating his breakthrough 1996 Edinburgh performance in 2009. It's good stuff but in some ways merely drums the point home: Murray is a talent and has been enjoying success from this character for a good fifteen years now. Scary as it might be, maybe he should try expanding his repertoire. Much as I hate to end on a French word.
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