Al Murray

“If comics become respectable, they’re no longer funny,” Al Murray told The Guardian back in 2019. “If you’ve gone on I’m A Celebrity, you’re part of the problem... We’re supposed to be making mischief, flicking Vs at things.”

Topping the UK’s stand-up circuit for over two decades, Murray has been trying hard to avoid respectability for his whole career. Born into a military family and educated at Oxford, Murray got into comedy because he didn’t want a daily commute (now endlessly criss-crossing the country for gigs he says he’s probably spent more time on the road than anyone, “…that’s life”).

Rising up the ranks with friends Harry Hill, Stewart Lee and Frank Skinner, Murray won the Perrier Award at the 1999 Edinburgh Fringe before building new shows around his now long-time alter ego, The Pub Landlord. 

Outspoken, deeply conservative, and obsessed with Queen, the Pub Landlord has let Murray take swipes at everything little Britain stands for. Describing the character as “a know-all know-nothing blowhard who knows the answer to every question even though he hasn't been asked any of them”, Murray’s on-stage persona even ran for parliament in 2015 as the founding member of “FUKP”, a party set up almost entirely to annoy Nigel Farage. His stand-up career with The Pub Landlord has seen him selling out shows across the UK since the early 00s, as well as producing eight best-selling DVDs to date.

Offstage, Murray has appeared on countless panel shows and TV comedies including Taskmaster, Live At The Apollo and The Harry Hill Show, and his love of history has seen him present numerous documentaries and podcasts. In 2019, Murray also played his own ancestor, William Makepeace Thackeray, in a BBC Radio 4 adaption of Vanity Fair.

In October 2021 Murray announced a massive new stand-up tour, with dates throughout 2022 seeing him visit every corner of the UK and Ireland.