Al Murray
Murray was born in Stewkley, Buckinghamshire, the only son of a lieutenant colonel in 131 (Parachute) Regiment, Royal Engineers. A descendant of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, his grandfather was the former British ambassador Sir Ralph Murray, was from Scottish aristocracy and married into the Kuenberg family, Imperial Counts of the Holy Roman Empire. His patrilineal great-great-grandfather, George Murray, was Bishop of Rochester, while Sir Edward Leigh MP is his third cousin. Murray was educated at Bedford School, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He 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."
At Oxford he performed in the comedy group the Oxford Revue, in a show directed by Stewart Lee. Murray married Amber Hargreaves in 2002. The couple, who have two daughters, separated in 2008. Murray is a keen cricket fan, and was invited to attend a farewell lunch for the England cricket team before their departure for the 2013–14 Ashes series. 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. 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. Murray was awarded an honorary degree (Hon MA) by the University of Bedfordshire in 2014, and an honorary Doctor of Social Science (PhD) by the University of Wolverhampton in 2017. 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. He started out with an act that involved sound-effect impressions, including guns, animals and a car boot. With this act, he supported Jim Tavaré in Leeds in winter 1992. In 1994–95, he was the drummer in the band Evangelista, the house band at Stewart Lee and Simon Munnery's experimental Cluub Zarathustra in London. 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". 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. The character first appeared in 1994 during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in the show "Pub Internationale", with Harry Hill 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, Murray came up with "The Pub Landlord". 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. 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 two series of "Al Murray's Happy Hour" in a peak Saturday evening time slot for ITV in 2007-2008. 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 several television programmes including "Fact Hunt", named after the fictional quiz machine of the same name from "Time Gentlemen Please". 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". Murray has an interest in music and is a semi-professional drummer. As a teenager, he played in the big band at Bedford School, and also played percussion in the Bedfordshire County Youth Orchestra. He plays drums for the rock covers band "T-34" and appeared at the Download Festival in 2010, returning once again in 2011. Murray is a fan of the progressive rock bands Genesis, King Crimson and Yes. He appeared in the documentary "Genesis: Together and Apart", and was announced as the host of the 2019 Progressive Music Awards for "Prog" magazine. Al Murray also played in the Hampshire located Folk Rock band: Bemis "Folk Rock That Breathes New life into The Spirit of Woodstock"
In 2013 Murray guest-starred in series 5 of children's show "Horrible Histories". 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. In the series 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. Murray starred in "Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder", a sketch show, which aired in early 2009. 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. 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. In April 2016, Murray played Nick Bottom in "Shakespeare Live", a celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare, opposite Judi Dench as Titania. 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. In 2016, Murray appeared in "Taskmaster" series 3. He finished third overall. In October 2018 Murray fronted the HISTORY TV series "Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The English", appearing both as Al Murray and his alter-ego The Pub Landlord. 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 2019 Murray starred as his own ancestor William Makepeace Thackeray in a three-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of "Vanity Fair" by Jim Poyser, with additional material by himself. In April 2019 Murray produced a podcast with historian James Holland called 'We Have Ways of Making You Talk', where the two discuss battles and campaigns of World War II. Over 400 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?" 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) and declared his candidacy, deploying his Pub Landlord persona, for the seat of South Thanet running against UKIP leader Nigel Farage, as parliamentary candidate in the 2015 general election. Murray's agent, Dan Lloyd, told the BBC: "it's definitely happening". The party's logo is an upside-down pound sign, not dissimilar to UKIP's purple and gold pound sign. 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!”
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". 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. 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". 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. The results of the election were announced on 8 May, revealing that Murray received 318 votes. This number of votes was higher than the average votes received by candidates from, amongst others, the Communist, Socialist and BNP parties. 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. Speaking to the media during the vote count, Murray invited Farage to a drink in his pub to drown his sorrow at losing.
Career
After graduating from Oxford University, his comedy career began by working with Harry Hill for BBC Radio 4. This led to the Sky One sitcom "Time Gentlemen Please" and the chat show "Al Murray's Happy Hour" for ITV. He continues to perform as a stand-up and is a regular on British TV and radio.