Wednesday, 21 October, 2009
After studying History at Oxford and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Stewart Lee, Ben Moor and Richard Herring in the Oxford Revue, Al Murray wrote for Week Ending and Spitting Image, and started to work as a solo act.
He supported Frank Skinner on his world tour of 1992, taking his act (based around sound effects) with him, but soon became bored with the rigidity of his material. Fortunately, in the same year, he met Harry Hill at a Radio 4 commissioning meeting.
After subsequently performing stand up with Al Murray at the Edinburgh Festival, Hill asked him to come up with an act for his Pub Internationale show. In 1994, Murray created the Pub Landlord.
He appeared as Harry Hill's big brother Alan in The Harry Hill Show from 1997-2000. After a wrangle as to whether he was 'too famous' to win it, Murray won the Perrier Award with a show based around the Pub Landlord character in 1999. This led to stage shows including And A Glass Of White Wine For The Lady, My Gaff, My Rules and Who Dares Wins. He also completed the television series Time, Gentlemen, Please.