Al Murray, best known as the Pub Landlord, shows his serious side in a new series about German art and history on BBC4... He may be best known as the beer-swilling little Englander the Pub Landlord, but Al Murray – an Oxford graduate descended from novelist William Makepeace Thackeray – is an altogether more cultured individual, as his new BBC4 series Al Murray’s German Adventure demonstrates. The two-part documentary sees him explore the country’s history, arts and popular culture, from Bach and the Brothers Grimm to Bauhaus and Brecht, while travelling from the Baltic coast in the north to Munich in the south. TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with him to talk comedy, classical music and pub quiz etiquette... Do people recognise you when you’re not in your Pub Landlord garb? “Sadly, yes – it’s a lousy disguise! They are amazed that, when I open my mouth, I don’t sound like him. For this documentary, I wanted to look and sound very different. I’m hoping people will do a double take when they realise this is what I’m like. I’m a real history nut.” Have you ever performed stand-up as yourself? “I’m not into presenting myself in that way, but then most stand-ups aren’t themselves on stage anyway. My view is, if you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big lie – why not go for it and really not be yourself?” What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t a comedian? “I’d be teaching history at a minor public school. I could completely see myself doing that. In fact, I’m not ruling it out as a possibility in the future.” Your new series takes you to Germany. Are any of the national stereotypes true? “The efficiency thing is kind of true. But that may just be because, on an efficiency scale of one to 10, the UK is probably a three. Our view of Germany and German history has been hijacked – the way Germany itself was – by the Nazis. But that was only a 15-year period and, many years earlier, Germany had been the powerhouse of mainstream European culture, in music, philosophy and literature. So we decided to go to Germany and look at its art and culture – without mentioning the war.” Do the Germans lack a sense of humour? “Quite the opposite, as we laughed everywhere we went. However, they are quite serious and earnest in their work.” You play the drums. Did you ever learn classical music? “I went to a school where we played a lot of classical music. But when you’re 15 and you can either play kettle drums in an orchestra or drums in a rock band, what’s more exciting? Ironically, though, the orchestra was a better way to meet girls.” You’ve just published The Pub Landlord’s Great British Quiz Book. Are you a keen quizzer? “One of the things about being a comic is that you go to work in the evenings, so you miss out on things like pub quizzes. I hosted a quiz for some of the Formula One drivers over the summer. They were unbelievably competitive.” Has the age of the mobile phone ruined the pub quiz? “There’s a whole chapter about the etiquette of the mobile phone in the book. In my lunchtime pub quiz, Compete for the Meat, at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, if someone used their phone, we dropped it in a pint of beer.” You knew fellow comedian Stewart Lee at university. What was he like back then? “I met him on my first day, and he was in the year above me. He’d just been to Edinburgh with Richard Herring and they were figuring out what to do in their show. We ended up living together and he did quite well, quite quickly. He’s a very worked-out person.” Do you enjoy watching other people’s comedy? “Yes, but I enjoy doing comedy more than consuming it. I was never someone who could recite Richard Pryor routines or big chunks of Monty Python. That was never my mindset. Writing it, performing it, figuring out how to do it – that’s the thing that keeps me going.” You used to work with Harry Hill. Do you keep in touch? “Harry and I are very good pals. But at the moment, I’m on tour and he’s doing TV Burp, so he’s permanently watching TV and I spend all my time in a car.” Do you still get nervous before a gig? “If I was doing the Royal Variety Performance and my voice was croaky, then I’d be nervous. Otherwise, no.” When you’re performing as the Pub Landlord, is that real beer you’re drinking? “I’m afraid I can’t answer that question. It’s a trade secret.” *Al Murray's German Adventure screens on BBC4 on Wednesday, December 1
