Read the reviews of Al's new show:
When it works, which often it does, this is like Little Britain gone right. Al Murray, the persona behind the Pub Landlord, does more than well in the sketches he stars in: as usefully, he bounces back up the stage to allow some grand other comic actors – Simon Brodkin, Laura Solon – to take the limelight, which they do with fabulous style and relish...In the grand history of sketch shows Murray gets much more right than he does wrong i.e. you laugh more than you turn away bored…Comparisons can be odious but, trust me, this is much cleverer than Little Britain, if only because no one involved here seems to think it’s pant breakingly hilarious to pretend to be a thin old wifie throwing up every week and weeing herself in the supermarket ho ho. There still needs to be, surely will be, some tweaking and expunging - but it is, so far, a better way to spend a Friday night than we've seen for a long time.
Euan Ferguson, ‘Television’ The Observer
Al Murray is so convincing as the Pub Landlord that, like Ricky Gervais, you start to worry where the actor ends and the role begins. That's why it's such a wonderful surprise to see him playing so many different characters in this new sketch show. One of the best is the gentleman safe breaker who, having been caught, talks his way out of arrest. Better still is the airline pilot who rambles on over the intercom about his sex-change operation. A couple of sketches are based on great ideas - one being the trailer of an ITV drama starring Ray Winstone as Ghandi. And for lovers of old fashioned vaudeville who earns for the days of Dick Emery, Murray plays a Nazi dressed in pink who can’t wait to get down to some serious interrogating.
David Chater, ‘Play’ The Times
So closely has Al Murray become associated with his multi-award winning Pub Landlord character that there may be some viewers who imagine they're one and the same person. Fortunately this excellent new seven part series, for which Murray takes on a whole array of new guises, should soon clear up any confusion.
Mike Ward, ‘Saturday’ Daily Express
Added on 03 Mar 2009