The Common Sense Ambassador: Al Murray

The Pub Landlord Is Pulling Pints At The Point Where Comedy And Political Reality Meet. Should We Laugh Or Cry?

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If you’re wondering whether Al Murray, The Pub Landlord can throw any light on current Brexit negotiations, here’s your answer.

“Far away from Blighty in the sandbox you’re going to need periodic updates on the current state of common sense in the UK,” says Murray, whose comic creation will appear at Dubai Opera on 19 November. “And who better for this than the Common Sense Ambassador himself, the Pub Landlord?”

Brexit looms large in the words and deeds of The Pub Landlord. He stood against Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party, as a joke candidate in the 2015 General Election, winning only 318 votes in the parliamentary constituency of South Thanet. His Free United Kingdom Party had campaigned on a platform of 13 election ‘pledges’, one of which was to revalue the pound at £1.10.

Murray, who has been doing the comedy circuit for almost 25 years, clapped and cheered when Farage eventually lost to the Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay, having pledged that the UK would “leave Europe by 2025 and the edge of the Solar System by 2050”.

In a bizarre twist of fate, however, Murray now finds himself in the strange position of having created a comic persona who mirrors elements of the current political reality. Prior to Brexit, The Pub Landlord was simply a bigoted Little Englander with fantasies of British exceptionalism. Now he’s a manifestation of the UK’s rupture with Europe, all crisps, warm ale, and a distrust of both the French and the Germans. “Germany has been too quiet for too long. Just saying,” he said amusingly ahead of his election bid. All of which means that current affairs and Brexit provide much of the inspiration for his current material.