Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder

Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
Created by Avalon Television
Directed by Ben Kellett
Starring Al Murray
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 7
Production
Running time 25 minutes
Release
Original network ITV, UTV
Original release 27 February (2009-02-27) – 12 April 2009 (2009-04-12)
Chronology
Related shows Lee Nelson's Well Good Show
External links
Website
Production website
Al Murray as (left to right) Roger Dennis, Horst Schwul, Wayne Upman, Gary Parsley, Peter Taylor and Barrington Blowtorch

Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder is a British sketch show starring comedian Al Murray. The multi character aspect of the show was a departure from Murray's previous television comedy work, as the sole character The Pub Landlord. The show ran from 27 February to 12 April 2009, airing in the Friday night prime time slot on ITV & UTV. STV in Scotland did not broadcast the programme. It was commissioned on 4 June 2008.[1]

Characters

Writers

Supporting cast

Guest appearances

Critical reception

Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder provoked considerable controversy, receiving very sharp criticism from some quarters of the press, whilst attracting positive reviews from others. In particular, a scathing[2] review of the show by Tim Teeman was published in The Times,[3] berating the show for its perceived homophobia due to the characterisation of Horst Schwul:

“ Not only is the stereotype unfunny, another layer of insensitivity is added when you consider that gays died in their thousands under the Nazis, then after the war were persecuted because their sexuality was still criminalised. ”
— Tim Teeman, The Times.

This view was backed up by The Scotsman, which described the characters as "crass" and "one-dimensional", and describing Schwul as "undoubtedly the worst comedy character in the history of civilisation".[4]

By contrast, newspapers such as The Sun and the Daily Mirror gave the show broadly positive reviews, describing some sketches as "chucklesome",[5] praising Murray and Eclair's performance as the Radio Ad Couple, and suggesting the show demonstrates that "the spirit of Benny Hill lives on".[6] The Daily Telegraph noted that, whilst "parts of it may be too crude for some tastes... there are some winning ideas",[7] whilst The Independent also enjoyed several sketches.[8]

However, these views were not shared by the News of the World, which described the show as "just [not] that funny" and the characters as "a collection of Little Britain cast-offs...or Harry Enfield tributes".[9] The Stage was similarly disappointed with the show, describing it as "very lazy comedy...dependent upon ridiculous costumes and cod accents to get laughs".[10]

References

  1. ↑ Al Murray: ITV1 orders fresh round of sketches The Guardian, 4 June 2008
  2. ↑ Alex Hardy. Al Murray – the world through the bottom of a glass. The Times. 21 March 2009.
  3. ↑ Tim Teeman. The Big Question: Is Al Murray's gay Nazi homophobic? The Times. 5 March 2009
  4. ↑ Paul Whitelaw. TV review: The Old Guys | Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder. The Scotsman. 9 March 2009.
  5. ↑ Jon Wosnop. What to watch on TV tonight. The Sun. Undated.
  6. ↑ Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder. Daily Mirror. 27 February 2009.
  7. ↑ Michael Deacon and Pete Naughton. Other TV Highlights: Friday 27 February. The Daily Telegraph. 27 February 2009.
  8. ↑ Tom Sutcliffe. The Weekend's Television... The Independent. 2 March 2009.
  9. ↑ Ian Hyland. From last orders to last rites, Al. News of the World. 1 March 2009.
  10. ↑ Harry Venning. TV review. The Stage. 9 March 2009

Further reading

External links

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