Direct from THE GUV's largest lock-in, all hail to the ale this autumn as Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour Live at the O2 is released by ITV DVD on 16th November 2009. Recorded live this May during his three times extended, sell-out national tour, join an audience of 15,000 as the nation’s favourite publican and star of ITV1’s Al Murray’s Happy Hour, and Another Audience With… embarks on his one man crusade to put the Great back into Great Britain.
Addressing a heady brew of topics with his imitable boozer-based logic and audience banter, AL MURRAY, THE PUB LANDLORD points his finger of shame and offers Common Sense solutions to Broken Britain. Get ready as he deals with the issues that matter, from the global financial crisis and London 2012, to The Lucky Lucky List, a definitive guide to the UK’s leading Chancers. Plus bonus features including: exclusive unseen backstage footage, never heard before running commentary, a DVD exclusive of The Broken Britain Boogie (Tuesday Night Dance Mix) by Go Home Productions (previously remixed for legendary rockers Blondie and David Bowie) which sees The Pub Landlord-turn-DJ in a dance remix of the tour’s anthem and footage from a very intimate sell-out lock-in at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. This autumn the shaming finger of shame will be pointed at you, if you miss what promises to be the must see stand-up comedy DVD of 2009.
A busy twelve months for THE GUV has seen him: extend his critically acclaimed 2009 national tour Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour three times, totaling over 80 shows and selling in excess of 220,000 tickets; record series two and three of his British Comedy Award-winning Al Murray’s Happy Hour (ITV1); headline BBC ONE’s flagship comedy show Live at the Apollo (BBC ONE); and return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a sell-out run of his four (1996-1999) Perrier Award nominated, and ultimately Perrier Award winning, shows. In addition to releasing his brand new DVD - Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour Live at the O2, a packed autumn will also see him: launch Think Yourself British by Al Murray, The Pub Landlord - the follow-up to his Richard and Judy Book Club winning The Pub Landlord’s Book of British Common Sense - the most successful humour book of 2007/8, which sold over 300,000 copies and spent 21 weeks in the Sunday Times Bestsellers’ List; and return to the road with the extension of Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour.
ends
Al Murray, The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour Live at The O2 (cert 15 - UK & Ireland), £19.99, Avalon Television 2009
(Feature length: 105 mins approx Extras: 16 mins approx) Cat no. 3711531953
Release date: 16th November 2009
What the press said about Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour:
Yes, after 15 years as the Little Englander loudmouth, Al Murray is still playing his part with as much aplomb as any comedian currently working. And, for much of this enjoyably unacceptable two-hour set, he's beyond reproach. The way he integrates the crowd into the show is awe-inspiring. * * * *
Dominic Maxwell, The Times
After 15 years of refining his act, it's now in peak satirical condition. The Pub Landlord can pick out targets for his blinkered, chauvinist ire with the finesse of a master marksman… Few other acts reach quite so comfortably inside the confused, wounded mindset of the modern Brit. As our economy founders, here's one national treasure to cherish. * * * * *
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
For more information please contact Lucy Plosker, Jo Cross or Dan Lloyd at Avalon on: 020 7598 7222, lucyp@avalonuk.com, joc@avalonuk.com or danl@avalonuk.com
WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT:
AL MURRAY, THE PUB LANDLORD’ S BEAUTIFUL BRITISH TOUR AT THE O2 ARENA
The secret of the Pub Landlord’s longevity has been his ability to move with the times… The show ends with a plea for liberal tolerance, which would set Garnett’s ashes glowing in their urn. And it’s a tribute to the persuasive force of the character Murray has created - and the skill with which he inhabits him - that the blatant contradiction between this ideological stance and the snug-bar xenophobia which is the Pub Landlord’s comic staple diet seems to go largely unnoticed. * * * *
Ben Thompson, The Sunday Telegraph
Murray certainly delivered. Strutting onto a stage surrounded by grand columns shaped like beer pumps he was soon is his bullet-headed, bantering element... working the entire stage, wading into the crowd and getting the sold-out audience to sing as one.
Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard
AL MURRAY, THE PUB LANDLORD AT THE 2009 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
His greatest talent is his interaction with the audience, and a room like this, where he can get in among us, is where that can be experienced in full effect. * * * *
Steve Bennett, Chortle
It is pretty much indisputable that Murray is a master comic. He hides his technical skill and preparation behind a comedy facade of off-the-cuff remarks and asides to the audience.
These have not changed, only matured. * * * *
Kate Copstick, The Scotsman
AL MURRAY’S HAPPY HOUR
Murray has reinvented the chatshow. Out of the stale sycophancy of Parkinson and the nauseating sniggerfest that is Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and in with a genuinely entertaining programme in which the host pulls pints instead of punches. Why does it work so well?...He knows exactly how far he can push people: James ‘Love Rat’ Hewitt’s recent appearance. Barely allowed to plug his book, Hewitt sat frozen like a rabbit in the headlights and weathered a fusillade of innuendo-laden questions which had the audience in stitches, interspersed with mine host’s own supremely ironic observations: “We need a good war every 10 years or so to keep us match fit in case the Germans decide to have another go, wouldn’t you say Major sir?”…At last, a resounding success for ITV. Light entertainment with brains.
Mike Bradley, ‘Television’ The Observer
Jonathan Ross' love-ins with Ricky Gervais. Parky telling Bruce Willis he enjoyed his film Hostage. A second series for Charlotte Church and The Sharon Osbourne Show. All evidence, surely, the chat show is dead... Yet... Soft. What light from yonder window shines? 'Tis a monstrous skinhead in a claret blazer... Al Murray, as The Pub Landlord. A raging inferno, for these last six weeks on ITV, with his Happy Hour. One of the few TV performances that actually deserves the tag "genius"... Admirably un-hip, wickedly talented, hard working, well rehearsed and spontaneously very funny.
Ally Ross, The Sun
THE PUB LANDLORD’S BOOK OF BRITISH COMMON SENSE
In The Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense (Hodder, £18.99, T £16.99), Al Murray has broken several cardinal rules of the Christmas humour book. He is positively funny ("The Bible offers pretty strong proof that God is British, seeing as it's written in English"). There are a lot of words on the page; you might still be reading this one in January. And it appears that many of those words were written by Murray, in a field where "author" tends only to denote the recipient of the publisher's advance.
Andy Miller, Daily Telegraph
Then there are the comedians. Al Murray, pub landlord, is on our TV screens far too rarely, so his Pub Landlord's Book of Common Sense (Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99) is like a cool pint of lager to a thirsty man. The "welcome" sign on the frontispiece bars Guardian readers, along with fat-tongued chefs, students and olives, but don't let that put you off. Sneak past and enjoy Murray's thoughts on Sartre: "Let's not forget that the French word for think is ponce."
Carrie O'Grady, The Guardian
