Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder

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Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
Al Murrays Multiple Personality Disorder logo.PNG
Created byAvalon Television
Directed byBen Kellett
Starring Al Murray
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series1
No. of episodes7
Production
Running time25 minutes
Original release
Network ITV (not STV)
Release27 February (2009-02-27) 
12 April 2009 (2009-04-12)
Related
Lee Nelson's Well Good Show
Al Murray as (left to right) Roger Dennis, Horst Schwul, Wayne Upman, Gary Parsley, Peter Taylor and Barrington Blowtorch Al Murrays Multiple Personality Disorder characters.PNG
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 (ITV1 & UTV). STV in Scotland did not broadcast the programme. It was commissioned on 4 June 2008. [1]

Contents

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

However, The Stage was disappointed with the show, describing it as "very lazy comedy...dependent upon ridiculous costumes and cod accents to get laughs". [8]

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 [ dead link ]. The Times . 21 March 2009.
  3. Teeman, Tim (5 March 2009). "The Big Question: Is Al Murray's gay Nazi homophobic?". The Times. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
  4. Paul Whitelaw. TV review: The Old Guys | Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder. The Scotsman . 9 March 2009.
  5. Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder. Daily Mirror . 27 February 2009.
  6. Michael Deacon and Pete Naughton. Other TV Highlights: Friday 27 February. The Daily Telegraph . 27 February 2009.
  7. Tom Sutcliffe. The Weekend's Television... The Independent. 2 March 2009.
  8. Harry Venning. TV review. The Stage . 9 March 2009

Further reading