Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder is a brand new comedy sketch show written by and starring the multi-award winning creator of The Pub Landlord. The seven-part peak-time ITV1 series will introduce AL as a whole host of new comic characters (for the very first time since he created The Pub Landlord in 1994), while some very well-known TV faces drop in for the odd sketch.

Larger than life characters include: Prurient Dad, Peter Taylor, an embarrassing West Country father, who "luuuuuuurrrves seeeeex!" and doesn't mind who knows it; Barrington Blowtorch, the silver-tongued Victorian gentleman-thief who can always talk his way out of a sticky situation; Horst Schwull, Hitler's most trusted aide, who is, just a little, on the kamp side; and Gary Parsley, an outrageous, over-demanding, piano-playing 70's rock star who has let fame go right to his head. Countless other characters pop up along the way like: Simon, the Intolerant Vicar, who likes to keep everything traditional - well, apart from his temper; Gaz, the less than typical Gay Best Friend, who enjoys beer, heavy metal, and er, women; and Kev and Jaz, the mobile phone shop employees who are shining examples of the best customer service the UK has to offer.

The supporting cast lines up established star JENNY ECLAIR (Grumpy Old Women, BBC TWO) with some of comedy’s hottest new talents: SIMON BRODKIN (Funny Cuts, E4), LAURA SOLON (Harry and Paul, BBC ONE) and KATY WIX (Not Going Out, BBC ONE). Characters they play include: Jason Bent, the Premiership footballer who's always ready with some deeply profound post-match chat; Lee Nelson, a misguided cheeky chav from Bermondsey, who provides unique philosophy for the modern age; whilst in Duncan’s Den, desperate divorcee Carole Price returns to pitch yet another one of her million-pound new-business ideas to entrepreneur DUNCAN BANNATYNE.

As his alter-ego, The Pub Landlord, AL MURRAY is set to embark on a 53-date 170,000-ticket national tour Al Murray The Pub Landlord’s Beautiful British Tour this February - which includes two O2 Arena gigs and 12 new arena dates. In the last couple of years The Guv has recorded three series of the British Comedy Award-winning Al Murray’s Happy Hour (ITV1); headlined Live at the Apollo (BBC ONE); hosted a second Audience With for ITV1; brought his unique Common-Sense-Reasoning to the literary world with the Richard and Judy Book Club-winning and The Sunday Times bestseller, The Pub Landlord’s Book of British Common Sense; and record his British Comedy Award nominated live show …And Another Thing at the London Palladium for DVD (which sold over 200,000 copies). Series two of Al Murray’s Happy Hour and the entire first series of Time Gentlemen Please will be released this March (ITV DVD).


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Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder will transmit on ITV1 for seven weeks from Friday 27th February.

For further information, review DVDs, or if you have interview requests please contact
Jo Cross or Dan Lloyd at Avalon on 020 7598 7222 or joc@avalonuk.com or danl@avalonuk.com

WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID:

IN ADVANCE OF AL MURRAY THE PUB LANDLORD’S BEAUTIFUL BRITISH TOUR

"Viewers of Al Murray's Happy Hour will already know that he can interact with a crowd the way a conductor leads a symphony orchestra. Except that the music's all in his head. And he's making it up as he goes along. The question now is whether he can banter with 20,000 punters at once. But if anyone can do it, Murray can."
Nicholas Barber, The Independent on Sunday

"The angrier Britain gets, the more we need Al Murray’s singularly irascible publican. Through the blustering ire of his red-faced alter-ego, railing against Europe, political correctness and other modern ills, Murray gives vent to a hundred and one thoughts that usually dare not make themselves heard, while also sending up that outrage something rotten. His latest tour culminates in a gig at the O2 Arena, and with the assured mainstream success of his ITV chat-show behind him, he’ll fill it, easily."
Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph

"If you’ve only seen Murray’s monstrous creation on television, you really should check him out live in full flow. The Landlord might be a bullet-headed bigot with a fondness for military history and a hatred of mainland Europe but he is strangely loveable as well as laughable."
Evening Standard

"The comedy event I’m most looking forward to this year is the Beautiful British Tour by Al Murray the Pub Landlord. “Doesn’t he just do the same thing every time?” a friend of mine quipped. Well, yeah - he takes a room by the scruff of its neck and shows it who’s boss. Both a satire of blinkered thinking and a sly celebration of the seductive power of certainty, Murray’s Little Englander is at his best working off a crowd. His chat show has taken him to some of Britain’s biggest barns. Can he keep the fizz in his act? I bet he can."
Dominic Maxwell, The Times


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… 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

"A thoroughly welcome return for Al Murray’s Pub Landlord. Expect the familiar devices; the non-listening interview technique (“Myeh. Myeh. Myeh.”), of an increasingly prestigious array of celebs prepared to abase themselves before the great man, the merciless interrogation of the “beautifully British named” victims in the front rows, the Queen cover versions and, of course, a relentless, ack-ack delivery of splendidly xenophobic home truths. Hail to the ale, indeed."
David Stubbs, ‘The Guide’ The Guardian

"Even if you automatically discount Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project (and well you might because, without wanting to sound too blunt, it’s rubbish) Friday night still has a remarkably crowded late night field. You could try another session of self aggrandisement and egomania on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, but we’d rather go with Al Murray’s offering. Why? It’s… (unlike some other millionaire purveyors of mirth) because he makes us laugh."
Ceri Thomas, London Lite

"Friday night comedy has rarely had it so good. The Pub Landlord, Al Murray, is back for a new series with his dangerous, high-wire comedy routine."
David Chater, ‘The Knowledge’ The Times

"It’s back - the jewel in ITV’s entertainment crown…Breathtakingly quick-witted and magnificently rude, without appearing to be so, The Guv always has the best questions - for example, to Mel B: ‘Did you ever have any technical problems on stage such as the microphones switching on?’ No wonder his guests spend most of their time convulsed with laughter."
Nigel Andrew, ‘Weekend’ Daily Mail


AN AUDIENCE WITH…


"TV Gold. And only one serious contender this week. ITV's Audience With Al Murray, who started an astonishing evening by annihilating his celebrity guests. And ended it by taking on the world. Still the best Audience With since Bob Monkhouse."
Ally Ross, The Sun

"If tonight's performance, in front of the usual shedload of famous fans, proves as successful as his first, then legendary status is surely within his grasp."
Mike Ward, ‘Saturday’ Daily Express

"If he [Russell Brand] wants to see how the solo schtick should be done - try ITV, Saturday, 9.05, Another Audience with Al Murray. It’s very funny."
Ally Ross, The Sun

"The most consistently exciting live comedian in the land for years."
Dominic Maxwell, The Times


EPISODE SYNOPSES


EPISODE ONE
This week, Prurient Dad Peter Taylor meets his daughter’s new boyfriend, we get a sneaky peek at Ray Winstone’s latest historical drama, and footballer Jason Bent is in two minds about his new contract.

EPISODE TWO
This week, Prurient Dad gets caught short, rock star Gary Parsley isn’t happy with his dinner, and Barrington Blowtorch is caught with his hands in his latest victim’s pockets.

EPISODE THREE
This week, Gary Parsley has written a new rock opera, Carol Price goes back into Duncan’s Den, and Schwull is sent undercover.

EPISODE FOUR
This week, Prurient Dad is selling his home-made produce at the local Farmer’s Market, Barrington Blowtorch is accused of stealing his host’s diamond necklace, and Ray Winstone tackles another historical great.

EPISODE FIVE
This week, Airline Pilot Roger Dennis accepts a wager, Gary Parsley has ordered a new piano, and Jason Bent is publicising a new charity.

EPISODE SIX
This week, Prurient Dad meets Jake’s parents, Wayne Upman attends a funeral, and Schwull is feeling under the weather.

EPISODE SEVEN
This week, the PC PCs make a drugs bust, Schwull meets his match, and Prurient Dad carries out his duties as Father of the Bride.


PRODUCTION CREDITS


The series is directed by BEN KELLETT and produced by RICHARD GROCOCK. Executive Producers are RICHARD ALLEN-TURNER and JON THODAY.


AVALON TELEVISION


Avalon Television is one of the leading producers of award-winning comedy and light entertainment programmes in the UK. Founded in 1993, the independent production house supplies television programming to all the British terrestrial channels and the leading cable and satellite stations, in addition to content for radio broadcasters.

Recent television productions include: the double-BAFTA and British Comedy Award-winning Harry Hill’s TV Burp (ITV1); Al Murray’s Happy Hour (ITV1) - the British Comedy Award winning peak-time entertainment show; three series of the Royal Television Society and Rose D’Or award-winning sitcom Not Going Out (BBC ONE); the acclaimed Touch Me I’m Karen Taylor (BBC THREE); the Rose d’Or award-winning Kombat Opera Presents (BBC TWO), a series of contemporary musical comedies from the creator of the multi-award-winning hit musical Jerry Springer - The Opera, with collaborators including STEWART LEE, DAVE GORMAN and TERRY JONES; a feature-length documentary, written by and starring DAVE GORMAN, entitled Unchained America (More 4); Laura, Ben and Him, a multi-character sketch show for ITV2 written by and starring hotly-tipped new writer performers LAURA SOLON, BEN WILLBOND and MAREK LARWOOD; You Can Choose Your Friends (ITV1) - a 90-minute comedy-drama starring the late ANTON RODGERS and JULIA McKENZIE; a prime-time reality format in the US called Wake Up Call (ABC Network); and The Greg Behrendt Show, a first-run syndication show in the USA produced by Avalon Television and Sony.

Avalon Television also produces radio, with recent projects including: series six of Out To Lunch (BBC Radio 2), a comedy show for Saturday afternoons hosted by RUSSELL KANE - featuring some of the finest up-and-coming comic talent currently working in the UK; a fifth series of DAVID BADDIEL’S acclaimed BBC Radio 4 comic-discussion show, Heresy; series three of Banter (BBC Radio 4), hosted by Sony Award-winning ANDREW COLLINS, a comedy panel show in which the guests including RICHARD HERRING and RUSSELL HOWARD are asked to hammer out Top Threes in categories covering anything from playwrights to Playstation; series two of Political Animal (BBC Radio 4), a socio-political satire show, hosted and linked by ANDY ZALTZMAN and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (More 4) regular JOHN OLIVER; and the forthcoming BBC Radio 2 series written by and starring ANNA CRILLY and KATY WIX.