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2009 British TV series or programme From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder | |
---|---|
Created by | Avalon Television |
Directed by | Ben Kellett |
Starring | Al Murray |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 7 |
Production | |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ITV (not STV) |
Release | 27 February – 12 April 2009 |
Related | |
Lee Nelson's Well Good Show |
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]
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