Have I Got News For You

Guest Interview

Al Murray

In the spirit of the recession this interview was conducted in a cold Woolworth's storeroom and recorded onto a wax tablet.

Q1.So, first time hosting the show. How are you feeling?: It's terribly exciting. I remember when I first came to London after leaving university, on Friday nights we'd watch this when it was on BBC 2 and it was this brand new exciting 'my-God-they-are-being-rude-about-the-news' programme. So to have ended up on it is pretty cool.
Q2.As the Pub Landlord, have you ever had to throw anybody out of a gig?: No, but I've had people leave in weird ways. I did a run in a theatre on Embankment years ago and there was a couple at the front. He'd obviously brought her to the show and it wasn't working out. And she didn't like it. So twenty minutes in they left and ten minutes later he came back, and they had broken up in the interim. He'd put her on the tube and sent her home and he'd come back on his own. So, not throwing someone out but breaking people up.
Q3.You've toured with Harry Hill and Frank Skinner. What's the most rock and roll thing you've ever done?: Touring is so boring. That's why people do rock and roll things, because it's so tedious. I remember we went to Alton Towers once on our way somewhere, that's about as good as it gets really... aside from a lot of drinking. Drinking and eating curry.
Q4.You did the pub landlord for a number of years before you broke through into TV. Do you think these days there's too short a gap between being discovered and getting on telly?: Well in my case no, obviously there was too long a gap. But what can happen to people is they get essentially over-promoted and they are not quite up to it and they get caught out. They can't write the material and they don't know how to trust writers and trust people with what they are doing. They think it has to be all them. The thing I've learnt over the years is that if you can get people to tune into what you are doing, you are much better off collaborating because being a standup is so solitary.
Q5.We've heard you're an avid drummer. Are you still at it?: Yes I am, I've just joined a band and we've got a gig next week. I play a lot and I'm really, really into it. I'm doing a thing the week after next which is a thing for a cymbal company honouring Ginger Baker. I hang out with drummers. One of the weird privileges of having become faintly famous is that I get asked to do things like that.
Q6.I'm sure you are excited by the fact this interview is going out online. How do you think the Internet will shape comedy in future?: The thing I've noticed is your stuff ends up on YouTube very quickly. It's like when TV first came along, all those comics who had 12 minutes for 15 years were caught out very quickly and it's like that but all over again. I can't slip an old joke in because they would have heard it. I've done 6 touring shows that are two hours long � so that's twelve hours of material in which I can't repeat myself. It's changing things enormously. What's great about it too is that people are making their own telly.