Al Murray's Happy Hour
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| Al Murray's Happy Hour | |
|---|---|
 Titlecard for Al Murray's Happy Hour |
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| Format | Chat show |
| Starring | Al Murray |
| Opening theme | Queen - "Don't Stop Me Now" |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 22 (as of 4 April, 2008) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including adverts) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original airing | 13 January 2007 - |
Al Murray's Happy Hour is a chat show presented by comedian Al Murray, and the first series aired in early 2007. It is on the British terrestrial TV network, ITV and the first series was broadcast on Saturday nights at 10pm. The second series aired on Fridays at 10pm. Murray presents the programme in his Pub Landlord character, a stereotypically nationalistic, chauvinistic character.
The show contains stand-up, guest interviews and live music. The show ends with Murray performing a Queen song with the musical guest.
Contents |
[edit] Layout of each episode
The show has a large studio audience, and at the start of the show Al interacts with them, talking to some of them in the front row, and usually remarking that they have "beautiful British names" even if the name is clearly not British (such as "Dominique" or "Ming Ming"). He often points out any celebrities in the audience, such as Vanessa Feltz and Uri Geller, and the members of the pub of the week.
Around this time Al points out a regular audience member on the show by the name of "Big Bob". He has his very own song which goes along the lines of: Big Bob, Big Bob, Big Bob. Right at the end of the song Al goes, " and his wife Anne" who is consideably smaller than her husband. Big Bob's full name is Bob Carlisle and is a printer from Nottinghamshire who first got involved with the show after winning tickets to a performance in a radio show competition.[1] He also makes a passing joke about Big Bob's weight, usually sending up excuses other overweight people use. Examples include Al Murray saying "It's a slow metabolism, isn't it, Bob? And a very fast pie arm", or "He's got a weight problem; he can't wait till dinner time", or "It's big bones, isn't it, Bob? Yeah – big bones covered in fat".
He will then often give a speech about the greatness of Britain. During this segment Al will say along the lines of 'You see, Britain is all about rules. If we had no rules where would we be?' The audience then shouts out 'France!' 'If we had too many rules where would we be?' 'Germany!' For the third time of enquiry it usually features another country, For example: 'If we had rules forcing you to take a nap in the afternoon where would we be? Spain.' - or 'If we had rules forcing us to eat raw fish where would we be? Japan.'
After his speech there is a commercial break, before beginning to interview the three guests. In the middle of the interviews, before a commercial break, the musical guest will often sing one of their own songs. Often when a female guest comes on, his friend Gary phones him up (or vice-versa) or makes contact in a variety of ways and asks the guest to say filthy, and then Al says Gary owes him £15. At various times during each episode he will be asking guest about their work. At any moment there is a reference to their earnings you will hear the "keerrrrrching" of a till. Also there is a reference to his ex-wife and his faithful dog Ramrod (who is now dead and comes into the show on wheels.) Sometimes when guests come on, e.g. when Jason Gardiner from Dancing On Ice came on he talked about the musical "Cats" which he had starred in and Al made Ramrod's eyes glow red and growl.
At the end of the shows, after the interviews he will join the musical guest in singing a Queen song. In the final episode of the first series, this was the cast of the musical about Queen - "We Will Rock You", and then the band Queen actually came on and did a special performance. Every episode ends with Murray saying "please take your glasses back to the bar".
Throughout interviews in the second series, Murray acknowledges the stereotypical leading questions used by chatshow hosts to allow their guests to 'plug' their product or latest project by referring to these types of question as 'blah blah'.
In an interview with Channel Four's Richard and Judy in January 2007, Al Murray revealed that he rehearses celebrity interviews with members of the staff taking the role as the celebrity guest, who answer the questions hopefully in the same manner as the guests will answer them. This gives Al a bit of help with regards to how to approach each interview and how he can gain comedy moments from each interview.
[edit] Episode Guide
[edit] Series 1
[edit] Series 2
[edit] Series 3
ITV have confirmed a new series of Happy Hour will air in the Autumn.[2]
