Given that only Robert Peston has a more influential blog than this one, I thought I'd give you some insight into..... Al Murray's Happy Hour.
Now I'm a massive fan of Al Murray and the show and I think that it provides ITV1 with a very neat young profile that it is often not given the credit for being able to attract, usually because Channel 4 is seen as sexier.
So when ITV kindly offered me a ticket to go and watch a recording I was delighted. It was fun, but slightly odd. The audience seemed to have been largely made up of hardcore Al Murray stalkers - one obese loner sat nearby had been to every recording and was on first name turns with the warm-up man, the security guards and greeted Big Bob as if he was his best mate.
It was also overwhelmingly white and quite downmarket and I think that they perhaps take the pub landlord character as if it was a real person and not a pastiche. In between filming Dawn French, one of the guests, was constantly dabbed down and had her make-up touched-up due probably to her obesity, while Robson Greene tried to come across as a working-class hero but ended up looking a bit of a knob.
Anyway it's worth watching as it shows a commitment to comedy that should be welcomed. And if you're interested, I'm the balding bloke with a beard sat next to a short bloke in a pink shirt
