INTERVIEW
IN MY EXPERIENCE...
Al Murray
The Oxford-educated comedian and writer, 54, on his fascination with military history, being related to William Thackeray and his alter-ego, The Pub Landlord
by DANNY SCOTT
You studied modern history at university. Did that spark your interest in military history?
Much to my chagrin, military history was not seen as ‘proper history’. But I was able to do a module on the three years running up to the war. It included access to Foreign Office telegrams and Cabinet memos. A note from Chamberlain saying, ‘It looks like I’ll have to declare war, doesn’t it?’ and the Foreign Secretary saying, ‘That’s probably the right thing to do.’
So where does your love of it come from?
I grew up in the Seventies… Airfix models, Action Man, watching The Great Escape. My dad was in the Territorial Army and he’d often introduce subjects such as Dunkirk or desert warfare around the breakfast table. We were the only family I knew who went to the Normandy Beaches for their summer holidays.