AL Murray's The Pub Landlord was once an out-and-out alter ego. A straight-faced, brow-furrowed, shaven-headed conduit for bigotry and blinkered British thinking where the joke was on both the landlord and those who thought his ranting was for real and couldn't spot the irony, like Johnny Speight's Alf Garnett before him.

Now, after nine years, it has become more complicated. Murray is increasingly sending up the extremes of the landlord, over-exaggerating his vocal ticks and mannerisms in the manner of an impressionist. The relationship is growing closer to that of a puppeteer and his puppet, although Murray is the one tripping up his beer-fuelled alter ego, and not the reverse in the tradition of Basil Brush and Lord Charles.

The Pub Landlord is now a burlesque bully, still self-righteous as he rants on matters of Europe and Iraq, his lack of faith in love, the lessons of history, Britain's central place on the world map and the power of the silent majority.

Yet as the Guv'nor grows more grotesque in his bar-room philosophy, living up to the tour's title of Giving It Both Barrels, Murray's own wit continues to put him at the forefront of British social commentators. Through the loud and proud Pub Landlord he not only highlights and mocks prejudice, he taps into the modern uncertainty in what it means to be British.

Updated: 15:33 Tuesday, November 04, 2003