Al Murray chats ahead of Shrewsbury and Birmingham shows

Take this, for instance, spoken in character: “Of course, the reason they are coming here is because this is the greatest country in the world. The only way to stop them is for a government to change that and make things a whole lot worse. Look no further. However, in the meantime we brick up the Channel Tunnel. With British bricks. Probably have to get some Poles in to do it. Common sense.”

Al is currently on tour in a post-Brexit, post-fact world. His new show is called Let’s Go Backwards Together and it’s been acclaimed by critics as his best. He brings it to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn tonight.

While Al’s character is resolutely commonsensical , the performer himself was educated at Bedford School and Oxford University and his ancestors include the 3rd Duke of Atholl, a bishop, an ambassador and William Makepeace Thackery, the 19th century novelist best known for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, was his great-great-great grandfather.

Those impeccable credentials, however, mean nothing in the cauldron of stand-up. For Al knows better than anyone: if you get a line wrong, there’s nowhere to hide.

“I think that what some people don’t realise is that there are gradations of posh. I have cousins who went to Eton. I think [people who went to] Eton, Harrow, they’re properly posh. But my dad worked for British Rail for 40 years, my mother worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau in Milton Keynes.

“We’re resolutely downwardly mobile. With showbusiness, you can be as posh as you like, but if you’re not delivering, then you won’t get on. So I don’t get annoyed, I’m just exasperated that it’s supposed to say anything about me at all. I went to private school because my grandfather left some money for a grandson.

“I do accept that I am from a privileged background. I was lucky I went to private school. I know all those things. But I don’t think they explain anything about me at all.

“There’s an interesting idea about art right now – ‘you’re not allowed to imagine’ seems to be the argument. So I’m not allowed to imagine what people might think, or send up how other people might think. That’s an argument against art. That’s an argument against creativity.”

Al’s tour is under way around the UK and he’ll return to Birmingham on May 22 to headline the city’s REP theatre.

Al added that his new show takes a humorous approach to the challenging era in which we live. “We live in troubling times. Europe. The NHS. Whatever the hell is going on in the Middle East. The gathering storm of fortnightly bin collections? Who knows where it will all end?”

Meanwhile, on the comedy scene this week, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler, the King of Memphis and a WWE Hall of Famer, will bring his spoken word show to Birmingham’s Glee Club on Wednesday.

The live, spoken word show will feature as many tales and experiences from 40 years on the road as it’s possible to cram into one evening. Fans can look forward to a ‘witty, articulate and impassioned’ evening and they will also be able to ask their own questions. Comedy will also be in store at the Glee Club tonight and tomorrow with a line-up of Paul Thorne, Christian Schulte-Loh, Carl Donnelly and Tom Lucy. Paul has been described by The Guardian as a ‘must-see comedian’ who regularly performs at The Comedy Store and has taken his unique brand of edgy and provocative topical gags, on the spot improvisation and surreal comedy songs as far afield as Dubai, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, China and Japan.

Lucy, meanwhile, has been described by Harry Hill as being an outstanding young comic who is headed for great things. In the last year, he has supported the likes of Jack Whitehall, Russell Kane, Paul Chowdhry, Simon Amstell, Russell Howard and Seann Walsh. He is also the youngest comedian ever to play professionally at The Comedy Store.

Al Murray will be performing tonight at Shrewsbury Theatre Severn at 7.30pm and at The Birmingham Rep on May 22.