Who Dares Wines sees Al Murray's Pub Landlord embark on his first national tour. But Murray needs to dare himself a little more if the exercise is really to pay off. At his best, Murray uses this latter-day Alf Garnett's scattergun bigotry to lampoon the very causes he ostensibly supports. At first the Queen Mum, he blubs, "was cruelly taken before her time". Presently, she was "a candle in the wind" albeit a "big fat candle that wouldn't go out". Likewise, the Landlord's knuckleheadedness conceals a flair for comically convoluted logic. But Murray's fist-faced aggression becomes wearing, as the thin band of irony separating performer from character tapers into invisibility.
I'd like to see Murray risk varying the Landlord's pitch. At the moment, the character is comically two-dimensional. His motto is: "Drink, don't think." He won't allow women in the audience to drink lager, and replaces their pints with alcopops. Appalled by gays and students, vegetarians and Europeans, the Landlord describes Brighton as "a town so perverse they built a pier that takes Britain closer to France than nature intended". He has no truck with foreign innovations, and marvels at the recent fuss over the events of "the ninth of November".
Murray dedicates much of Act One to an exploration of that rich comic territory, Britishness, and extends the Scouse and Geordie accents into wickedly absurd symphonies of comic sound. But more subtle or surprising shades are needed to sustain the Landlord after the interval. The butts of his prejudice remain more or less harmless ones we don't feel too bad laughing at. If he dared to direct that xenophobia at more sensitive targets, he (and we) might have to pause and consider just how funny skin-headed Little Englishness actually is. Murray seeks to subvert his character's views by suggesting they stem from sexual frustration and dim-wittedness, but plays those traits too ridiculously for them to impact.
So an evening that begins as a piss-take of beery chauvinism ends by celebrating it. Act Two plumbs witless depths, roving across German porn and the difference between men and women, and finishing with an inane pub quiz. There's ample evidence of Murray's intelligence and performing skill. But only when he applies those qualities consistently throughout the show will Who Dares Wines be worth raising a glass to.
· At Guildford Civic (01483 444 555) tonight; Weston Super Mare Playhouse (01934 645 544) tomorrow; then tours until December 6.
