Al Murray bathes in The Ganges for new Sky History series

Al Murray has revealed he finds it “hilarious” that comedians get “told” to tackle controversial subjects, but when they do, are “told to shut up”.

“If they want us to tackle certain subjects, they might have to deal with things that they don’t want to hear,” he exclaimed.

His comments come after his brand new show, Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The British Empire? debuted on Sky History on Monday.

However, Al has insisted to Express.co.uk that he’s not getting involved in any “woke culture wars” as he writes his shows within his “own little bubble”.

The new show sees Al head to Jamaica, Australia, India and South Africa to team up with comedians from each respective country and hear about the British Empire from their perspective, while also exploring undiscovered territory.

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In India, Al could scarcely disguise his disgust when he went for a swim in the River Ganges, surrounded by oil spills, pollution from nearby tanneries and even a dead dog.

However, there was a clear objective behind his decision to take the plunge, something which he later regretted, as he was exploring different cultural attitudes to cleanliness.

“When the British first encountered India, British people did not wash. It wasn’t the thing that you did. We did it once a week and Indians would be washing in the river every single morning to make sure they were clean,” he reflected.

“If one of the arguments is that there’s a civilising mission, if you’re the British Empire, then why are you all filthy and why are they all clean? That was just the thing we were trying to poke around in as a question.”

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However, when the moment came to descend into the “holy” river, he had a last minute change of heart, begging the production crew not to insist that he went ahead with it.

It was to no avail, and he found himself and co-star Anuvab Pal “standing up to our middles in it” and lamenting how “horrible”, “vile” and “disgusting” their experience was.

“On reflection, that’s the funniest thing we did [during the making of the show, but] it wasn’t that funny at the time!” he exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Al ended up “endlessly surprised” by the perspectives of his Indian sidekick, including his admission that he “loved” the British Empire.

“He loves the British… which is fascinating because if you follow the argument, you might not expect to think that,” he warned, referring to the Empire’s controversial history.

Meanwhile, another situation during filming that Al found difficult – albeit for different reasons – was his visit Down Under.

“The story of what happened to Aboriginal people in Australia is a particularly thorny thing to talk about – and it’s very current in Australia at the moment,” he explained, adding that he found it “moving” and hard “to chew on”.

Al’s own personal view on the Empire? “I think it’s a really interesting thing which tells you an awful lot about people, power, money and race.

“I don’t feel pride or shame, because it’s nothing I did,” he reflected, adding: “I can’t take pride in anything I didn’t do and I can’t be ashamed for anything I didn’t do.”

Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate the British Empire? debuted on 23rd October at 9:00PM on Sky History.

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