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With a recently completed UK tour under his belt - a belt adorned with the letters B-E-E-R in bold brass - Al Murray brings his latest Pub Landlord show, Who Dares Wines, to London for a month-long residency at the Lyric Theatre.

Regulars can expect the Landlord's usual blend of bar-room philosophising, maudlin self-pity and French-bashing as he tackles topics including What Are We Going To Do Now The Germans Aren't International Bad Guys Any More? and Men Women Women And Men.

It's a formula that's scored Murray a series of hit West End shows, including 1999's Perrier Award-winning And A Glass Of White Wine For The Lady, plus his own Sky sitcom Time Gentlemen Please. Nevertheless, his inebriated jingoism has also caused audience members to explode into fits of righteous apoplexy.

'During last year's My Gaff, My Rules show, a woman stood up and called me "appallingly xenophobic",' Murray says, still baffled by the outburst. 'I was saying that berets were obviously bomb cases and that the strings covered the fuses, proving that the French were preparing for war. It's a lunatic thing to say, but she took against it.'

Murray seems resigned to some missing the point of his act - after all, the Landlord's been described by critics, often pejoratively, as 'the new Alf Garnett' since he debuted as the interval act during Harry Hill's 1994 Edinburgh show. 'I used to wonder what I was supposed to do to make people realise it was a joke.

I'd come out, spill beer, contradict myself and say absolutely ludicrous things, so I couldn't understand how people thought I was glorifying a character like the Landlord. Still, some people just don't get jokes, do they? So be it - it's not worth losing sleep over.'

There's no doubt that the Landlord epitomises everything that's reprehensible about the Little Englander mentality. But it's a mistake to confuse the opinions of the Landlord with those of Oxford history graduate Murray: for example, a rant about how the Landlord's wife has taken their son Carl (short for Carlsberg) and run off with a Frenchman is brilliantly undercut with a whistle-stop, date-heavy, cerebral appraisal of Mussolini's life and military career.

So, is Murray ever tempted to avoid these potential misunderstandings and use a different character as his mouthpiece? 'Asking that is like asking Mark Thomas when he's going to stop doing political comedy, or Harry Hill when he's going to do straight standup,' he argues. 'It's the performing voice that I've found and every year I'm able to come up with something fresh.

Being the Landlord is just an excuse for getting on the stage and performing. The remit I've always stuck to is that I'll talk about whatever you might talk about in a pub - which could be anything.'

Indeed, and for Who Dares Wines, Murray's alter ego is striking off into previously unexplored existential territory. 'He's on a journey to figure out what it means to be human; he's trying to work out how, if science tells us we're just made of stuff, we can understand the meaning of life. He's trying to get to grips with the nature of materialistic and deterministic ideas.' And does he reach any conclusions? 'No, of course not,' Murray laughs. 'He f**ks it all up and ends up shouting about his wife.'