John Smith’s act is not so smooth

There were a few red faces from the Scottish Courage contingent at the opening night of comic Pub Landlord Al Murray’s “…and a glass of white wine for the lady” show, at The Playhouse Theatre last week.

In a brilliant bit of marketing, John Smith’s bitter is sponsoring the West End run of Murray’s Perrier-award winning show.

For those who haven’t seen it, the Pub Landlord act largely consists of Murray handing out pints of bitter to the audience as he lambastes them about their fancy names and/or professions, while sharing his enlightened views on The Germans.

Unfortunately, every time Murray went to pull a pint of Smith’s from the on-stage bar he ended up with a beaker full of foam, leading him – like good landlords everywhere – to start having a go at the brewery.

“John Smith’s? They couldn’t make a pint to save their lives,” one hapless punter was told.

Scottish Courage are apparently planning to hold a special matinee performance for real pub landlords. The Diary hopes – for their sake – that the opening-night gremlins will be sorted out by then.