William Makepeace Thackeray is a "beautiful British name", as Al Murray's comic character the Pub Landlord would say. But few would associate the comedian and his shaven-headed Little Englander alter ego with one of the greatest writers in the 19th-century literary canon.Yet the two are in fact related, with the comedian being the great-great-great grandson of the Vanity Fair author. And Murray has revealed that next year he will make a landmark BBC documentary to mark the bicentenary of the birth of his famous relative.
In an interview with The Independent, Murray described Thackeray as "a fascinating character" but said that he had only in recent years taken an interest in the work of his forebear. "We are trying to get something off the ground for next year because it's the bicentennial of his birth in 1811. His life was amazing. He was a journalist really, a Grub Street hack in the finest sense," he said.
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