Al Murray joins Remembrance poppy sellers in Chiswick

London Poppy Day

Comedian Al Murray joined fellow Chiswick residents to sell poppies for the Royal British Legion on Thursday (30 October) outside Turnham Green tube station.

RAF marching band at Waterloo station; photograph BFBS Radio

Thursday was London Poppy Day, when over 1,000 currently serving personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force took part in fundraising.

Commuters at Waterloo station were treated to a performance by the RAF marching band.

Poppies on sale every day outside Turnham Green tube station

The ‘pub landlord’, who tours the UK with his stand-up show, is also a World War Two aficionado.

In 2004 he presented Al Murray’s Road to Berlin on the Discovery Channel –  a series about the last phase of the Second World War, taking him from the beaches of Normandy, through Arnhem and up the Rhine, ending in Berlin.

He drove around in a restored Willys jeep and interviewed survivors from both sides of the war. In the episode about Operation Market Garden he parachuted, together with veterans, from an aircraft, to commemorate the battle.

Since 2019 he has been presenting a podcast with historian James Holland called We Have Ways of Making You Talk, where they discuss battles and campaigns of World War II.

He has also written several books on the Second World War, including Watching War Films with My Dad and Arnhem: Black Tuesday: The Classic World War II Battle Told As Never Before.

Poppy sellers will be raising money for the Royal British Legion outside Turnham Green tube station every day from 8am to 8pm till Remembrance Sunday, 9 November, starting later at weekends and closing at 2pm on Remembrance Sunday.

Al Murray, with Cllr Gerald McGregor; Chiswick RBL organiser Mark James; TFL customer services supervisor Tony Currie; volunteer collector Cathie James; Chiswick RBL organiser Elisabeth Whittaker

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