Joe Murray (born 1963) is a former

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldier and television personality from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, United Kingdom. He is best known for his role on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

programme, ''

Bad Lads' Army ''Lads' Army'' (known in later series as ''Bad Lads' Army'', ''Bad Lads' Army: Officer Class'' and ''Bad Lads' Army: Extreme'') is a reality game show that constitutes a historically derived social experiment. Shown on ITV, the series is based ...

''.

Army life

Murray joined the British Army in 1979 after he left school because of a lack of available jobs in Glasgow at the time. While training he was selected to join the Parachute Regiment, following in the footsteps of his father who also served in the Parachute Regiment. He was assigned to

1 Para The 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1 PARA), is a battalion of the British Army's Parachute Regiment. Along with various other regiments and corps from across the British Armed Forces, it is part of Special Forces Support Group. A specia ...

Regiment and served with them in deployments in Northern Ireland,

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. During his service, Murray reached the rank of

Sergeant Major Sergeant major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. History In 16th century Spain, the ("sergeant major") was a general officer. He commanded an army's infantry, and ranked about third in the ...

. Murray served with the British Army until 2002 when he retired.

Television work

In 2002, after he had retired from the army, Murray attended a casting audition for the ITV reality programme, ''

Lads' Army ''Lads' Army'' (known in later series as ''Bad Lads' Army'', ''Bad Lads' Army: Officer Class'' and ''Bad Lads' Army: Extreme'') is a reality game show that constitutes a historically derived social experiment. Shown on ITV, the series is based ...

''. He was given the part of one of the

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

s in charge of one of the two

sections Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

in the programme after receiving training in how to behave as a 1950s

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

corporal. In the programme he was referred to as "Corporal Murray" and became better known to the public as such, despite his real

rank. Murray appeared in all four series of ''Bad Lads' Army'' and also maintained the character of Corporal Murray when being interviewed by journalists. Murray has expressed his support for a reintroduction of National Service after his work on ''Bad Lads' Army'', a viewpoint that was not shared by fellow ''Bad Lads' Army'' corporal,

Richard Nauyokas Richard Carlton Nauyokas (born 9 December 1962) is a British television personality, who between 2002 and 2006 appeared as a military instructor in several United Kingdom reality television series which re-created British National Service milita ...

Personal life

Murray is married to Penny and has four daughters. He currently lives in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Joe Living people 1963 births Military personnel from Glasgow British Parachute Regiment soldiers Scottish television personalities People from Somerset Date of birth missing (living people)