Not many could keep a character going successfully for decades, but Steve Coogan’s return as Norfolk’s most cringe-inducing broadcaster proves the exception to the rule
Steve Coogan’s brilliant Alan Partridge is such a character. Alan began life in 1991 on BBC Radio 4’s spoof current affairs show On the Hour, which later transferred to television as The Day Today. At first, he was a fairly straightforward parody of a generic sports broadcaster.
Over the years, though, Coogan and his co-writers, initially Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham and, since 2010, brothers Neil and Rob Gibbons, turned him into something more complex and human, if still hilariously, watch-through-your-fingers awful.
Partridge is vain, bigoted, ignorant, self-centred, insecure, tone deaf and tactless, with a bottomless capacity for putting his foot in it, offending others and embarrassing himself.
Yet, in the manner of other great British comedy characters like Basil Fawlty and Captain Mainwaring, he’s also occasionally pitiable and deserving of some sympathy.
The last time we saw Alan, at least on TV, was four years ago in This Time with Alan Partridge – a spoof of daytime programmes like The One Show and This Morning.
Having been accepted back into the BBC fold after his long wilderness period at North Norfolk Digital, Alan – a man adrift in the #MeToo era – clashed with his co-presenter Jennie (Susannah Fielding) and eventually blew his big comeback in spectacular style.
‘This Time With Alan Partridge’. Photo: BBC
Having lost an interview with Princess Anne and fallen for an embarrassing on-air prank by sidekick Simon Denton (Tim Key), Alan exploded in the final show, calling his audiences “idiots”.
The spoof documentary series How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) (BBC One, Friday, October 3) – a tortuous title clearly inspired by Holly Willoughby’s cringey “How are you?” to viewers after Philip Schofield’s sacking from This Morning – finds our hero having “parted ways” with the BBC for a second time.
After a year in the United Arab Emirates apparently promoting food products, he’s bounced back to his native Norwich, “the only city I love more than Dubai”.
Alan Partridge returns to Norfolk to create ‘Britain’s first-ever documentary about mental health’ in his new series. Photo: BBC
He’s not back at North Norfolk Digital, though. Alan has returned to his old patch to take up “a steady stream of Norfolk-based corporate work”.
This includes doing radio ads for a local pub’s cheap breakfast deals: “Carlsberg, wine and eggs – just nine-ninety-nine!” He’s also come home to present “Britain’s first-ever documentary about mental health”.
“For most of us,” he says, “mental health is as far down the agenda as the whole sex-change business.” But, he warns, we’re all being chased by “the invisible monster they call mental health” (cue a shot of him running away in slow-motion from nothing).
Dumped by the BBC once again, Alan Partridge returns to Norwich in Steve Coogan’s new series. Photo: BBC
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 30th
The monster caught up with Alan during a corporate gig on pig and cow feed, when he fainted into a woman’s lap and the video went viral. Fainting was a wake-up call: “My mind was not feeling too well”.
“Believe it or not, I too have mental health problems,” he says, before offering some observations. These include: “There is more mental health than there used to be,” “Mental health and mentally handicapped are different things,” and “Ken Dodd made money from being mad.”
Alan Partridge’s reunion with Simon (Tim Key) doesn’t go as planned, when he discovers his former sidekick is fine without him. Photo: BBC
Volunteering at a soup kitchen, he suspiciously eyes the men queuing up to make sure they’re homeless before he serves them. “I saw a jacket from North Face!” he explains to the bemused coordinator.
Everyone, he says, needs a method of coping with stress. His is to visit a local market to “finger their produce” and buy some “IRA balaclavas” for an Irish friend’s fancy dress party – a callback to the wonderful This Time episode where Coogan played Alan’s rebel song-bawling Irish guest.
A return visit to North Norfolk Digital turns into an embarrassment (the receptionist has never heard of him) and a supposed fence-mending session with Simon, who’s doing just fine without him, turns into a passive-aggressive duel.
Time hasn’t dented the brilliance of Alan Partridge’s irresistible idiocy.