Alan Partridge comes to BBC America

Actually that was a thing that annoyed me - Alan seemed to be deliberately adopting weird pronunciations of words (not including the two mispronunciation times) which I don't recall him doing before.

it’s all through his sky atlantic stuff. he thinks he elevates his class in a daily mail reader sort of way by saying ‘w---hhhat’ and ‘tellolist’.

Weird, I didn't pick it up there at all. Mea culpa.

There was a bit too much crammed in maybe - Knowing Me Knowing You works because there's only three guests per episode and everything gets time to breathe. As pure KMKW it might have worked better but they're trying to tell the backstory around the sides and that's the bit that isn't quite working.

As far as I know it's all going to be onset like that.

There's a sort of parallel but unintended irony at work in the fact the BBC are actually promoting this in HD as a flagship show, putting the likes of Maitlis in as a cameo etc. Even that email that went around to BBC staff yesterday. I think this is bad and gives it a glossy feeling that is very anti-Partridge. The sad thing is The Trip imo really suffered when it moved to Sky Atlantic as such a quintessentially BBC type of show, the Spanish series was really low budget compared to the first two, whereas Sky Atlantic actually gave Partridge a sort of retro British feeling in terms of how it looked and felt. They were channelling this for the handwashing report on last night's show but not sure there was enough of it.

Some of the all-time best Partridge moments are in Crooked Isle and the like.

agree with the general sense of disappointment

I think Mid-Morning Matters worked so well because it was Partridge completely in his element. Obviously, there's comedy to be had in him awkwardly trying to fit into a "proper" TV show but it's just not as funny as stupidly confident local radio Alan

Yeah agree - watching someone, who seems to just be "a normal BBC presenter" thinking he's a moron and vaguely negging him doesn't really yield much joy.

No other *colleague* in my decade at the BBC has taught me so how to go ‘hands-free’ in a train toilet.
Thanks, Alan.pic.twitter.com/IyTl1MAtgD

— Tim Johns (@timoncheese) February 25, 2019

i agree with pretty much everything itt but i'm staying focused on the fact that they're trying to do something completely different with alan, so i don't want to judge it too harshly on what we've seen so far. the series is a complete piece and we're still in act 1, so it's had to take its time to set up the characters, the format, etc. if it's going to go horribly off the rails (and it will, it's partridge), it needs to show us what the show looks like when it's on the rails.

definitely better second time round. susannah fielding does a fiercely good job in this, keeping up the gratingly authentic one show persona while fitting in subtle reactions to alan and being something else again during cutaways.

It already went off the rails - perhaps it would have been better if it didn't because then there'd be a credible reason for Partridge to come back. As it is, I don't think there would be bar a social media frenzy and ratings spike.

To be fair Alan's Knowing Me Knowing You talk show also went off the rails from episode one

I thought this was solid, I don't expect anything more than another round of solid AP

sure it’s technically off the rails already, but in the era of piers morgan continuing to get work it’s easy to justify the show returning in its current state.

btw by ‘off the rails’ i mean absolute calamity with injuries and resignations and possibly fire, rather than a bad interview and some tetchy hosting.

the Emily Maitliss stuff felt like contractual obligation rather than scripted comedy.

The BBC is so full of itself (sometimes?). That bit was horrible and the prog went off after it I thought. I fear there will be more of this too.

The programme literally went off after the Maitlis bit - it was the last 1-2 minutes of the show!

more content:
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/alan-partridge-sandwich-review

(i always enjoy the written stuff!)

alexa is doing alan partridge quotes now. makes little sense since they’re completely out of context and in the wrong voice (e.g. it just gave me “why are you wearing that snazzy cardigan?” in humourless robot lady voice)

can’t get it to say “TEA OR COFFEE TEA OR COFFEE”

i’m all for alan everywhere but this is not even 7 on 10

wtf, that's brilliant. but so wrong

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-47369328

The comedy character's comeback was watched by 3.2 million viewers, according to overnight figures.

Back of the net

i've just watched it a third time because a) i'm insane b) there's so much fine detail that it easily bears rewatching. it really does get better (the hand hygiene package especially, since there's so bloody much peak partridge in there), but i maintain that everything after lolly adefope doesn't work.

This one was better, quite a few genuine laughs, the ending worked better though I found the animal voices bit unwatchable.

great episode and the ending was brilliant

Pivot to realising he had something on them and could exploit it was very well done.

Presumably this means the new show being talked about is War Machines.

It was infinitely better than the first episode. I thought the animal voices cringe-worthy done good, not bad. Really enjoyed this all the way through. "RIP you will be mist".

What still kind of bugs me is that Jennie - most of the time - doesn't bat an eyelash at AP's faux meanderings, and neither does the audience. Though the audience as gullible 'clap cattle' is probably close to the truth tbf.

*"he used to bring them off in the street"
*John's hand on Suzannah's knee in the clips
*The bit with the fan from Sunderland

Animal voices was maybe good but I just couldn't watch it

AP's eulogy literally drenched by whisky and Haskill's intake boosting Scotland's economy, that was sort of old school AP imo. I thought it was inspired.

Technically the meat-packing plant is in Willand

Oh one more - in the battle recreation "don't, I've got kids"

He had a v good quip about Adrian Chiles too, but I forget these jokes so quickly.

couldn't think what that "I've got kids" reminded me of but it was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpF4tBwhGQ

Anyone else follow the random Twitter debate about vegetarianism going on in the background?

Alan’s odd pronunciation of a couple of things in the first one reminded me a bit of Stephen toast, and now we have matey boy from horrible histories / the detectorists in the ray purchase role

do not disparage the co-writer of Paddington 2 in this manner

I thought Farnaby was perfect for the Partridge universe btw, like he could have been in four episodes of the TV version of Knowing Me as different characters.

yeah, i don't mind him tbh

What still kind of bugs me is that Jennie - most of the time - doesn't bat an eyelash at AP's faux meanderings, and neither does the audience.

this i don’t mind because real-life precedents make this at least partially believable, and jennie’s ultimately trusting that alan’s crapness won’t impact her career at all (at least until the last few minutes, when she’s basically staring showbiz death in the face).

also, now we know she had to deal with some horrifyingly sleazy shit from baskell, so there’s a good chance she’s relieved to be working with a dithering fool who isn’t a rapey bastard.

and on that: the writers have put jennie in the invidious position of being the subject of baskell’s revoltingness while also trying to step around what he was in order to keep her career intact. this has certainly happened right through tv history, and seems to be the first major theme of this series. has partridge been this dark before?

thought the second was unwatchable :/

it all feels so stiff, like his partridge muscles have ceased up from under use

The stiffness is part of the point, everyone who isn't Jennie is physically awkward on camera. Jennie doesn't bat an eyelid when Alan goes off on one because she's a pro.

The fact that Alan himself is replacing a journeyman hack and noted sex pest at least gives it the veneer of credibility that he might be back on camera, it looks like a gig no one else would touch with a bargepole.

Art Garfunkel Detectorists guy always makes a great foil though.

under-use? in the last three years he's hosted TFI Friday as Alan, co-written Nomad and performed it as a six-hour audiobook, co-written and starred in the 45-minute Scissored Isle, co-written and performed six half-hours of Mid Morning Matters, consulted or collaborated on half a dozen magazine pieces, gone on Inheritance Tracks as Alan, co-written these six half hours (nb that the Gibbonses say that the writing-with-Coogan part is mainly the three of them sitting around talking as Alan, but Coogan does the voice) and possibly co-written another six before they shot these.

2018 didn't see any new material out, but only because they were writing two entire TV projects and filming / editing one of them.

I think my favourite part might have been Alan's reaction to "at school, when the lights were out, all the boys were talking about what they'd like to be."

yeah I caught that too

If anything the lack of inspiration on show here is a symptom of overuse

As sic's list demonstrates, the Gibbons have written a serious amount of Partridge at this point

has partridge been this dark before?

on the radio he was hypnotised into remembering quasi-sexual abuse he suffered as a child, also bullied a current child into tears from his own insecurity, shot a man dead on television, and later forged a signature using a dead man's hand to try and get in back front of an audience to fill the cavernous hole inside his empty soul

this one doesn't have a laugh track though

If anything the lack of inspiration on show here is a symptom of overuse

the overriding theme of this episode is as far from lack-of-inspiration as alan has ever been. we’ve only just reached act 2 of the series arc. and as long as alan gets new frameworks to work within, i don’t see him being overused at all. at best this is only reminiscent of earlier partridge.

xp to sic: true, and imo career-long sex pest fallout is darker than fatal gunshot, cross forgery and childhood bullying, but about as dark as recalling his own sexual abuse (which i’d forgotten about so thanks for reminding me they’ve dealt with this area before)