Alan Partridge comes to BBC America

hopefully the travel/history show is still coming too, and isn't reduced to segments in This Time

yeah, this doesn’t exactly sound promising for its survival (assuming it’s the same thing)

Coogan also said that he had other plans for the character, explaining: 'There might be a documentary series with Alan roving around Britain.'

guessing at this stage that the Beeb wanted more of the thing that had been on the Beeb already, dgaf about more of the thing that had been on Sky Atlantic previously

makes complete sense tbh

i’m listening to nomad again, and had forgotten just how brilliant parts of it are, to whit:

‘twas the night before alan’s walk
and all through the house
not a creature was stirring
not even an alan

he delivers this, then condescendingly states the importance of poetry containing a rhyme so that the reader knows the author isn’t just lazy. but the poem he only just delivered doesn’t rhyme.

one of my favourite things about the gibbons era is the punchlines which cap off multiple jokes at once. a brilliant example is him saying candle in the wind was about “marilyn monroe, princess diana… there are others” — the two jokes being a) he can’t think of any others and b) there weren’t any others. it’s proper genius imo.

how weird, I'm just watching that Candle In The Wind episode right now!

it’s such a good episode too. this time is a lot better on third/fourth viewing. loads of classic alan.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/sep/02/alan-partridge-podcast-interview-boris-johnson-oasthouse

Podcast on Audible. I don't have an account though, anyone know how podcasts work on it as in, can I get the free trial and dl them all or will they be spread out?

When I did a free trial to get Butterfly Effect I was able to get them all, but they may decide to space these out - dunno

the preview episode was so bloody good. this should be some of the best alan in a long time.

you have to go back to the 2017 Red Nose Day Stonkers voiceover to hit recent Alan that isn't very good to excellent though

yeah that’s true, i just think this is shaping up to be better than this time, both books, scissored isle &c.

like, the whole sequence of him rambling is just astonishingly funny and original in the alan canon

or a callback to Christmas 1994 :)

(I think this is the first Partridgiana that situates him in Norfolk, too)

Mid Morning Matters is the best Partridge of the past decade (haven't heard the podcast yet).

true, this probably won’t eclipse mmmwap

sic: ‘welcome to the places of my life’ was set & shot in norwich

Seems to be 18 podcast episodes up at about 25 minutes each. With an audible trial you can get the whole lot

I'm an episode and a half in and so far it's great.

AA - I meant the sketch I posted, which was 18 years before Places Of My Life :)

Weird that this is something you have to spend a credit on rather than one of the Amazon originals ‘included with your membership’

I enjoy it but can’t listen on headphones , it’s too much Alan, too intimate. Over a small speaker like old timey radio style is perfect

someone do a revive when it is on slsk

diy

Okay I was legit lolling through episode two numerous times, which was offputting because I was listening to it while I ran.

downloaded it, now I just need to figure out a way/time to listen to it

I had to turn it off in the car because I was laughing too hard.

AA - I meant the sketch I posted, which was 18 years before Places Of My Life :)

― erratic wolf angular guitarist (sic), 2020年9月4日 星期五 上午 5:59 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

agh of course you were, wish i could read tbh

i’m just over halfway through, and it’s not MidMorMat brilliant but still heaps worthy of existing. plenty of classic moments and even some of the most effective pathos in the canon.

Coogan's performance is so incredibly and hilariously detailed in this, especially thrilling after my disappointment with same in Nomad

I’ve tried listening to it and doing other things and that hasn’t worked out. It demands full attention

Yeah, I'm enjoying it a lot but finding it hard to find times I can hear but am not going to fall asleep

for people that can't be arsed pissing away time or money nor audible signups to experience this so so, pretty non-essential AP material, it's on slsk now!

Aha!

this should be some of the best alan in a long time.

The episode where Alan goes to Lynn's house is one of the best Partridge things ever.

(it is also infuriating and very stupid that it wasn't released as separate episodes.)

The head's too big for the body

Every episode I've listened to has been great so far, and much better than last year's TV series IMO. The bit in like the second episode where he was talking about his dog savaging a guy who was walking past the Oasthouse with a sandwich and who refused to drop said sandwich made me weep with laughter.

What's curious about the whole discussion here is - Partridge is still good. Very good. And has been through multiple instances and formats.

Few characters or comedy ideas remain this good for this long?

because he isn't Harry Enfield for a start! I was listening to a clip on 4extra of his R4 comedy debut in the 80's, where he plays a hapless stand-up comedian saying stuff like "you lot would go down well in a graveyard" + "did you hear about the Irish lampost? it pissed on a dog" and I was pmsl!

Sandy Stone did, though only through one-act monologue plays a couple of times a decade.

Partridge (29 years) has a way to go to beat Edna Everage (64 years, and not necessarily out yet), who has at least as many formats as Partridge and while the character does not have the depth of Alan - especially after her elevation to Damehood, twenty years in - and has been in some ill-designed projects, remained funny across stand-up, revue, radio, scripted theatre, semi-scripted TV, talk shows as both guest and host, supporting character in film, comedy book, fictional autobiography, sitcom actor, theatre improv, live in-person appearances, game-show hosting and advertising spokesperson.

Last one reminds me: iirc, and I may not, her equivalent was deliberately portrayed as annoying and unfunny in Humphries' roman a clef

oh yeah, she made records too

Partridge is still good. Very good. And has been through multiple instances and formats.

Few characters or comedy ideas remain this good for this long?

What's more remarkable is the general consistency despite seismic changes in the creative team behind the character. The guys stewarding Alan now are doing a fantastic job of making the character deeper and more complex while still staying true to the original character on On The Hour.

on my second run-through now. at times it seems a bit short of ideas, but the peaks are incredible. the father’s day episode is a work of art imo. as good as early partridge was, he feels like an real and fully realised person now, with the consequences of his actions over decades coming home to roost in the most thoughtful and satisfying way.

I listened to the whole thing in one go while redecorating at the weekend. The theme tune never stops being funny after 38 repetitions.

i’m alan partridge, this is my podcast... ‘MTHEOASTHOUSE

Just simple stuff like how he pronounces the "h" in whilst is hilarious. But the Alan Partridge project is deeper than a simple lampoon of hopeless MOR TV presenters now, From The Oasthouse - like the best Alan of recent years - is focused on a certain late-middle-aged redundancy, men who've been coasting on their own hubris and self-belief for so long they've not noticed that it's all leaked away and they;re left with nothing of much value. That thing about how Alan and all his golf club mates discussed with each other what to name their cottages, and Alan ended up with the Oasthouse...

I went to listen to a new one last night, realised after a few seconds it was the one I'd listened to last and just re-listened anyway. Think they do need two run-throughs.
He's got the voice down so well, it's a little close to home actually as he sounds identical to my dad in places. Always has.

stevie and kinder otm. he’s definitely moved slightly out of the realm of parody and more towards portraiture. i know people who are just like alan but 10 times worse: louder, more insecure, more bigoted, and an even greater groaning self of sense-importance. if they wanted alan to remain firmly in parody, they could have cranked him all the way up to 11, but instead they’ve chosen to demonstrate that alan is actually in 2020 now, and is responding positively (and sometimes reluctantly) to changing attitudes. an example of this is where he touches on trans issues: he gets it wrong of course, but he’s at least listening.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-54277794

Alan Partridge statue appears in Norwich

AA, i remember thinking similar when s2 of I'm Alan Partridge came out... the "driving to Dundee in bare feet" suggested he was going to be crayzee but they made him "chilled out" with a girlfriend, which sounded like a terrible idea at first but was done so well, the sort of forced positivity etc

The father's day podcast with the time capsule is oddly moving, while still hilarious.