Partridge idea won’t fly
IT’S been everywhere, this thing about Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge coming back to the BBC. Trailers, tasters, magazine covers, newspaper interviews – Gary Lineker even plugged it during last Monday night’s FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Manchester United. That was a bit weird.
But you can understand why. Partridge is one of our finest comic creations of the past half- century, up there with Mainwaring, Fawlty, Blackadder, Brent etc. A brilliantly observed parody of a mediocre mainstream broadcaster
– toe- curlingly crass, appallingly ego driven, with a hilariously overinflated sense of his own importance – desperately clinging on to what’s left of his sorry career. The man is comedy gold. So a frisson of anticipation ahead of THIS TIME WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE ( BBC1, 9.30pm) is entirely within reason. The question, of course, is whether the show then meets our expectations.
My prediction is that some fans, like me, will be a bit disappointed. I’ve watched tonight’s opener and, yes, in two or three places it did make me laugh. Partridge himself has lost none of his deliciously dreadful appeal. It’s just the format I’m not convinced by.
The premise is that he’s been brought in as temporary stand- in co- host on a live weekday magazine programme, not entirely dissimilar to The One Show. Susannah Fielding plays fellow presenter Jennie.
But while this is a nice idea on paper, on screen you’re soon aware there’s something missing – namely, that vital ring of truth and plausibility. Sure, we know it’s make- believe, but for this to really work as a comedy conceit we still need to be able to imagine, on some level, that it isn’t – that it really could be happening.
Instead, the believability of the whole set- up falls apart far too quickly as the character is repeatedly allowed to… well, basically go off on one. It simply wouldn’t happen. And while that may seem a pedantically obvious point, it shouldn’t be quite as obvious as it is here, because that dilutes the joke.
Underlining the problem further are the “pre- recorded” location reports the character presents on his own – peppered with splendid Partridgisms but, for that very reason, far too blatantly unbroadcastable.
Having said all that, I’ll keep watching, purely because two or three laughs per episode is still more than I’ll get from comedies such as WARREN
( BBC1, 9pm), the new Martin Clunes vehicle preceding it. This is such a let- down. I love Martin Clunes: a fine actor and an all- round decent sort. But his role here as a crabby, mean- spirited driving instructor who’s reluctantly moved north with his partner, is such a waste.
Don’t get me wrong, crabbiness itself is great – I’m a big fan – but comedy’s greatest crabby characters have an odd likeability too. Warren just seems like a prat. Oh, and he says “prat” too often, repeatedly resorting to a lame insult or some low- grade swearing in the absence of a proper gag.