This Time with Alan Partridge
COMEDY This Time with Alan Partridge Friday, BBC1 HD, 9.30pm
BBC1 HD, 9.30pm
Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge is clinging to his position as co-presenter of the deeply uncomfortable The One Showstyle series.
TV legend ALAN PARTRIDGE returns to the sofa in magazine show
GET READY FOR more cringe-making moments as Steve Coogan’s alter ego returns in a second series of
This Time with Alan Partridge.
The comedy sees the inept broadcaster presenting weekday magazine TV show This Time with co-host Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding), alongside roving reporter Ruth Duggan (Lolly Adefope) and social-media expert Simon Denton (Tim Key).
Meanwhile, there are glimpses behind the scenes where Alan’s ever-faithful assistant, Lynn Benfield (Felicity Montagu), is on hand to help guide her boss through any personal or professional mishaps.
In the first series, shown in 2019, Alan was hired to stand in as co-presenter of This Time when one of the regular hosts fell ill. Despite getting into trouble with his bosses over his behaviour towards Jennie, Alan’s now established as the show’s co-presenter and he’s desperate to hold on to his new role…
Tv&satellite Week caught up with the blazer-wearing broadcaster to hear more… ALAN, FOR THE UNINITIATED, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE This Time? It’s what’s known as a magazine show, bottling all of the magic of magazine reading and translating that into 30 minutes of TV. It’s all your favourite magazines rolled into one. It’s as informative as the
Reader’s Digest, as entertaining as Private Eye pre-hislop, and
as sassy as Bunty.
WHAT KIND OF SUBJECTS DOES THE
SHOW COVER? Current affairs, hotbutton topics, global issues, everyday niggles, some very light politics – pitched at or below GCSE level
– all held together with chat. We underfill the show by about 30 per cent to allow for nattering.
WHAT’S IT LIKE WORKING WITH YOUR CO-PRESENTER JENNIE GRESHAM?
We approach our roles as coanchors slightly differently. One of us presents umpteen other BBC shows from Walking the Lakes with Jennie Gresham to The Unexplored
Brontës with Jennie Gresham. The other one prefers to dedicate him or herself exclusively to This Time because he/she thinks our viewers deserve that. We’ve had our ups and downs, but are we friends? Are Ant and Dec friends? Are Holly and Phil? Of course not! HOW HAVE YOU COPED WITH THE CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS ON SET? We have regular testing which I’ve not enjoyed. I’ve got an overactive gag reflex which makes it an ordeal so I’ve had to develop a routine. I numb the throat with an anaesthetic spray, blindfold myself, put on some loud music, open my mouth and count to 500. The tester sneaks in, swabs, and leaves. I can get to 500 without knowing I’ve been tested.
BEFORE JOINING This Time, YOU HADN’T PRESENTED ON THE BBC FOR 25 YEARS. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE
BACK? It’s like stumbling across a long-discarded pair of trousers you’d outgrown decades earlier, but now due to a new fitness regime and a bout of gastric flu, they fit again. You put them on, savouring the snug grip of waistband on midriff. It feels intensely satisfying.