I'm Alan Partridge
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I'm Alan Partridge is a British sitcom. Two series were produced, the first in 1997 and the second in 2002. Six episodes were produced for each series. Steve Coogan stars as Alan Partridge.
Both series were written by Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham. They starred Coogan as Alan Partridge; Felicity Montague as his faithful, mousey PA, Lynn; Simon Greenhall as Geordie Travel Tavern handyman/BP garage attendant, Michael; and Phil Cornwell as rival DJ, Dave Clifton.
Series One
In this series, the former chat show host Partridge has divorced his wife, distanced himself from his children and ends up living in a small motel. He is reduced to doing local radio broadcasts very early in the morning and making corporate appearances for various relatively low profile firms. Partridge shows his usual sexism and bigotry, constantly insulting his hard-working personal assistant, Lynn, ("hard-working, but there's no affection") by giving her a meagre salary and making her perform the most trivial of tasks. His social life is minimal, with only phone calls from Bill Oddie and the occasional acquaintance talking to him, as well as silly, masculine chats with friend/hotel handyman/liar about military work, Michael. Michael, a Geordie with a thick accent that Alan barely understands at most times, is a desperate character, never less than when Alan looks out of his hotel room window to see Michael standing in a car park, head in his hands tearing at his hair. He tells army stories, arousing suspicion that he is just a compulsive liar. Other hotel staff include receptionist Susan (Barbara Durkin), her assistant, Sophie (Sally Phillips), and Sophie's young boyfriend, Ben (James Lance). Alan hated it whenever Sophie and Ben were being intentionally sexual, probably in a cruel way, and came up with diversions to interrupt their "going around the back for fifteen minutes." One method is to ask for a "cheese sandwich with cooked meat, and a hot egg, a crescent of crisps and a side clump of cress. Anytime in the next 15 minutes." Susan often flirts with Alan, although in a polite way to her understanding and a vaguely sexual way to Alan's. She put up with Alan's silly remarks about everything until the last episode of series one when she snapped at Alan's leaving party. She slapped him across the face and bawled like a banshee while Alan stood calmly, before remarking to Lynn "I think that went quite well!" The series ended as Alan and Lynn tidied up to the theme from Black Beauty.
Series Two
By series two, we catch up with Alan five years after he left the Linton Travel Tavern. He himself admits that in the intervening time he's been "clinically fed up", which culminated in him putting on a lot of weight and driving to Dundee in his bare feet whilst gorging on Toblerones. By the start of this series, he believes himself that he has "bounced back", which is also the title of his poorly-selling autobiography.
External links
- BBC - I'm Alan Partridge (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/partridge/life/iap_index.shtml)
- British Sitcom Guide (http://www.sitcom.co.uk/alan_partridge/)
- Phill.co.uk Comedy Guide (http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/alanp/)
- BBC Comedy Guide (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/i/imalanpartridge_7771765.shtml)