Search - I'm Alan Partridge - Series 1 on DVD

A Shining Light Of British Comedy

Steven Stewart | Liverpool | 08/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Steve Coogan, along with Sacha Baron Cohen are pure examples of how good British comedy is. Alan Partridge, is held in the minds of many as one of the greatest comedy characters in British Comedy history. The character itself is a failing TV presenter jumping to any radio or TV programme that will have him. I'm Alan Partridge depicts the fall and rise of Alan Partridge as he struggles against adversity to get back his career. The obstacles in his way just happen to be the controller of BBC television Tony Hayers. Alan Partridge is a boring an monotonous character who is filled with all the inner hate and loneliness we would come to expect from someone with this failing career. Everyone he comes across he fails to leave a good impression, citing his usual bigotry leaves the people who ended his career with justification as to why they did so.



Series 1 focuses on the stage in Alan's life just after he has been divorced by his wife, Carol; distanced himself from his children and is forced to live in the Linton Travel Tavern. The only ounce of a career Alan can claim to have is his radio show "Up with the Partridge" on the fictional "Radio Norwich." This isn't much as it's only on air in the dead time of 4:30am to 7:00am.



Episode 1: Room With An Alan: Alan and his P.A. Lynn view a show home in which Alan manages to confuse and bore the Estate Agent. Convinced he's destined to get a second series of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" he makes an offer. Next he has a meeting with BBC Head of Programmes Tony Hayers who will tell Alan of his future with the BBC. Alan must impress Tony with his ideas or be destined to failure. This particular stressful moment gave birth to the classic quote "Smell my cheese"



Episode 2: Alan Attraction: Without a second series of his programme, Alan is forced to fire the staff of his production company "Peartree Productions." Panicking when asked if they had a second series, Alan says yes so as they plan a party Alan makes a move on his secretary Jill. The surprising thing is that he actually gets lucky for once.



Episode 3: Watership Alan: Alan makes a disparaging comment about farmers, which enrages the farmers union and gets Alan into a lot of trouble. He's also approached to make a corporate video for a small boating holiday company in which he accepts and invents a drinking combination known as the lady boy.



Episode 4: Basic Alan: Linton is going through some major refurbishments, making Alan the only guest. In order to pass the time and cure his boredom, Alan embarks on dismantling his trouser press, walking along the dual-carriageway to the nearest petrol station to buy windscreen washer fluid, amongst other things.



Episode 5: To Kill A Mocking Alan: Alan hosts a show at the Linton entitled "An Afternoon With Alan Partridge" which is intended to impress two Irish TV executives. The afternoon is also attended by Alan's self-confessed biggest fan, Jed Maxwell. He turns out to be a complete psychopath who wants to keep Alan all to himself.



Episode 6: Towering Alan: The man who cancelled Alan's BBC career, Tony Hayers has died leaving Alan in a delightful mood. It gets even better for Alan when Chris Feather takes over Tony's job because Chris is a fan of Alan's and wants him back on the air.



For a series with only 6 episodes, it set in stone a great comedic character and was placed in the history books as a classic sitcom. It was placed in the books along with such great classic sitcoms like Fawlty Towers. To people who aren't familiar with the character, I would strongly recommend you buy this DVD. I promise this will make you laugh more than you have in your entire life."