We are all Alan Partridge now
Alan-about: A potted history of Alan
Our story begins with that quaint old aunt of media; Radio. Beavering away within the BBC’s cavernous production salt mines were a group of writers and performers bent on satirising the pompous conventions of news media. Or something like that. The timeless comedy that emerged was On the Hour, a supremely inventive and witty series that saw the debut of one Alan Gordon Partridge. Alan read the sport, but didn’t necessarily understand it:
One of his defining traits had emerged;
He is a man struggling to speak with authority about something of which he has no working knowledge.
Overseen by Armando Iannucci (who you may know from Veep), the show transferred to TV and became The Day Today. How successful was the show? There is now a whole generation of people in the UK who cannot view TV news without laughing at it’s absurd conventions (mostly in despair). That successful.
Alan took to the visual medium with customary aplomb, pissing off a female Rally driver, doggedly pursuing a footballer into the showers for a post-match interview and creating a World Cup visual aid so convoluted he ends up (literally) lost inside it. Trait number two emerges:
He is an incompetent person given an extraordinary large number of chances to prove otherwise.
Running with that theme of unearned opportunities, the fictional ABBA loving TV personality then got this own TV show. Knowing Me Knowing You (and the Christmas special, Knowing Me Knowing Yule). Complete with cheesy catchphrase “Ah-HA!” and naff theme tune, the show skewered not only Alan but the faux-cosy nature of TV chat shows. It’s easy to read Alan and know what he is thinking and it’s usually the opposite of what he is trying to express. Trait number three:
He is visibly insincere.
KMKY ends with the slight mishap of an on-air shooting, so it’s unsurprising that when we pick up with Alan via the mockumentary I’m Alan Partridge we find him back in Norfolk doing local radio and living in a travel tavern. Despite his life being in ruins Alan’s ego remains in tact “I’m a national TV broadcaster trapped in the body of a regional radio presenter. There’s no operation that can save me. Not on the NHS.” Trait number four:
He is deluded to the point where it damages his everyday life.
So where next for Alan? That question is readily answered by Mid Morning matters, a web series that sees Alan teemed with sidekick Simon (the brilliant Tim Key) as Alan goes digital, broadcasting for North-Norfolk radio. DigiAlan, as the man himself might say. Whilst Alan likes the ego boost of being seen as a mentor, it’s clear that he still takes himself ever so seriously:
Trait number five: Alan is conceited and doesn’t play well with others.
Then it was time for Norfolk’s finest to grace the big screen. Alpha Papa introduced the comedy of naffness to the big screen and contained some fantastic writing: ’Have you ever met a genuinely clever bus driver?’ It also shows how even a little fame warps Alan for the worse as he plays the crowd during a radio-show siege:
Trait number six: Fame goes to his head. And inflates it considerably.
Conclusion —
An enjoyable romp through Alan’s back catalogue there. The purpose of which is not just to spotlight an incredibly versatile comedic character but also to draw attention to the fact that large swathes of people are behaving like Alan on das interwebz
We all know those people. They are the ones that shout the loudest, who bluster and defame, who bristle at any view that contradicts their own. Whether they are a leftie or rightie politically, I’d wager that most moderates ignore them. Anything for the sake of an easy life, right?
So whenever I see someone on a ego trip pompously declaring themselves beyond criticism and struggling engage with people on a human level I think of Alan. Alan and his tan leather driving gloves, (“just helps to get a bit more purchase on the wheel”), his love of the Daily Mail and his infuriating habit of the thinking about almost every subject literally, in the most reductive terms possible. And then, dear reader, I start smiling. I start smiling because of the ridiculousness of the truth: that there is no dividing line between internet nutbars, charlatans and Alan Gordon Partridge. They are all equally naff. Isn’t that rather lovely?
How about we declare that behaving obnoxiously and being ideologically blinkered are as naff and uncool as playing air bass?
