This Time with Alan Partridge Episode 4 Review

Original air date: March 18, 2019
Directors: Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons
Writers: Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, and Rob Gibbons

Rating: 10/10

This is comedy gold, just about from start to finish. Alan’s been named the permanent host at this point, and he tries to cozy up to Jennie during their breaks, but his insecurities show throughout.

Alan’s also covering some kind of march to Downing Street for a petition to officially recognize police dog bravery. This admittedly isn’t that funny, but it’s pretty good when Simon fucks it up and they don’t have any GPS following the marchers, so they can’t figure out where they are.

My favorite segment might be with Ruth Duggan (Lolly Adefope), the news anchor intent on humiliating Alan.

She acts like there’s a bit of a delay whenever Alan asks her something, to the point in which their conversation is incomprehensible. And then she hilariously responds to Jennie right away. It’s great stuff. She was also very funny in the last episode.

But what this episode is best known for is Alan’s Irish lookalike, played of course by Coogan.

Coogan’s very clearly not just mocking the Irish here. There’s certainly a love for Irish people, as there are in other Alan Partridge bits when he’s dealing with Irish people. But it’s very funny. I can’t get enough of the Irish lookalike saying “Who de hell is dat.” And him singing “Come Out Ye Black and Tans” is fantastic stuff, of course.