This Time with Alan Partridge

Did You Know?

• Alan Partridge becomes the stand-in presenter of This Time after the regular co-host falls ill.
• The show features Partridgean tirades on hand hygiene, leading him to lurk outside BBC toilets doing spot-checks on colleagues.
• On-location reporter Ruth Duggan, played by Lolly Adefope, has become Partridge's arch-nemesis.

Production

Alan Partridge first appeared in 1991, the creation of Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci. The BBC series This Time was the first Partridge project for the broadcaster after several made for Sky, and came from Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions. The Gibbons brothers co-wrote with Coogan, directed, and Ted Dowd produced. Coogan believed the moment was right for Partridge’s return, suggesting he could embody the outlook of Brexit voters. Neil Gibbons observed that live TV presenting had shifted: where once a fluffed line was mortifying, now such blunders can land presenters jobs, comparing Partridge to Piers Morgan. Coogan and the Gibbonses deliberately avoided this approach, reasoning that if Alan’s crass buffoonery is the selling point, he has nowhere to fall. A second series was made in 2020, airing on BBC One from 30 April 2021.

Reception

This Time with Alan Partridge received mostly positive reviews. Lucy Mangan of The Guardian praised the show's precision engineering, while Tim Glanfield of Radio Times called it some of the best Alan Partridge ever made. Sean O'Grady of The Independent gave it five stars, calling it a consistently strong creative achievement. A segment featuring Coogan as Martin Brennan, an Irish Alan Partridge lookalike who closes the show with Irish Republican Army songs, was described by Raidió Teilifís Éireann as TV moment of the year.

Hugo Rifkind of The Times was less positive, noting that only occasionally does it soar into unexpected places. Lucinda Smyth of Prospect argued the show is OK but not the best of British television or of Coogan, with patchy timing and a tiringly Alan-centric script. Piers Morgan, spoofed by the show, said Coogan was trying to exact revenge on him and called the series utterly unwatchable.