2 hours ago
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Alan Partridge is in crisis! But then, who isn’t these days? Last time he was on television, Alan was melting down live on air while hosting the light magazine show This Time, ending the series quite literally locked out of the BBC. At the start of his new, self-produced project, the light documentary How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), the broadcaster reveals he’s since hit another low by fainting into the lap of a female interviewee during a corporate event for Norfolk agribusiness stalwarts Bannroyd Animal Feed. Tough times, but personalities of Partridge’s calibre know how to bounce back: tie your troubles to a national trend and see if you can get a series out of it.
How Are You?, then, sees Steve Coogan’s immortal alter ego in roving factual mode, looking into an epidemic of anxiety, stress and loneliness that he feels is worsening: “If I can use an outdated term, it’s just got mental!” The journey will see him experiment with religion, reconnect with friends from school and take a lot of restorative country walks, as well as confronting his recent past. Episode one builds towards a hostile but cathartic reunion with “Sidekick” Simon Denton (Tim Key), Alan’s former colleague on This Time and North Norfolk Digital radio, and as this new series goes on, we’re shown unseen clips from Alan’s stints on both.
For Coogan and his long-term writing/directing collaborators Neil and Rob Gibbons, How Are You? is a sideways move. Whereas This Time pushed Partridge into new territory, How Are You? often retreads it: as well as directly reviving old formats, the whole piece resembles the mockumentaries of the 2010s, Welcome to the Places of My Life and Scissored Isle. And, as Alan’s private life bleeds into his investigations, we’re most strongly reminded of the podcast series From the Oasthouse.
That presents a small problem. There are two Alans: Winning Alan (currently has a big paid presenting gig) and Wilderness Alan (doesn’t), and although Wilderness Alan was the star of the faultless TV sitcom I’m Alan Partridge back in 1997, a more wistful Wilderness Alan has recently taken flight, in books and From the Oasthouse. How Are You? places us inside the oasthouse and casts Katherine Kelly as Katrina, Alan’s wildly unsuitable paramour from the podcast. But that tragic tale – Alan is in denial about Katrina cheating on him with his friend and local tanning-centre mogul, the unseen Darryl Flench – feels like one that would have benefited from the slower pace of audio-only Alan, where the listener’s imagination can co-write the comedy. When we can’t see him, Wilderness Alan has room to breathe: television nowadays feels more suited to putting Winning Alan under pressure and watching him implode, as happened on This Time.
These, however, are quibbles in the face of one large, undeniable fact: whatever medium he inhabits, Partridge remains the funniest comic creation in Britain, and even placeholder Partridge has more laughs-out-loud per half-hour than anything else on telly. How Are You? is produced and directed by Alan, as well as starring him, which opens up his genius for sloppy errors and poor editorial decisions. If he thinks Britain’s mental health problems are best illustrated by an aggressively edited montage of exploding fruit, that’s what we’re getting, and there’s nobody to tell him that he’s accidentally used the word “tastistics” or the phrase “mental bealth henefits” in his voiceover. The slight grimace we regularly catch as he strides out of shot, knowing on some level that that piece to camera was another balls-up, never stops being funny, and nor do the idents he’s made to fit between segments, the best of which sees him attempt to fix us with a sympathetic smile while simultaneously swallowing a mouthful of humble British tea.
Is there anything more joyous than Alan grunting as he squats down next to a skip, or apologising to an off-screen passenger for sweeping biscuit crumbs too forcefully from a train table? Surely not. Visually he’s a feast too, with his new dye job several shades too light to be plausible, and his 2025 wardrobe featuring mustard chinos, black-and-white pundit pumps, an arsenal of body warmers and an enthusiastic overreaction to the news that rugby shirts are back in fashion.
Plus, the subject matter here allows for the glimpses into Alan’s soul that have been there ever since the Gibbons brothers took over co-writing duties. More than once the series pulls off flashes of pathos, where Alan’s lack of self-awareness reveals a sadness that almost has us crying tears of emotion, before the persona snaps back in and we’re crying from laughter again instead. That can happen because we’ve loved him for so long: any version of Alan Partridge is always welcome back.
English (US)