This Time With Alan Partridge (One Show Spoof)

[BlodwynPig]

FUCK THEORY AND OPINION

[iamcoop]

It's fucking funny that's what it is!

[St_Eddie]

FUCK THEORY AND OPINION

Finally, somebody talking sense.

[BlodwynPig]

Finally, somebody talking sense.

you are now added to my "Immune from THE 23RD GATE ANNIHILATION" list. Whatever that may mean ;) .... !

:8)

[Twed]

It means he's fucked when the 24th gate comes around.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Anyone else thinking the big reveal in the final episode will be that Lynn died years ago and she only exists in Alan's mind? Notice you never see her interacting with the other characters. They have these weirdly isolated little asides with each other and it often seems that she is saying the sort of things Alan would bounce around in his inner monologue.

No but I can get behind the idea that this is all a wish fulfilment daydream of Alan's (including the one-upmanship arguments, in fact especially those) and none of it is actually happening. For a start, he is cut far too much authorial slack both in the studio and the vt segments.

[jsgibble]

The weeks between episodes of this don't feel as long as they would for other good stuff because you aren't done with it after just one watch, it's so rich, as everyone's already said

[DrGreggles]

No but I can get behind the idea that this is all a wish fulfilment daydream of Alan's (including the one-upmanship arguments, in fact especially those) and none of it is actually happening. For a start, he is cut far too much authorial slack both in the studio and the vt segments.

I still think Alan will end the series on top, possibly at the expense of someone else (Jennie?).
That another BBC show has been announced suggests that he doesn't do something irredeemable this time anyway.

[DrGreggles]

I still think Alan will end the series on top, possibly at the expense of someone else (Jennie?).
That another BBC show has been announced suggests that he doesn't do something irredeemable this time anyway.

:accident:

[petril]

No but I can get behind the idea that this is all a wish fulfilment daydream of Alan's (including the one-upmanship arguments, in fact especially those) and none of it is actually happening. For a start, he is cut far too much authorial slack both in the studio and the vt segments.

Right, I'll tell you a theory:

Alan didn't kill Forbes McAllister; Forbes McAllister killed Alan and the last 20-odd years have been Alan's warped psyche turning what should be his life flashing before his eyes and a slow, calming acceptance and moving on to an afterlife he'd actually like into an uneasy future based on his own emotional memories of the past, because he's spending his last moments alive fighting to the death to deny it. CUT TO Michael Buerk going "Al-al-al-al-alan Partridge, who died, yesterday" in an Honest Obituaries style.

Lynn was his PA, but what we've seen of him bullying her is his own unease at being pushed around. A chance to fight back with someone who needs him. Manifested as a servile figure, who's always able to help because that's all she exists for in here, to help and then disappear, ready for next time he calls.

Shutting down Pear Tree Productions was the first attempt at accepting death. He couldn't be honest with these images of staff, and say "look, it's failed, we have to end". He had to pretend otherwise. Working against his own mind, denying the situation, the awkward sexual encounter not just his own difficulty expressing sexuality, but a metaphor for not being able to see his death through. Not yet.

The Travel Tavern is the career he hoped he could get into but couldn't. He's segregated there, and he's part of it, but not of it. His attempts to just act like part of it (Zombies, PETE BEST'S BASTARDING ALBUM conversation, the awkward flirting) are driven by his insecurities. The hotel is always them together and despite the customer being of importance, they're never part of the group, just outsiders being served.

Michael is all the friends he wanted when he was younger, but never got to be friends with. Some, he drove away with his own lack of self awareness, some because he was too scared to open up and thus only ever talked about really dull stuff, hiding his keenness on certain subjects away. Maybe he had being keen and interested bullied or coerced out of him at a young age? The petrol station is a failed manifestation of good times with friends, a dull but functional place where function is ignored, and his friendship is formally delineated. Michael, the staff, Alan the man, a superior.

The videos, Dante's Fires, and radio are manifestations of his own faulty assertiveness and inability to get on with the drudgy bits of work - the tedious stuff you have to plough through to get to the exciting buzz of doing good things. His unwillingness to see where he's not perfect and learn and grow hampered him, and so it plays out as very dull but safe work, work where he can't see flaws because there's very little room, and because they're barrel scraping jobs, there's no room to criticise him because he's the only one who can do it.

Hamilton's Water Breaks is his warped vision of eagerness and professionalism, tainted by his ever present fear of Murhpy's law ruining it. He can't see or accept him having a part in things that failed, because he's not attuned to see flaws in himself. He keeps trying, pushing to see the job through, turning desperate even though he's under a cow and can only watch, immobilised as Cliff Thorburn takes his job.

The Jed Maxwell episode is a failed attempt to confront his own ego. Trying to do his thing alone in the hotel, with the audience being the public, but more importantly, the two RTÉ men. Coaxing him towards a peaceful acceptance on the sly, but Alan's mind always has to top things. To get a small win over itself. Jed worms his way in
and Alan sees what's become of his own heart, a shrine to just him existing. Not to what he's achieved, or loved, or anything that he's been part of, just him. Like in that Hyperspace episode where they go into The Actor Kevin Eldon's dream-space-thing and it's just a huge statue of him. Ominous, and creepy as fuck. He can't take it, not 90s Alan. So he runs. Fast.

The new house? That's his perfect life that he cannot attain, so even as it progresses to completion he knows there's something missing but has a blind spot to what - it's his own insecurities, his own inability to self-reflect, admit flaws and grow. He dithers over the plans late on and panics. He has no family at all to share in this house, as they've all fucked off recently, so that emptiness is raw, very raw. Sonja is banished to the static caravan because she's not the perfect family, but Alan can't face up to what he wants out of life. Not honestly. Honestly would include seeing his own flaws and correcting.

Dave Clifton represents what he loathes about other people in the industry. A problematic figure who's still able to sit a rung above Alan. His wild, dying mind firing off everything in it's last throes of life runs through a counterpoint to Alan: his success a mirror of the jealousy and bitterness about the industry and its people, his failures Alan having the fantasy last laugh. But that's all it ever is, a fantasy.

Sue Cook and Bill Oddie are his distance from others. An unsureness of whether to trust people or not. His lack of networking skill brought to the fore in a literal way? We hear their names a lot, but never see much of an interaction, apart from a phone call and a message left at reception.

Alpha Papa is his own childhood fantasy of working in broadcasting, warped by childhood insecurities flooding back into a literal life or death scenario. Alan wishes he could be brave, assertive and look at himself first, but he can't. Pat is a disjointed mesh of that and the people he admires, hates and is jealous of, personified by hazy memories of watching Roddy Doyle adaptations and a few episodes of Deep Space Nine. His bizarre mesh of three things turn this into a big action movie guy not taking their shit. But this guy isn't Alan, and only Alan can be the hero. Therefore Pat is created as the baddy in order for Alan to be the hero by default. Which he fumbles. If only he could go back and sort himself out, but it's too late.

Mid Morning Matters is the cosy part of this, where he can maybe accept dying, but has to be gently brought into it. A comfy bit of life, where he has few worries and can relax. Someone under his wing who can't really threaten him, a place where he can find that peace to accept his death. But it must be introduced slowly. And the dying embers of his hubris are there, turning that into a guest slot back on telly, and a path into confrontation with his fate that he's unable to see until it's too late and he's dragged through it. Needless to say we had the last laugh, now fuuuuuuck off

also: I had a weird, sharp burst of daft inspiration from "Lynn is dead" and decided to see if it would go somewhere daft

[bgmnts]

I don't see anything to disprove this theory.

[Solid Jim]

Dante's Fires

A dead giveaway, wasn't it? That and Michael's monologue about how if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away, but if you've made your peace then the devils are really angels freeing you from the Earth.

[St_Eddie]

I don't see anything to disprove this theory.

It's not really a theory if it's what the writers clearly intended, as is the case withpetrilTanaka's post.

[BlodwynPig]

how does it explain the Alan Partridge books that I am holding my hands?

[petril]

BlodwynPig is part of the mass manifestion of the audience who never truly accepted Alan, a disonance with his own view of himself as a cracking broadcaster and not someone stuck about a decade out of time in the wrong direction. An audience who may love Alan, but as he struggles with trust, he cannot trust the audience he wants giving him what he wants to be genuine.

(just to clarify, none of it is what I genuinely believe, it's just a daft tangent off "Lynn is dead" that got a bit out of hand)

[BlodwynPig]

BlodwynPig is part of the mass manifestion of the audience who never truly accepted Alan, a disonance with his own view of himself as a cracking broadcaster and not someone stuck about a decade out of time in the wrong direction. An audience who may love Alan, but as he struggles with trust, he cannot trust the audience he wants giving him what he wants to be genuine.

(just to clarify, none of it is what I genuinely believe, it's just a daft tangent off "Lynn is dead" that got a bit out of hand)

thank goodness, I felt like I was fading from reality.

Ahaaaaaa!

[petril]

actually, reading it all back, I've basically said Alan is Rimmer in Better Than Life, haven't I?

[Cuellar]

Theory total gubbins, sorry, for reasons St Eddie gives and more.

Why would she be dead, what purpose would that serve.

[Cuellar]

Partridge in the Bardo

[imitationleather]

The ending of Mid-Morning Matters shows that Alan was crucified.

This entire series is taking place in purgatory.

[NoOffenceLynn]

I'm going to go with the poster who thinks Partridge farmed out his pre-recorded pieces to Pear Tree Productions/his mates and that's what gives them the amateur rush to editing feel. For me, some of the best laughs have been in them


Also, we already know that Alan is involved in the editing process, when he introduced a tribute to John Baskell which was made with kids pictures they had sent in, and the music overture being "Glockenspiel Dream" as Alan "kindly" told us.

This tune was played on MMM S2.
Alan introduced it as "this is from  a Chill-out Complation CD I got in a car boot sale
called Glockenspiel Dreams.

And with that, I have revealed the most lame (but proud) fangirl fact in this thread

[QDRPHNC]

Didn't like the CPR sketch at all - I got why it's supposed to be funny, it just didn't make me laugh. Maybe those kinds of flights of fancy work better in book form rather than seeing them acted on-screen.

Still very much in the "mmmmmm" camp on this series. Episode 3 was great, 4 had it's moments, but overall not so good. Again, many issues stem from the part of my brain going "... but that would never happen," but I don't want to engage in more of that debate with the "laqer and a wank" types.

[BlodwynPig]

Didn't like the CPR sketch at all - I got why it's supposed to be funny, it just didn't make me laugh. Maybe those kinds of flights of fancy work better in book form rather than seeing them acted on-screen.

Still very much in the "mmmmmm" camp on this series. Episode 3 was great, 4 had it's moments, but overall not so good. Again, many issues stem from the part of my brain going "... but that would never happen," but I don't want to engage in more of that debate with the "laqer and a wank" types.

Laughing is for the olds, grandad.

[QDRPHNC]

Laughing is for the olds, grandad.

I really want to like it though. And I do like it. It's funny. I think it could just be better if they toned it down a bit. Like, Alan doing the CPR on the sex doll was pretty funny, it hinted at some backstory - not only at the ownership of the doll itself, but why he felt compelled to shoot an entire CPR segment with it. But then the whole thing about doing the chest compressions to Queen felt like it was trying way too hard to milk more laughs to the detriment of the piece overall.

Same with Monty Don. Really funny and well put together. But then they had to over-egg the whole thing with the confrontation in the car park. It added nothing (the funniest stuff in that segment was the interplay between Lynn and Donty, Alan asking for more turf, less surf, Alan offering the billion pounds to use a particular trowel), and in fact chipped away at the good stuff that had been built prior to that, by introducing suspension-of-disbelief-destroying questions, like why would Alan do a piece to camera when his prey is just inside? Why would Alan allow it in the final edit since it makes him look stupid? Why would This Time leave it in as it makes them look incompetent? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[St_Eddie]

"mmmmmm" camp on this series.

"Oooohhhhhh mmmmmmince" ~ Camp on this series David

[QDRPHNC]

Jason Argonaut?

[Captain Z]

I hope they are thinking about a future book where some of the backstories, e.g. the doll, would be expanded upon.

[St_Eddie]

Jason Argonaut?

"mmmmmm"

[jobotic]

Clantily scad



This is great already

[AliasTheCat]

That cold open got a big laugh from me.