Clunkers from the Alan Partridge Canon

[mrpupkin]

Cup of beans
Just destroying my cereals
Don't shine that torch in my face mate I've just lost a pint of blood

IAP2 is good
End of
U lost
Get over it

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Ah, but it doesn't fit the carefully crafted world of the character... The world in which he shot someone on live television and a newsreader provoked war between Australia and Hong Kong.

[popcorn]

Ah, but it doesn't fit the carefully crafted world of the character... The world in which he shot someone on live television and a newsreader provoked war between Australia and Hong Kong.

I don't think this is completely fair. The character has evolved beyond those early shows and the sort of thing we might expect now is different. The first book also signalled an attention to canon and consistency that the Gibbons have since stuck to. Or at least tried to.

Edit: misread post completely. Phone browsing idiot

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The world in which he had a cow dropped on him, then.

[Campbell Soupe]

A pedantic clunker, but one that always clangs listening to the audiobook of I, Partridge: No East Anglian would ever pronounce Ely (Ee-lee) as Ee-LIE...

[petril]

The world in which he had a cow dropped on him, then.

The world in which Pete Best never released a solo album

[trabuch]

A pedantic clunker, but one that always clangs listening to the audiobook of I, Partridge: No East Anglian would ever pronounce Ely (Ee-lee) as Ee-LIE...

He also mispronounces Hereward Radio (which stretches as far as West Norfolk).

[gilbertharding]

Herry-wood, isn't it?

I might still have the Hereward Radio 225 badge I picked up from when they launched the station with a live roadshow in the car park of the George Hotel, Huntingdon. Wonder if it's worth anything.

[thecuriousorange]

I saw the rubbish "Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and other less-succesful characters" tour in about 2009ish. Remembered/forgotten as something of a car crash. I've not seen the DVD as I can't imagine any of it was worth salvaging. Did Coogan write it himself? Surely the entire Alan project's nadir.

[ajsmith2]

I saw the rubbish "Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and other less-succesful characters" tour in about 2009ish. Remembered/forgotten as something of a car crash. I've not seen the DVD as I can't imagine any of it was worth salvaging. Did Coogan write it himself? Surely the entire Alan project's nadir.

Definitely the nadir, although ironically it was apparently the writing debut of the Gibbons brothers. Was shocked when someone on here told me that.

[popcorn]

Definitely the nadir, although ironically it was apparently the writing debut of the Gibbons brothers. Was shocked when someone on here told me that.

News to me too. IMDB credits them for "additional material".

[vainsharpdad]

"In fact, we've recorded the rough elements of a new series, but I'm not producing it. Someone else is doing it."

From that 2003 Iannucci interview. What the hell was this, then?

[Phil_A]

"In fact, we've recorded the rough elements of a new series, but I'm not producing it. Someone else is doing it."

From that 2003 Iannucci interview. What the hell was this, then?

And is Armando still writing that novel?

[ajsmith2]

"In fact, we've recorded the rough elements of a new series, but I'm not producing it. Someone else is doing it."

From that 2003 Iannucci interview. What the hell was this, then?

Anglian Lives maybe, which came out the month after that article?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367501/

Sounds most likely. I remember at the time the unusually-quick-off-the-heels-of- IAP2 Anglian Lives was interpreted by comedy commentators (well, NotBBC anyway) as a back to basics rush job/apology to try and salvage the Partridge character after the damage wrought by IAP2 (it's since been reclaimed as good by a lot of fans, but at the time IAP2 was considered a bit of a broad disaster in the post-Office climate, as touched upon in that 2003 article and indeed earlier in this thread). Anglian Lives featured a lot more of Partridge just being Partridge at the radio station, which seems like it could have been the result of a 'let's just record Partridge being funny' session in the wake of dissatisfation with IAP2, and that maybe at the time Iannucci thought would end up being worked into a series not a one off special.

[Crabwalk]

I always thought the 'little shit' insult that Susan throws at Alan in IAP was an odd choice. You'd say that to a cheeky child (as Alan did in KMKY), not in rage at a grown man.

[ajsmith2]

I always thought the 'little shit' insult that Susan throws at Alan in IAP was an odd choice. You'd say that to a cheeky child (as Alan did in KMKY), not in rage at a grown man.

Make sense to me. Surely the point is he had often displayed childish or adolescent behaviour during his stay at the travel tavern? His crawling creepy attempts at banter which she presumably had to smile through day after day for months on end seem particularly deserving of this outburst. He imagines they have a flirtatious rapport but that moment reveals the full extent of her contempt for him.

[The Boston Crab]

Susan's entire meltdown makes me feel embarrassed. The worst bit of that amazing series by a long shot, followed by Michael's drunken snark in the same scene. It felt like they needed a climax and completely forced one. It's not funny at all and the delivery is completely unconvincing.

[ajsmith2]

Susan's entire meltdown makes me feel embarrassed. The worst bit of that amazing series by a long shot, followed by Michael's drunken snark in the same scene. It felt like they needed a climax and completely forced one. It's not funny at all and the delivery is completely unconvincing.

Have to say I really don't agree, they both completely work and convince as performances for me. It's a suitably low key and comfortingly quietly depressing way for the show to end. Mind you I've been used to the scene for 21 years and IAP as a whole is this seminal comedy text to me. Maybe if I was watching it cold on a first showing next week I'd feel differently.

[thraxx]

Susan's meltdown didn't work for me either. Not just in terms of her character, though anyone can snap, it doesn't fit into the flow of the scene. Poor editing?

[ajsmith2]

I dunno, it feels 'earned' to me, cos it reminds me a lot of when you're playing up as a kid and then the adult/parent/teacher etc comes down on you like a ton of bricks from what seems like nowhere but has actually been building up inside them while you're oblivious in your own world. In the IAP series, Alan has built up his own little faintly depressing but deeply comforting delusional fantasy bubble using the staff as props, and in that last scene the carriage turns back into a pumpkin with a bump. Not that it effects him for long, if at all, but the staff (except Michael of course who is ultimately shown to be tragic enough to join Alan) have abruptly checked out.

[BritishHobo]

I really like it because it comes out of Alan being so desperate to be liked. Susan is defending him from Michael, asking for Alan to be treated with respect, but he still can't resist trying pathetically to get in with the kids with a sly quiet dig at her temper, as if he's their colleague and they're all scoffing at their boss.

[The Boston Crab]

Depressing to me, should have had a custar pie fight for the real end

[Phoenix Lazarus]

should have had a custar pie fight for the real end

Custar's Last Stand

[Mobius]

Really scraping the barrel for Partridge clunkers

[St_Eddie]

I saw the rubbish "Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and other less-succesful characters" tour in about 2009ish. Remembered/forgotten as something of a car crash. I've not seen the DVD as I can't imagine any of it was worth salvaging. Did Coogan write it himself? Surely the entire Alan project's nadir.

_{Psst!  Don't tell anyone but I actually like Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and other less-succesful characters.  I'm not sure why it's so loathed by the majority.}

[ToneLa]

Susan's meltdown didn't work for me either. Not just in terms of her character, though anyone can snap, it doesn't fit into the flow of the scene. Poor editing?

Don't quite get her taunting flirting in the lift. What if he called her bluff?

[ajsmith2]

Don't quite get her taunting flirting in the lift. What if he called her bluff?

I imagine she'd have some withering put down and switch and bait reserved for that scenario to shut down Alan's raised hopes safely. It's an interestingly ambiguous scene. My take on it is it's her exercising her contempt for him, pretending to flirt more seriously than he does at reception to disarm him and show that he would shit himself if things actually progressed with her. It's a (successful) move to assert her power in the relationship after another long tiring day of having to smile through his invasive smarm.

[Crabwalk]

It feels inconsistent with her meltdown though. That's one of the reasons the 'little shit' scene scene doesn't work.

[Keebleman]

Susan's meltdown didn't work for me either. Not just in terms of her character, though anyone can snap, it doesn't fit into the flow of the scene. Poor editing?

Poor acting and direction, more like.  Same with the awkward formality of her speech and gestures when she admonishes Michael in the same scene.  There should have been subtle but clear indications in the performance all along that she can't stand the guy.  Except for some scripted reactions, such as "Excuse me, I must leave the desk unattended for a moment," there are no clues as to what her attitude is.  A really skilled actor would have conveyed without making it too obvious that the friendly smile was barely masking a Krakatoa of contempt and rage.

[Twed]

I think she's very accurate at times. I worked with a woman who was very similar to her (she even came from the hotel industry herself) and the few times she broke her smiley professionalism to admonish an underling always had me thinking about Susan admonishing Michael.

Nothing wrong with the performance, she's just not fleshed out enough as a character.