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March 28, 2024, 09:47:03 PM

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From The Oasthouse with Alan Partridge - Series 2

Started by Snrub, May 31, 2022, 10:29:17 AM

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Cuellar

I'd often wondered about 'Denton' being the name of his house. Was it actually 'Denton Abbey' in the show? I always assumed it had something to do with Simon Denton, but it's just struck me that it sounds like 'Downton Abbey', the fact that it's also Simon's name being an extra little powerplay/unnecessary mind-game Alan might play with a subordinate.

Quote from: Martin Van Buren Stan on June 01, 2022, 08:19:14 AMI just assumed Allan had named his house after Simon.

Also what dummy at the window?


In some of the shots of Alan's house during "This Time with.." there is a human dummy/effigy looking out of one of the windows.  There's no context to it and it's never referred to.

Martin Van Buren Stan

Quote from: Dave The Triffids on June 01, 2022, 09:37:17 AMIn some of the shots of Alan's house during "This Time with.." there is a human dummy/effigy looking out of one of the windows.  There's no context to it and it's never referred to.

Oh that's interesting. Didn't spot it.

Quote from: Cuellar on June 01, 2022, 09:34:06 AMI'd often wondered about 'Denton' being the name of his house. Was it actually 'Denton Abbey' in the show? I always assumed it had something to do with Simon Denton, but it's just struck me that it sounds like 'Downton Abbey', the fact that it's also Simon's name being an extra little powerplay/unnecessary mind-game Alan might play with a subordinate.

I liked to imagine that it was originally the name of the house and it absolutely did Alan's head in because of Simon, but he never got around to getting the plaque removed.

I mostly imagine that because my house has a name plaque, it does my head in, but two and a half years in, I still haven't taken it down.

Utter Shit

I find that a very odd criticism. As has already mentioned, I don't think it's particularly meant to be a mystery, it's just a silly little aside they've thrown in. It's probably just something that they didn't think needed explaining, because it's such a small joke. Sure it would have been good to have it explained, but it's not important and certainly isn't something I'd ascribe to any idea of the Gibbons having ideas above their station.

They've shown plenty of times that they're not above isolated moments of (lol)randomness - the stigmata bit in Mid Morning Matters is a good example of something that might 'need' explaining if you weren't happy with the idea that it was just something silly they threw in. I can see how it might be unsatisfying to leave a joke open-ended like this Denton Abbey business, but extrapolating that to some notable failing of the Gibbons that speaks to their smugness and insecurity...miles off IMO.

TommyTurnips

Quote from: Menu on June 01, 2022, 02:59:54 AMIf it's at all possible for you to pay for it legally then please do so. Very selfishly I want there to be more of these beyond Season 2, and that will only happen if enough people pay for it. It's essentially £8 max. And if you have an Audible free trial it would cost you nothing but it would add to the 'ratings' or whatever.

Absolutely. I just don't like giving money to Amazon or Amazon affiliated companies. So when I saw that it is an "audible exclusive" my heart sank.

gmoney

"I'm scareder than a bee than you! I mean I'm more scared than a bee than you!!"

Dickie_Anders

Quote from: Martin Van Buren Stan on May 31, 2022, 05:37:25 PMYeah, the recent stuff makes early partridge look embarrassing really. The Day Today was good as was IAP1 but everything else from that period seems cringe in comparison.

The radio KMKY is still really funny and among the best AP, in my opinion.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Obviously the Denton thing is a coded message about Tim Key being a bastard.

Martin Van Buren Stan

Quote from: Dickie_Anders on June 01, 2022, 05:50:34 PMThe radio KMKY is still really funny and among the best AP, in my opinion.

I just never got into it at all, not sure why. It just seems cartoonist and underdeveloped to me. I'll give it another go though.

Dickie_Anders

It is very cartoony but I don't mind that at all

Quote from: Dave The Triffids on June 01, 2022, 09:37:17 AMIn some of the shots of Alan's house during "This Time with.." there is a human dummy/effigy looking out of one of the windows.  There's no context to it and it's never referred to.

Could it be the dummy he gets out of the loft to practice CPR on?
Left at the window as a crude burglar deterrent?

Menu

Quote from: Mobius on June 01, 2022, 05:06:34 AMI remember being slightly disappointed as it aired, probably because any new Partridge gets hyped up a lot, but I've absolutely loved it more and more on each subsequent rewatch. I think it's mostly excellent really.

I did watch the first season again but it didn't improve. There were good bits in it but there was something lacking. Will definitely try it again at some point. Actually I've still not finished the 2nd season......

Menu

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on June 01, 2022, 08:15:50 AMThis is a problem with Rob and Neil Gibbons. They drop shit like this into their writing and never do anything with it, and I don't doubt for a minute that they're totally aware that it'll get people talking knowing full well they never intend to pay it off. It comes across as very smug and, in a weird way, insecure, as though a layer of obscurity will enrich their writing. It's their one failing, I think they're absolutely brilliant writers otherwise. It's like a surface level approximation of something David Lynch would do, only with Lynch everything is explicably part of the whole.

Other examples include of course the stigmata and the dummy at the window.

Interesting. I'd love to think there actually was some long game being played but it seems unlikely, I agree.

Menu

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on June 01, 2022, 09:25:53 AMI generally believe that with decent art in any medium there's no such thing as background details that aren't intended to mean very much and that usually, if it's in the frame or said aloud it's there for a reason whether the creator's realised it or not. When you have to pick the way things look and sound (as opposed to not being able to help the sound of a car driving past or that there's a blue sky in your shot of a field), you're making conscious choices. For art as carefully written as Alan Partridge, there's no room for things that don't mean anything, and the Gibbons (who are now directing as well) clearly know this because of how deftly they script the minutiae of neurosis.

I think it's fair to say they actually HAVE attempted something approaching a grand overarching metanarrative on the grounds that the first Partridge book literally attempts to tie everything (apart from Alan's unnamed Day Today wife coming back from the dead) together. The Gibbons' work has really succeeded at making all Alan matter. It all happened, and this is why he's like this now.

If I'm being honest (even though the hate the way it sounds), I sometimes think they're trolling. After a few years they decided to give Simon a surname, and shortly thereafter they gave Alan's house the same name. They have done this on purpose and we don't know why, and from the evidence alone it's apparent they don't know why either. That's the best way I can manage to describe my issue with it. Denton Abbey, the stigmata - it's just 'cool stuff' but it's distracting because, for me (and my wife and brother too), it did leave us going 'why have the creators done that?' (rather than 'why have the characters done that'?). Maybe it's that it brings the creation of the art into focus, I don't know. Like I say it's hard to articulate and I don't mind other people not being bothered by it. I wish I wasn't!

It doesn't affect my enjoyment of it, though, I'm not laughing any less hard because I've had to stop and scowl at the imagined writing session behaviour of three blokes in England.

I'm just sad your brother's been dragged into this too.

Menu

Quote from: Dave The Triffids on June 01, 2022, 09:37:17 AMIn some of the shots of Alan's house during "This Time with.." there is a human dummy/effigy looking out of one of the windows.  There's no context to it and it's never referred to.

Isn't there an odd badge he's wearing in S2 as well? Which is never referred to so makes no sense. I assume there's already been about 6 threads discussing this....

Menu

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on June 01, 2022, 09:47:38 AMI liked to imagine that it was originally the name of the house and it absolutely did Alan's head in because of Simon, but he never got around to getting the plaque removed.

I mostly imagine that because my house has a name plaque, it does my head in, but two and a half years in, I still haven't taken it down.

Is your house called Kankurette Manor or something?

Menu

Quote from: TommyTurnips on June 01, 2022, 12:08:08 PMAbsolutely. I just don't like giving money to Amazon or Amazon affiliated companies. So when I saw that it is an "audible exclusive" my heart sank.

Fair enough. I was being a bit pompous. Sorry.

Menu

Quote from: Dickie_Anders on June 01, 2022, 05:50:34 PMThe radio KMKY is still really funny and among the best AP, in my opinion.

Yeah I listened to the radio KMKY recently - expecting it to be a bit basic - but it still holds up well. That has some weird moments too though, like the two rent boys.

Menu

Quote from: Martin Van Buren Stan on June 01, 2022, 06:00:14 PMI just never got into it at all, not sure why. It just seems cartoonist and underdeveloped to me. I'll give it another go though.

I mean, the Alan in that is a completely different character to the Alan of FTOH. But it still works ok as a radio comedy. There's also a 'fly on the wall' mockumentary as part of that season which is well worth hearing. And clearly a template for IAP. I think it's on YouTube somewhere.

Menu

Quote from: solidified gruel merchant on June 01, 2022, 11:30:34 PMCould it be the dummy he gets out of the loft to practice CPR on?
Left at the window as a crude burglar deterrent?

Could be. I thought there was another shot where there was an actual person in the window. But I've probably got confused

McDead

Quote from: Menu on June 02, 2022, 01:36:24 AMIsn't there an odd badge he's wearing in S2 as well? Which is never referred to so makes no sense. I assume there's already been about 6 threads discussing this....

Yes, a tooth badge. He wears it in series one, also. I seem to remember an in character interview with Partridge in the Radio Times around the launch of TTWAP where he alluded mysteriously to this badge and the association it implied. Think there was an "all will be revealed" bit in that interview, but I don't think anything was.

Additionally in Oast House, he talks a lot about gums, teeth, Corsodyl and the fresh taste of Corsodyl, so I wonder if it's something to do with that. A secret league of the dentally hygienic, perhaps

Menu

Quote from: McDead on June 02, 2022, 01:49:36 AMYes, a tooth badge. He wears it in series one, also. I seem to remember an in character interview with Partridge in the Radio Times around the launch of TTWAP where he alluded mysteriously to this badge and the association it implied. Think there was an "all will be revealed" bit in that interview, but I don't think anything was.

Additionally in Oast House, he talks a lot about gums, teeth, Corsodyl and the fresh taste of Corsodyl, so I wonder if it's something to do with that. A secret league of the dentally hygienic, perhaps

Magnum's theory is boosted by this, I have to say. Alternatively they probably script/shoot loads more stuff than the final edit can accommodate so maybe there are explanations that we just never see. I'd rather have this sort of weird stuff in it than not.

Hadn't noticed the teeth references under the Gibbonseses, but have noticed the many many references to crisps. References to crisps are everywhere.

Also, I'm sorry to say, 'trumping'.

McDead

Quote from: Menu on June 02, 2022, 01:59:43 AMMagnum's theory is boosted by this, I have to say. Alternatively they probably script/shoot loads more stuff than the final edit can accommodate so maybe there are explanations that we just never see. I'd rather have this sort of weird stuff in it than not.



There's always been something uncanny about Alan and his world. It's realistic enough and makes a degree of logical sense on its own terms, but it's also somewhat heightened and superreal. Alan himself looks like a man in a mask at times, particularly when Coogan was younger. Anyway, I suppose what I'm getting at is I also like these surreal diversions the Partridge canon has taken. It would have been easy and pleasing to end MMM with a triumphant "A-Ha!" but how much more ambiguous and unsettling to end with an eerie prog rock number and some quasi-religious imagery

Menu

Agreed. And the whole lead-up to that finish is genuinely unnerving. It's the one with the hooded figure isn't it? They pull that off really well. Alan is even more nasty than usual, and it really feels like it's heading into a dark place.

McDead

Quote from: Menu on June 02, 2022, 02:44:56 AMAgreed. And the whole lead-up to that finish is genuinely unnerving. It's the one with the hooded figure isn't it? They pull that off really well. Alan is even more nasty than usual, and it really feels like it's heading into a dark place.

That's the one, yeah. Partridge in purgatory, essentially.

Menu

#56
Quote from: McDead on June 02, 2022, 02:51:33 AMThat's the one, yeah. Partridge in purgatory, essentially.

They should go down that route more often. Nomad has moments like that too. I was saying to a friend the other day actually, Nomad is a very very strange book. It's not even really Alan for large parts of it. If you played that audiobook to a KMKY fan in 1992 they'd probably spit at you wouldn't recognise him as the same character.

ramsobot

Quote from: McDead on June 02, 2022, 01:49:36 AMYes, a tooth badge. He wears it in series one, also. I seem to remember an in character interview with Partridge in the Radio Times around the launch of TTWAP where he alluded mysteriously to this badge and the association it implied. Think there was an "all will be revealed" bit in that interview, but I don't think anything was.

Additionally in Oast House, he talks a lot about gums, teeth, Corsodyl and the fresh taste of Corsodyl, so I wonder if it's something to do with that. A secret league of the dentally hygienic, perhaps

It might be worth pointing out that there could be a connection between the teeth and the repeated Dentons, with the Latin "dent" prefix meaning "tooth."

(I have also considered that it might not be worth pointing that out.)

Menu

Quote from: ramsobot on June 02, 2022, 03:22:35 AMIt might be worth pointing out that there could be a connection between the teeth and the repeated Dentons, with the Latin "dent" prefix meaning "tooth."

(I have also considered that it might not be worth pointing that out.)

Also C(h)ris(p) Feather.

Quote from: McDead on June 02, 2022, 01:49:36 AMYes, a tooth badge. He wears it in series one, also. I seem to remember an in character interview with Partridge in the Radio Times around the launch of TTWAP where he alluded mysteriously to this badge and the association it implied. Think there was an "all will be revealed" bit in that interview, but I don't think anything was.

What's also curious about this is that in one of the later This Time episodes, the Geordie/Mackem bloke who Alan briefly interviews is also wearing a tooth badge.  When Alan asks where he got it, the bloke says (something like) "..from my mate, Michael".

Of all the names they could have chosen, surely it's no coincidence they went for Michael?