Oft-forgotten gems from the Alan Partridge canon

[Paul Calf]

I think chances are the writers just went with the broad strokes for the easy gag of Alan thinking Holmes is real. Same as "The Best of the Beatles" - it doesn't matter that it doesn't exist...

Sorry to pull this one back from the dead, but the joke here is more subtle and considered than someone without Coogan's obsessive knowledge of music history might realise.

The album "Best Of the Beatles" was actually released by Pete Best, who was the original drummer and left the band in 1962. The bottom layer of the joke is that the album is a shameless cash-in and contains no original Beatles material.

https://www.discogs.com/Pete-Best-Best-Of-The-Beatles/release/4848805

The very nearly amusing irony is that he probably was the best drummer in The Beatles.

[New Jack]

Sorry to pull this one back from the dead, but the joke here is more subtle and considered than someone without Coogan's obsessive knowledge of music history might realise.

The album "Best Of the Beatles" was actually released by Pete Best, who was the original drummer and left the band in 1962. The bottom layer of the joke is that the album is a shameless cash-in and contains no original Beatles material.

https://www.discogs.com/Pete-Best-Best-Of-The-Beatles/release/4848805

The very nearly amusing irony is that he probably was the best drummer in The Beatles.

I said this back then thinking it was a multilayered joke and got shouted down for various reasons, possibly the most convincing to me being Alan using The Best, but the actual irl album is simply Best of the Beatles

But still. What we are hearing is the better joke, isn't it?

[Utter Shit]

That's a good spot Paul Calf...but it's a bit annoying if you're right, because IMO the idea of Alan's favourite Beatles album being a generic compilation album is both funnier and more true to the character than him being a huge fan of a little-known curio with a tangential relationship to the band.

[New Jack]

I think Alan certainly meant it as a compilation, but the writers intended the Pete Best layer!

[jobotic]

That's a good spot Paul Calf...but it's a bit annoying if you're right, because IMO the idea of Alan's favourite Beatles album being a generic compilation album is both funnier and more true to the character than him being a huge fan of a little-known curio with a tangential relationship to the band.

It also doesn't rely on the audience knowing about a little known curio, which I certainly didn't.

[Shaky]

Jesus Christ. The joke is that Alan, local DJ, only likes a Best Of compilation. That's it.

[New Jack]

A non existent compilation, as he's blagging

[gilbertharding]

Don't know if they're 'oft forgotten', but to me any slightly modern wc is always 'Buck Rogers' toilet', a toilet with an inefficient flush has me thinking of 'half a pound of mashed up Dundee cake'.

The idea of deaf offenders also floats to the top of my mind with worrying frequency.

[QDRPHNC]

Jesus Christ. The joke is that Alan, local DJ, only likes a Best Of compilation. That's it.

Nothing to add, but this bears repeating.

[Ferris]

Nothing to add, but this bears repeating.

No, he's making a cryptic reference to former Beatles drummer Pete Best and his obscure 1962 record. Also, if you watch at the exact moment he gives the line, Alan makes an Illuminati hand signal synonymous with believers of the "Paul is dead" conspiracy. Additionally the entire episode synchs up perfectly to side A of Hard Day's Night.

Coincidence? I think not - clearly this is a multilayered joke that requires further analysis.

[Malcy]

'Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, he's a sort of Adam Ant for Daily Mail readers'.

[Mobius]

Rayne Wooney, top one!

[Captain Z]

with his wife, or a sexy hooker...

[Mobius]

Well Gary Newbon went s*****c

[rm2kmaster]

'Pounding at his belly and tits'

[Chollis]

I love how he uses tits for men

[MoonDust]

Might have mentioned this one before but on the subject of subtlety and allowing the laughs to come from your own imagination, one of the shortest and sweetest lines is when that teacher notices a chalk penis on his back and comes back to the garage, and Alan asks Michael to protect him.

"I cannae hit customers, Alan. I've been told."

It's the "I've been told" that makes it. The implications of that line. Has he hit a customer before? Has he nearly hit a customer before? It's so Michael that he would have to be told he can't hit customers, rather than such a rule being basic common sense.

Brilliant.

[Ferris]

The little pause in the middle of the Dante Fires speech:

"I was going to give out some awards but... that's not going to happen"

Also the resignation in:

"Don't shine a torch in my face, mate."

[Avril Lavigne]

I had Alan's "cheer up me old mmMate" from this scene pop into my head earlier and was reminded how much I enjoy any instances of him forcibly trying to sound laid-back/easygoing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYAzK0utwes

[kalowski]

The little pause in the middle of the Dante Fires speech:

"I was going to give out some awards but... that's not going to happen"

Also the resignation in:

"Don't shine a torch in my face, mate."

All part of probably the greatest 10 minutes in sit com history, and I realise how hyperbolic that sounds.

[Captain Z]

Come on Pete, back on your feet you can catch up with them... no... no, he can't be bothered.

[notjosh]

Listening to those IAP commentaries now, there are some fantastic lines throughout. At one point Alan says that he didn't include Denise and Fernando in the show (in case you don't know, the commentaries suggest that IAP is a dramatic re-enactment of real events) because he "didn't want to give them the oxygen of publicity".

Are these really worth listening to? I managed about 2 minutes of episode one when the DVD first came out, but found the premise too strange to continue. One thing that makes Partridge such an amazing character is that, for the large part, the continuity has been strictly maintained for the last 25 years, and I don't want to see/hear anything that steps on that.

[DrGreggles]

I tried and failed on the Partridge commentaries. Bailed during episode 1.
The only 'in character' one I can think of that was worthwhile was for This Is Spinal Tap.

[Utter Shit]

Are these really worth listening to? I managed about 2 minutes of episode one when the DVD first came out, but found the premise too strange to continue. One thing that makes Partridge such an amazing character is that, for the large part, the continuity has been strictly maintained for the last 25 years, and I don't want to see/hear anything that steps on that.

It is way below the level of most Partridge stuff but there are a few nuggets of gold and it mostly sticks to canon IIRC. Worth a go if you're desperate for fresh Partridge.

[BeardFaceMan]

Felicity Montague is a great actress but shes clearly not an improviser. She and Coogan have always worked together on the screen but theres seems to be no chemistry at all in those in character commentaries, theyre a bit of a struggle to get through.

[The Lurker]

"Alright, what's his book like? I don't know your name!"

[Kryton]

'But what lovely butter'. (MMM)

[robhug]

"Seve Ballesteros, The Bullfighter. Although he's technically a golfer. What do you get if you cross a ballerina and a bastard? Ballesteros. If you analyse it Seve combines the qualities of both those animals, the lithe nimbleness of a ballerina combined with the hard nosed thuggery of a bastard"

[Captain Z]

What do you get if you cross a ballerina and a bastard? Ballesteros.

That also popped into my head for no apparent reason yesterday :)

[jake thunder]

From Scissored Isle:

"...a supermarket. It's much more than a place to buy cheese, chops, chocs and cheap chicken and chicory and chives"