I'm Alan Partridge

Once upon a time the BBC was the world leader in situation comedy . It was also the world leader in telefantasy and hard hitting drama but by the 1990s those days were long gone , then a show like I`M ALAN PARTRIDGE comes along to remind you that when it really tries the BBC can still be a world leader.

For those of you who have never heard of him Alan Partridge is a crass , ignorant , undertalented former talk show host who now finds himself working the graveyard shift of Radio Norwich . The first episode finds Alan trying a sales pitch to BBC controller Tony Hayers someone he manages to cheese off ( Geddit ? ) during lunch . The second episode finds Alan trying to strike up a relationship with a woman while the third sees him cause a revolt amongst the Anglian farming community . All the episodes are very very funny but the best episode is the one with a dual plot line of Alan getting it into his head that two Irish TV producers are in fact members of the IRA as the episode mutates into a stalker storyline . I can`t begin to communicate how funny the episode is , I`ve seen it many times over the years and I still laugh out loud everytime I see it .

There is a danger that Steve Coogan`s character can be described as a one trick pony and I`m glad that he`s not going to do anymore Alan Patridge which is a good idea because Alan Patridge is to the 1990s what Basil Fawlty was to the 70s and Edmund Blackadder was to the 80s

Like Fawlty Towers in the '70s and Blackadder in the '80s, this is British comedy at its very best - a handful of episodes, all of them tighter line-for-line than Alan's shorts ("the boys are back in the barracks"). Partridge may well be the most ingeniously unsympathetic character ever created - every time you start to feel sorry for him, he manages to do something truly unspeakable. Painfully funny.

The comic genius that is Steve Coogan has done it again. This series is certainly as good as the previous which had some genuine laugh out loud moments. Excellent! The First episode being the best, followed by the fourth, an absolute classic BRITISH gem of a comedy

It was much anticipated by us Partridge fans, Knowing Me Knowing You on both radio and television had been comedy gold. The Christmas Special saw Alan's Television career collapse. How could 'I'm Alan Partridge' possibly keep up with such high standards?

It did and a whole lot more. The hilarity of Alan's misguided belief that he is still a major player in the industry and the meaningless conversations with the hotel staff combine to make his series essential watching. And the indignity of his prolonged stay in a 'one night stop venue' Travel Tavern adds to the tragic hilarity of the series.

Steve Coogan delivers his finest work to date and is ably assisted by a cast whose strongest delivery is the varied reactions their characters display when in the company of the failed chatshow host.

Perhaps the ultimate magic of Alan Partridge is that to fans his barrowload of catchphrases and inane comments are never forgotten and are always liable to be joyfully relayed in the company of a fellow fan.

And to think there are people out there who still don't get the joke.

as Alan might say,

'who, who, who do you think you are?'

There is an unmatched concordance among the user comments on defining this series "brilliant". It is mitigated by the fact that almost all the comments come from the UK, so let me add two voices not from the British Isles.

My girlfriend and I (she's American, I am Italian) both think that this is not only brilliant, it is really the work of genius. The writers, assisted by an exceptional set of actors, did a fantastic job not only in providing genuine humour at every corner, but in studying costume and society and taking advantage of real situations.

This is not your typical sitcom. It is not an effort of a bunch of people that have to fabricate a show a week forever; it is instead the focused effort of three writers that sat down for months to produce six shows. You can feel this in the perfection and consistence of every detail, from the name of the son (Fernando, from Abba) to the picture of Jet from Gladiators (to host a millennium barn dance at Yeovil aerodrome, properly policed, it must not, repeat not, turn into an all-night rave) that Alan keeps in his room.