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

Along with series 6 of Only Fools and Horses, I'm Alan Partridge series 1 is the greatest set of episodes of any comedy I have seen. The sheer quality of the acting and writing makes you weep at those who think My Family is good TV.

The first I saw of I'm Alan Partridge was the final episode of the original run. I can still remember being in tears of laughter from start to finish; seeing 'Castrol GTX' revealed on Alan's jacket at Tony Hayer's funeral nearly killed me. Then I saw the first run of repeats and was completely hooked.

The genius of Alan Partridge lies in how many different layers of his persona are evident - his fixation with transsexuals, his obsession with war and death, his desperation to be liked, his hatred of criminality and his xenophobia to name a few. Then there's the little things - the way he has to explain his jokes, his bad breath, the daydreaming, his bad skin and receding hairline, his love of driving. The genius of many of Alan's traits lies in the fact that they were established gradually ever since his first appearance on The Day Today. We discover on Knowing Me, Knowing You that he has bad breath, he has his first run-in with a transsexual and he refuses to pull onto the hard shoulder for sex.

Steve Coogan's performance as Alan is simply sublime. For example, when he is presenting the boat video and tries to ingratiate himself with 'the lads' by ogling a passing woman. Notice the look on his face just after he says "oooooooooooohhhh sex" when he starts drinking his pint, the little expressions like that are genius.

Many of the strongest scenes take place in the radio studio - the Joni Mitchell rant; "Mmm, a nice big thick slice of Thin Lizzy"; the war with Dave Clifton; "So give me a call, PLEASE!! Seriously, though, do give me a call." These were certainly the better parts of the second series, which I thought was generally embarrassing and took the character in completely the wrong direction.

I hope I haven't bored anyone, but it's hard not to look so closely at such an incredible series. Here are my favourite quotes: "Never throw water on a fat fire. It'll take your face off." "You know the breakfast buffet, all you can eat but from an 8-inch plate? 12 inches. Keep it in my room." "That is the best Valentine's Day I've had in 8 years." "What did you do 8 years ago?" "Just had a better one. Went to Silverstone, shook Jackie Stewart's hand - superb. My marriage fell apart soon after that." "What was he doing on the bloody roof?!" "He was getting the aerial down..." "Yeah, I was being rhetorical." "He had a second class honours degree in Media Studies from Loughborough University. What a waste." "I'd love to feel an airbag go off in my face. It'd be 'Huh, boosh, boosh'...cushion effect on the face." "Looking at the big girdles section? Amazing to think that some of these women are technically models." "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."

Ten on ten, Lynn

I was fortunate to get a copy of the first season on DVD and just watched it with friends here in the States. And yes, I pretty much agree with everyone else who makes comparisons to Blackadder and Basil Fawlty and Gervais' boss character in The Office. Partridge is simply one of the funniest and pathetic characters ever to appear on TV. American TV would never have a character like this - they always make the sitcom people likable and "we have to want to root for them" and all that other bland stuff. A classic U.S. sitcom in the 80's - Buffalo Bill with Dabney Coleman was so outside the box from what had appeared on broadcast TV that they didn't know what to do with so they axed it. (His character too was a local Morning Show host in Buffalo, NY with an ego the size of Earth and total scum to everyone around him) and of course Larry David tries to pull it off on Curb Your Enthusiasm - and yes, even though the show is funny - David is very limited as an "actor" and Coogan is not. In fact, it is his performance and the fact that he adds dimension to this guy that truly makes it special and heartbreaking and hysterical. I loved it and I thought the rest of the cast was wonderful too.

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.

Alan Partridge is up there with Basil Fawlty as one of the finest comedy characters ever created.

In some ways the series, "I'm Alan Partridge", goes beyond comedy. It's often painful to watch the indignity heaped on Alan. However, such feelings are always negated in the end, because Alan is an unspeakably vile little man, and the show never misses a chance to demonstrate that.

Alan Partridge is a former TV presenter (ground covered in previous series such as "Knowing me, knowing you") who lost his job because... well, because he is dreadful, not to mention totally insensitive and overly literal when dealing with guests. After his sacking from TV, he loses his wife and ends up living in a desperate little travel hotel where he's the only guest - and all the employees hate him (with good reason). The series covers his attempts to get back on TV, via the radio Norwich 5 a.m slot... various corporate videos... and a hilarious village fete.

It is so difficult to pick out favourite moments... there are just too many of them: Alan's comments about farmers, and their subsequent retaliation; His crass behaviour at the funeral of the man who kicked him off TV; The special bigger plate he keeps at the travel hotel, just get get a bigger portion... and so on and on. I'm giggling just remembering this stuff.

If you *ever* get a chance to see this series, do not pass it up - it doesn't get much better. I don't know whether this has reached the U.S yet, but if it hasn't then shame on U.S TV stations.