“The BBC will be desperate for Mercurio to come back with a seventh series but this felt like the right place to end it. I’ve griped about various bits of this show over the years but it stands head and shoulders above most other dramas. It has kept us guessing and kept us talking. And it’s clever. To tie up a story this complex, leaving no loose ends, is a superb achievement.”
“After all the shenanigans and conspiracy, in the end a surprising amount rested on trusting the audience would assume nobody with a Brummie accent could be a master criminal. It worked on me! Whatever Line of Duty’s limitations, few programmes come close to it as a demonstration of pure plotting. It has proved that there is still an appetite for weekly, cliffhanger-laden, jargon-filled chaos, but that’s enough. Let that be an end of it.”
Fri 30 Apr 2021 17.00 EDT
It is perhaps a slightly coarser, less exquisite agony than in his absolute prime but agony it truly remains. Welcome â if that is the word â to the return of Steve Coogan in the new series of This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC One). Such is the ongoing mastery of his creation â brought again to awful, hilarious life by Coogan and his post-Armando Iannucci collaborators Neil and Rob Gibbons â that I flinch from the pain even as I remember the laughs.
Partridge has survived as co-host of the show, a perfect parody of current affairs programmes such as The One Show and Good Morning Britain (with Alan a less secure version of Piers Morgan, their lunging need to be noticed springing from difference founts, and Susannah Fieldingâs Jennie Gresham essaying the Susanna Reid âsmile like itâs not an act of self-harmâ role). âCovering everything! From aqua-aerobics to abortion! From zebras to Zionism!â But a new produ
BBC/Baby Cow/Gary Moyes/Matt Burlem
The world changes, but Alan Partridge is eternal. Thirty years after his radio debut, Norfolkâs favourite turtlenecked son is still going strong, with a second series of
This Time following on from â deep breath â
On The Hour, The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You, Iâm Alan Partridge, Alpha Papa, Mid Morning Matters, Scissored Isleâ¦Â The list continues is the point, and so does Partridge.
Alan and his cohost Jennie Gresham are back to cover everything (as Alan bellows in the cold open) âFrom aqua aerobics to abortion, from zebras to Zionismâ. Their guests have been booked and itâs all the usual bright sub-