TV review by Steve Bennett
Without getting too political about it, Alan Partridge is the epitome of the white guy whose career success exceeds his mediocrity… and who might just now be starting to feel under threat.
That’s the undercurrent of the second series of This Time, which sees the largely unselfaware host still at the reins of the BBC’s daily magazine show alongside his ever-patient co-host Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding), with the disciplinary matter that brought the last series to a close now long-forgotten. But there’s a new producer in town, fresh from E4, and - horror of horrors - he’s introduced a ‘wacca-wacca’ to the theme tune, which is a sure harbinger of change likely to be bad news for Partridge.
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
Tuesday, 20th April 2021 at 1:54 pm
Comedy fans, rejoice! Steve Coogan is back in his iconic role of hapless broadcaster Alan Partridge as he presents another series of fluffy magazine show This Time.
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The first series aired back in 2019 and blended Alan’s delightfully awkward hosting of The One Show parody with shorter segments which gave us a peek at what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling.
It particularly focused on the tension between Alan and his co-presenter Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding), ending in a huge fallout between the two that put their future on the show at risk.
Q&A with Alan Partridge as This Time returns
For the uninitiated, what can you tell us about This Time?
It’s what’s known as a magazine show, bottling all of the magic of magazine reading and translating that into 30 minutes of TV. Some people sneer at magazines. But imagine a world without magazines, with readers having to make do with books, newspapers and letters. A chilling prospect.
This Time manages to be all your favourite magazines rolled into one. As informative as the Reader’s Digest, as sassy as Bunty, as entertaining as Private Eye pre-Hislop, as debonaire as Conde Nast Traveler, as fair-minded as The Spectator.