TELLYBOX: Laughs from Alan Partridge revival and the tragic story of Dale Barclay By David Pollock May 1 2021, 10.15am
This year is the 30th anniversary of Alan Partridge’s first appearance on the BBC Radio 4 comedy On the Hour, making the character as much a part of the UK’s broadcasting furniture as those he was originally created to mock.
These were guileless sports reporters, self-obsessed magazine show hosts and Richard Madeley, mainly.
Alan has enjoyed success with 1994’s excruciating spoof chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You, and cult fly-on-the-wall infamy with I’m Alan Partridge (1997 and 2002), one of the best and smartest comedies of its time.
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.