Updated / Friday, 30 Apr 2021
12:39
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge
Tonight s top TV tips include the return of Alan Partridge, Noel Gallagher on The Late Late Show, Soul II Soul on Classic Albums, and Sky’s new sci-fi series Intergalactic . . .
Pick of the Day
This Time with Alan Partridge, 9.30pm, BBC One
It’s season two of the rebooted Alan Partridge, starring Steve Coogan, with Susannah Fielding, Felicity Montagu and Tim Key.
The last run was great fun - particularly the Martin Brennan segment, when
Come Out Ye Black and Tans got an airing on UK prime time TV.
Now the main man on BBC magazine show
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
Wednesday, 28th April 2021 at 5:35 pm
“No offence Lynn, but your life is technically not worth insuring,” says Alan Partridge in a particularly memorable swipe at his personal assistant taken from his self-titled sitcom. The irony being that an appearance from Lynn Benfield (Felicity Montagu) is worth an awful lot to fans, as the character has become a firm favourite since her debut back in 1997.
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That’s why it’s such a delight to see her back in the second series of This Time with Alan Partridge, where she is once again on hand to manage the bumbling broadcaster’s life in the fleeting sections where the cameras aren’t rolling. Unlike his on-screen persona, star Steve Coogan is well aware of the character’s popularity.
With Felicity Montagu and Brian Bovell
Felicity Montagu, Johnny Vegas and Brian Bovell have joined the cast of sci-fi-comedy The Unreason.
The film stars Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson as the owners of a vintage shop who stumble across a time machine, which allows them to travel back to the past to restock their shop… but each time unwittingly damaging the space-time fabric.
The three new cast members will play the presenters of a cancelled 1980s science show who invented the device.
Detectorists star Sophie Thompson had previously been announced as playing the jail-keeper of The Unreason: a hellish dimension where people and objects from throughout time become lost; with Tony Way playing an off-beat inventor who comes to the aid of the time-travellers.