Posts Tagged ‘alan partridge’

I was in a furniture shop in South Leeds called SLATE last week. They had a selection of media available for sale, too, including some VHS cassettes. Such as this one, featuring “over 130 spectacular crashes”.

I don’t know how anyone can look a this and not think about Alan Partridges “Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a video!”

Back in May I read I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan. It was well worth a read and so James recommended I listen to the audiobook as well.

I was good, but not amazing. Steve Coogan did a good job of providing the Partridge voice for so many hours (though his normally voice is very similar anyway) but I would have liked it to be even more annoying. It’s not quite the emotionally-charged whining that I remember from the TV show.

12 hostages. 24 hours. 1 Partridge.

Steve Coogan bringing Alan Partridge to the big screen has been long awaited. Was it worth said wait? Yes, it probably was! While other comedies build up to huge, though sometimes disappointing, funny moments, Alpha Papa delivers clever, funny dialogue from start to finish.

There is always the danger that a comeback will ruin the franchise, but Alpha Papa has no such concerns. It does a fine justice to the Partridge legend.

We went to Everyman Cinema, which once again offered an excellent experience. We meet up with Chris and Carly beforehand for pizza in the restaurant that delivered to its usual standard as well.

Given that we saw Alan’s book, Bouncing Back, get pulped due to low sales, it would seem somewhat ironic that his recent book, “I, Partridge” doesn’t seem to be doing too well either – originally priced at £20, I picked my copy up for £3.99. Admittedly, that was on Kindle, but the book shop round the corner has the hardback for £6.

I don’t know why. This is one of the best books I have read recently. I couldn’t put it down – having purchased it one Sunday morning I had read from start to finish by the end of the day.

Presenting a vivid depiction of Alan’s life, often weaving in and out of the TV show, the book reads like you’re in conversation with him – and it works brilliantly. Not to mention his description of a fleeing Dave Clifton probably being the funniest simile you will ever read.

Ironically, as I only started reading it because Elina was keeping me awake by playing Scrabble on her laptop. But ten minutes after she had started playing the site went down for maintenance, so needless to say, I had the last laugh.