I'm Alan Partridge - S1E1 'A Room With an Alan'
Comments (193)
This is definitely Alan Partridge at his best, for me an all too time classic
I'm gutted you didn't enjoy it! 😂 I get that the humour is very British, but it gets better. Blue Nun was known as shite, cheap wine, so Alan pretending to be sophisticated is what makes it funny! I'm from Newcastle, land of the Geordies, so I'm glad you understood the accent! Michael, the caretaker, is probably my favourite character. The beans and sausage scene is hilarious, but his story about taking revenge on his mate with an Apache helicopter is fucking epic! 😂 Give it a few more episodes!
I think you have to view Alan as the archetypal British comedy underdog, but one who maintains supreme confidence in his frankly limited broadcasting abilities. Every step of the way he is the architect of his own downfall.
Gordon Ramsey did cooking in prison
If you don't get on with this series, skip straight to the movie "Alpha Papa". You know all the backstory you need to know now, and it's by far the most accessible Partridge entry to international audiences. Trust me!
im 1 second in, how can your get this but not father ted? Especially vbefore they went to irelands biggest lingerie section? Im British and I dont understand Alan Partridge, but then again. Each to their own and thanks for the great content x
This isn't a laugh track it's shown to audiences
Brilliant
You will go.back to Knowimg Me knowing you... i did the same
The most accessible starting point for AP is This Time with Alan Partridge. It is brilliant, clinically superb comedy.
Tosser?
Ey everyone. Sue Cooks pulled out.
Oh I'm so happy I joined!! Thanks for having me xx
The son Anthony Royle can also become lazy from time to time, but no as much as the dad Jim Royle and tge daughter Denise Royle. The arguments the Royle Family have with each other is hilarious
This is the series that made me fall in love in love with Alan partridge. Such a clever man
I understand why you didn't get on with knowing me, knowing you, it's not as funny as this but at least from watching it it's given you a bit of background knowledge of Alan and his TV career.. this is mine and my sister's all time fave, we quote Alan all the time 😂 we had tickets to see his live show back in 2022 but she gave birth a week before so we couldn't go 😭 (and omg yes, £325k for a 5 bedroom house!! What in the inflation!! 🤯)
YESSSSSSSSS Alan is my favorite
He is a streamer! He has a podcast on audible called from the oasthouse with Alan partridge https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B089M9XZW5?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
I'm pretty sure there was no laughter track in the original - though I imagine someone's already mentioned this
The laughter was always there, it was filmed in front of a studio audience.
It's frankly astonishing that he got a meeting with Tony Hayers, or indeed got any sort of job in broadcasting ever again. Perhaps one day you'll go back to KMKY and find out why!
So glad you liked it, stick with it, embrace him you'll wonder where he has been all your life 🤣
Glad you decided to give this a chance. You should at least stick with it for four or five episodes if you're not too sure, and I'm sure you will come to love his character (as Mike did with David Brent ) and enjoy the rest of the series.
Nice you picked up on the similarity with other characters that came after this like David Brent. Partridge is definitely a cringey character. I endured the first series but I'm Alan Partridge was so much funnier.
It feels a bit meta how in the episode he's told how his chat show isn't good enough for a second series, and you guys also stopped watching it. Enjoying this though!
Hopefully you can find a version without a laugh track
It's not laugh track
Never watched this show , iam 66 so I have had the opportunity, yes thought it was funny , keep up the great work ❤️
love it 👍👍
Gutted you're not doing knowing me chat show... its brilliant the guests they have are so funny! Loved it when it was on,but this is also my fave too!
It's because i'm blind.
Sally is acting, it was always timed for her to return at the worst moments - but I don’t think she’s having to act too much
Give me a heads up when you move onto something good
Any real need for this comment?
It’s a pass for this one for me can’t find it funny or enjoyable but hope you all enjoy
Oh yes yes yes yes yes yes !!!
This is way better than knowing me knowing you.
Yes! So pleased you are giving this a go. It just gets better with each episode and definitely worth getting into.
OMG how did I miss this
This show isn't a good pick for them its too random and most of the jokes wont hit, you'd be better off with The Vicar of Dibley they like shows with a story with characters they care about and character progression. Red Dwarf also but the first series maybe a low burn for Mike and Jess but turns in to a monster of a show and Mike would love it!
vicar of dibley over partridge lol
Have never watched this so lets go, we are near end of Still Game which is my fave so I am desperate for a new squeeze :) ... daz fi Scotland
So pleased that you guys have given this a go! After you abandoned Knowing Me, Knowing You I was a bit concerned you'd ditch Alan Partridge completely. I was never a big fan of KMKY either, but the rest is just fabulous!! You'll stick with this, it's too amusing not to :-)
Too much info in the comments. Completely blind reactions are the best. I'm Alan Partridge really doesn't need explaining to people unfamiliar with the character.
You sort of have to know about his fall from grace up to this point. Hence the audience laugh at the start when Alan says "and the time is 4:30 AM". It's funny because of where the audience last saw him compared to where he is now. Obviously no reaction from M&J at that joke because they didn't know the context.
As someone who go into Partridge very late, just in case this doesn't gel with you either, I'd recommend This Time with Alan Partridge, it's much more modern and IMO more digestible than the earlier stuff
I can't imagine them going a 3rd time if this doesn't work out
So Glad you are giving Alan a second (Series) chance. You get to look inside his weird little mind.. Watch out for Jed Maxwell!! Enjoy!
God bless Partridge ❤️
not as a reaction because its an american show but watch widows bay. its really funny
I can see this going the same way as Father Ted 😊
They need to watch Bottom. Botttttttttommmmm you hear me!!!
They'd be better off with Blackadder for a good Rik mayall performance i doubt they would understand bottom. Although I do love bottom
He'll mention Bill Oddie a few times as well as Sue Cook. Both mid ranking celebrities.
It’s an acquired taste but it just gets better 👍
Would you like me to lapdance for you? I'm thrilled you're starting this journey!
YES! It’s an extender!
Kiss my face!!! So glad you guys are doing this
Without knowing too much about Partridge I found the first two episodes jarring. Once you get accustomed to him it's great, and the show gets better and better
It's got walnuts in!!
It’s weird with laughter tracks. I kind of tune it out to the point where, if you ask me which shows have laughter tracks or live audience, I couldn’t tell you.
A-Haaaaaaaaaaaa!!! 🥳🎉🎉🎉 Werther's Original, anyone? 🥳🎉🎉🎉
Butter my arse, it's Partridge! Just like 'Blackadder', you need to skip series 1 and go back to it later👍
You understood Michael! I'm from Newcastle too so glad my accent isn't illegible to you 😂
What? That was just a noise. 🤣
Kinda sad not waking up to a FND on a friday anymore
This is the real start of Partridge, and it just gets better over the next 3 decades.
So glad you're giving Alan another chance. This series is better, mainly due to the stella cast of characters in Alan's little world. Once you click with him, I think you'll love it. The guy has got no filter whatsoever. Also Michael "the work Geordie" is brilliant .
Legendary series and character! Stoked for you to see whats instore
To give the show some context it might be useful to understand that Norwich is basically the forgotten backwater of England. A lot of the little radio comments in the show play on this fact. I'm sure USA has it's backwater. I've seen Deliverance 😁
Sally Phillips would have been in her 20s in this, and in her 50s when she was in Friday Night Dinner.
27 and 49. And 47 on Taskmaster.
I think the most important thing to know about Alan going into this series is that he's a man desperate for fame, status, attention and ultimately validation. He needs an audience and everything must be about him. He taps into that middle-aged male tragedy of a life falling apart lacking direction and purpose. He's gone from prime-time TV chat show host to hosting the graveyard shift on local radio whilst getting divorced from his wife and living out of a motel. He has no true friends and all of his acquaintances are merely born out of circumstance without any true connection. Everyone around him either pities him or despises him due to how pathetic he truly is. He is blind to this though due to a complete lack of self-awareness and a grandiose/entitled state of mind which often mistakes that pity for respect or admiration. His Personal Assistant Lynn is loyal and reliable but lacks the assertiveness to stand up for herself when Alan takes advantage of her good nature. I think it's important to lay this out as it's the backstory/context that a lot of viewers would have been going into this show with knowing already, and it would benefit Mike & Jess to be aware having not seen the events leading up to this series.
One of the very few characters that has improved every time they've brought them back. Mid Morning Matters is a master piece of a show
Yes it’s an Extender
Once you grow to love his character I reckon you'll end up going back to KMKY to see more of him. 😁
The shoulder shrug is probably still my favourite gif ever.
This was a cool suprise - this show builds wonderfully… You’re right, this show in hindsight spurred so many new ones, it was a furtive period… You’ll ease into this one nicely, it’s a grower, 👍…
Laughter tracks were very 90s. Eveb fraser and friends have laughter tracks. It was just how things were done. It wasn't really until the millenium when the mockumentary style and cringe humour became popular that laughter tracks went away.
The irony of watching Alan get a second series on RNTV when Mike and Jess cancelled the first one 😂 glad they are giving it another go because this series is great, even I struggled with his chat show format 💜💚💜💚
lol yeh Alan is lap dancing for Mike and Jess, although I’m not sure it’s the best way to win their approval!
300k GBP back then was around 600k USD With inflation 590k GBP/ 789k USD
I think Cambridge Footlights has a lot to do with the cohesiveness of British comedy. They all went to the same university and were part of the same club, at different times of course. Monty Python, the blackadder cast, mitchell and webb, mel and sue, Richard Ayoade, Emma Thompson and Olivia Coleman. Even Ali G. They all learned their craft and have worked together over the years, inspiring and influencing each others work.
Tbh I didn't expect this one. Loving watching again with you guys. All time best reactors.
It is filmed in front of a live audience although it doesn’t look like it, so it’s a real audience laughing - it’s very rare for British shows to use true laugh tracks
Yeah the only UK shows I can think of that used fake laugh tracks were those awful kids shows like Spatz and Mike & Angelo
This series is peak Partridge. Midmorning Matters is also hilarious, IMO. Some of the more recent stuff is a mixed bag if I'm being honest.
If you’re reading this comment you must have liked the show. But if you didn’t like the show, how is it you’re reading this comment! I’ve mentioned Miranda before as a really funny laugh-out-loud show and fyi it has the wonderful Sally Phillips in it.
I can sit and quote virtually every episode from constantly watching it stoned with mates. Cook pass babtridge. The irony is that tv has got to a point now where youth hostelling with Chris Eubank and inner city sumo are not far from the truth
RIP Bill Oddie
And Chris Rea (back in December)
This is Alan at his best, I never took to knowing me knowing you but I'm Alan Partridge is great!
"I am stunned that this show is only 2 seasons long! It's too good!" Quoting King Boomer.
I’m so happy we are continuing this AP journey. I hope you enjoy getting to know Alan and all the great cast. If you don’t then that’s fine it’s your channel. Just give him a chance that’s all I ask.
Wait a minute! You're giving him a second series?!
Ya shits!
Kiss my face
I loved alan partridge its going to be interested to see how you go with this
Man I feel bad for you Mike, having to sit through these laugh track shows. Do yourself a favor, overrule the voters and watch PEOPLE JUST DO NOTHING and you'll be rid of that nonsense.
I'm Alan Partridge was filmed infront of a live studio audience. It blows my mind how people can't tell the difference between a post production laugh track and a live studio audience.
I remember when KMKY first came out, people genuinely thought it was for real, myself included!! I couldn’t, and didn’t watch it beyond what Mike and Jess did. But it introduced you to the character, setting up the premise that he makes dreadful tv programmes, and that’s all you really need to know to get into I’m Alan Partridge. IAP is soo funny, I really think they’ll love it. Love Sally Phillips in this too!!😂😂
Season 2 of this show is the reason for my whole taste in comedy and subsequent shows i enjoyed, its the best.
I'm SO happy you chose this! It gets better and better.
This came out out in 1997 and it's cringiness/Alan's narcissim and sociopathic tendencies did influence alot of shows going into the 2000's. The 2nd series came out in 2002. Mike, funny you should mention that Alan would have been a Streamer these days, a later Partridge web series 'Mid-morning Matters' came out 2010 for 2 series again set in a radio station with Tim Key as 'Sidekick Simon'.
A brief note about the perceived canned laughter. It wasn't. It was filmed in front of a live audience. The dislocated nature of the laughter could be traced back to the elaborate 4 set design within the studio.
True, I think I read Iannucci saying that even the location scenes were shown to the audience so their live reactions could be recorded
So glad you gave Partridge another go. I can definitely see how KMKY didn't click. It's something that only Partridge purists really enjoy.
It's weird how "crab sticks" taste so good, they're mostly just water,but I guess cucumbers are mostly water and they're still good.
If you hadn’t watched “Knowing me, Knowing you” you would never have met this monster. You would not be prepared for this level of egoism. This series is a light relief compared to the initial introduction to Alan. He still surprises. Comedy isn’t supposed to be sweet and make you feel good. The best comedy is edgy, toe curling, and thought provoking.
Fyi thess were filmed in front of a live audience, i was at one of the 2nd series being filmed it was epic!
'Knowing me, knowing you' was trash compered to this. I love this series. Thanks for going with it.
Feels weird it not being Friday Night Dinner anymore 😔 but Alan Partridge is a great choice for our Friday mornings!
Ahhh I’m so excited, I really hope you love it!
Get in! 💪🏼 Smell my cheese you mutha!
Blue Nun is a sweet, sparkling German wine. It became very popular in the UK in the 1980s but by this time (late 90s) it had gone out of fashion and ordering it exposed you to ridicule.
What a nice suprise
I was worried a bit as Mike seemed to have the same reaction as Father Ted, ie no reaction but I think he warmed to it by the end so I'm cautiously optimistic.
lol
Felicity Montague (who plays Lynn) said in an interview that (as Mike observed) the BBC has since made some of the weird suggested programmes on his list.
Name one.
Amazing! SPICE WORLD!!
Thank god you went back and started with this, some of the best comedy every made it just gets better
I bought a mate who’s also a big Partridge fan some stringback driving gloves because of that opening bit
We also shared a house for a bit and when we were at the viewing the estate agent pointed out the police station through the window and he said “does that mean there will be crime or won’t be crime”… was difficult not to laugh
Get in!
Yay! So glad you’re giving Alan another chance. I’m a big fan but not so much of Knowing Me Knowing You. Really chuffed you’re giving this a go!
The thing about house prices in the past is, we earned peanuts compared to what people earn now. It was an enormous struggle to pay a mortgage on a very small wage. So it sounds good and easy back then, but believe me, it was just as hard or even harder then as the interest rates at one point were at 16%!
Very clearly and objectively it wasn’t as hard as for people today. Completely different economic system. But it’s been getting on increasingly harder since the 1980 economic change and the system completely collapsed in 2008 .
You should at least read the synopsis of what happened during Knowing Me Knowing You, worth knowing the Partridge lore.
I watched this the night it was first aired on BBC 2 back in 1997 I had never seen KMKY. Went back & watched that a few years later, was never as good as this. Definitely the original 'cringe TV' that Ricky Gervais took to new levels a few years later. I went to the cinema to watch the Partridge movie Alpha Papa & loved it even more. Such a pleasant surprise this morning to see you starting this series 🙏
Welcome to Norwich
Oh lordy, it has a lot of English references that wont land for you and the humour is dryer than a biscuit in the desert, but we'll help you through it as best we can, good luck!
I don't understand why it seems Americans need to be babysat through British shows because of the local references. How many shows from America do we watch without needing training wheels?
Cracking stuff!
Jurassic Park!
Jurassic Park!
So pleased you are back with Partridge, giving it another go. 👏 Hope you enjoy 👌
I am so happy you have gone to this after knowing me knowing you. This is loads better and right up your alley from what you’ve watched previously! It’s tricky humour to get sometimes but one of the best British comedy programmes out there! You’ll not stop quoting this one for years to come 😂
Smell my cheese you mother! Just hearing Jess repeat that made my day 😂
Please don't be put off by the cultural references, it's hard to avoid when you're watching British TV to be fair
Season 2 of this show is one of the best seasons of a comedy show ever made
I was going to say this ! it gets better and better, this was just the pilot im glad they like it
Exceptional show, season 2 is pure gold. Great choice guys!!
This will be binned so fast 😂
We’ll see 😊
Ahaaaaaa 🙏😂🥳
SHUT UP! What a surprise! Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you for reacting to this it's the best show ever
Oooh again, like Gavin and Stacey, this is something I haven't watched before but very much willing to give a go along with this channel!
Looking forward to this one
I might be the only one here sticking up for KMKY, as I think it’s a good introduction to AP. Hopefully, once Mike and Jess get through these two series they might go back to KNKY and watch it with a different viewpoint.
It's a good show but I think this is better, I can understand why KMKY isn't for everyone even though I like it
I had no idea this was coming but I am 100% here for it! 🥳
Three men burning in a tank going "Errrrr"
🤣🤣🤣
Mike saying Alan would be a streamer nowadays is spot on considering the From the Oasthouse Podcast Alan does. 😂
Which is also brilliant
House prices were ALOT cheaper in 1997 lol
Certainly will enjoy this later, when ive finished work 🙂
I love Alan Partridge but people have strong feelings about him either way. I hope one day you will watch ‘Alpha Papa’.. one of my all time favourite films.
The movie would be the natural follow up but let’s see if they enjoy these two seasons first
Very glad partridge is getting a second chance, I’m also not a fan of knowing me knowing you but love the rest!
"Cooking in prison", Gordon Ramsay did that show. It was called "Gordon behind bars".
Didn't Jamie Oliver do something similar? I know he hired former convicts to work at his restaurant
Never watched Alan Partridge, be good to watch along with you for the first time 😁
This is great! I hope you like it - Fridays have just got better 😆 . When Gladiators was on and Jet arrived my brother and I used to call my Dad as he said she was his favourite Gladiator😭🥴
Ah, you guys are in for a treat
Great idea to watch before investing in the show!
Yessssssss
I hated knowing me knowing you. Love this and series 2. Not a fan of much else Alan partridge but "I'm Alan Partridge" is actually good. Glad you are going to try this. Never thought you should've bothered with knowing me knowing you. Not surprised you didn't watch it all. Very much of it's time.
Phew, glad you're giving this a go it's much better than "Knowing Me ..."
Oh yes, hope you like this. Way better than KMKY
Absolutely DELIGHTED your giving I'm Alan Partridge a go, its 1 million % better than Knowing me, Knowing you. Can't wait to get home from work. 😁😁
Yeah especially when he shot someone at the end.
Now we are talking. Proper comedy and the best the UK has to offer. Hopefully one day Mid Morning Matters makes it on to here. Peak Partridge!
AH HAAAAA
Jackanackanory!
Alan is so memeable! He's a walking meme.
Alan only gets better with time. Steve Coogan has evolved him masterfully to the point he genuinely feels like a real person now. Please stick with it
Back of the net!!!!!!
Jurassic park !
If they like Alan Partridge, they should definitely consider watching The Day Today.
Given they didn't like knowing me, knowing you they probably won't like the day today
A classic!
I not falling for it this time. Think I'll wait until they finish the full series 😂
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Alan, but I consider him far less accessible than Father Ted.
Unbelievable one of my all time favourites, thanks guys
Totally agree this is what Alan is all about Brilliant
Love that you guys are watching this!
So happy about this
Yasss, I knew you would prefer this to the interview style
Fuck yessssssss
I never gelled with 'knowing me knowing you'.. but this is one of my favourites. Hope you love it
This for me is 💯 peak Partridge 👌