Alan's house is finally finished and he gives each of the builders a leaving present - a copy of his book "Bouncing Back", which has not sold well at all and is due to be pulped. Sonja is ke... Read allAlan's house is finally finished and he gives each of the builders a leaving present - a copy of his book "Bouncing Back", which has not sold well at all and is due to be pulped. Sonja is keen to move in with him as her flat is being demolished to make way for an office block, bu... Read allAlan's house is finally finished and he gives each of the builders a leaving present - a copy of his book "Bouncing Back", which has not sold well at all and is due to be pulped. Sonja is keen to move in with him as her flat is being demolished to make way for an office block, but Alan is wary of commitment and prefers to "come to an arrangement".
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough the story treats the pulping of thousands of unsold copies of Alan's book as a humiliating failure, this is actually a common occurrence in the publishing industry. Even with famous best-selling authors, publishers can overestimate the demand, print too many copies, retailers fail to sell them all and they are returned and pulped. A 2002 Guardian article (the same year this episode was made) stated that almost 10% of newly published books end up being shredded.
- Quotes
Alan Partridge: What do you think was actually wrong with my book? Don't pull any punches.
Baptist Fan: To be honest, I don't think anecdotes are your forte.
Alan Partridge: That's fair enough. So you don't think I can tell anecdotes. Can you just pop that down for a second?
[the fan puts his plate down]
Alan Partridge: [aggressively grabs him by the lapels and growls at him through clenched teeth] Right, I'll tell you an anecdote! In 1975 I was catching the London train from Crewe station. It was very crowded, I found myself in a last-minute rush for the one remaining seat with a tall, good-looking man with collar-length hair, it was the seventies - buckaroo! When I sat down on the chair, I looked up and realised it was none other than Peter Purves! It was at the height of his Blue Peter fame! He said "You jammy bastard!" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh, now fuck off!
- ConnectionsReferences Blue Peter (1958)
- SoundtracksHit Me with Your Rhythm Stick
(uncredited)
Written by Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel
Performed by Steve Coogan
In The Loop may not have been perfect but it did remind me that Iannucci is a great writer and that I should catch up on some of his work that I missed or didn't give enough attention to first time around. Alan Partridge fell into that group and I found that season 1 of the show was a great expansion from the chat-show format of the character's previous vehicle "Knowing Me Knowing You". Season 2 sees Alan "bouncing back" but not in any way that could justify his ego, but just enough of a way so that his ego is fired. We already know that this doesn't take much because Partridge is a very little man but ideas of his own importance and fame that aren't supported by his talent or his appeal and this is a big part of the show being funny because, while he is a monster that I would cross the street to avoid, he is still very funny.
Season 2 manages to be funny and entertaining for the majority of the episodes but it doesn't quite nail it in the way the first season did. The main problem with it is that the situations appear to be bigger, drawing on external forces rather than coming from within Partridge himself. This is not totally the case because a good chunk of it does keep true to this approach but the change is noticeable and it all feels a lot "bigger" and more obvious. I agree with some viewers who watched it the first time round when it was screened next to The Office and must have felt even less subtle and more like a broad comedy than it does standing on its own.
The supporting characters hurt it a little bit as well because they are generally not as well used as in the first season. The builders appear to be the natural replacements for the hotel staff – characters that can essentially "play it straight" while the scene reveals more of what a c**k Partridge is. This doesn't happen as well here as it did in season 1 and indeed the builders are underused as characters. Likewise many of the "new" minor characters don't really deliver in the way their equivalents did in the first season. Coogan remains good though even if the material is a little less subtle. He still convinces totally as Partridge and he copes well with the "bigger" comedy such as running round as Bond etc – this works despite it feeling silly when I prefer more subtle and character laughs. Support from Montagu and Cornwell remain good because they make their characters work well while also allowing the material to affect Partridge. Greenall's Michael is a funny character who has made it across from season 1; only problem I had was that he was a character in himself rather than one that allowed us to focus on Partridge – personally I think it would have been better to have lost him as well and put more effort into the new characters.
Overall season 2 is a funny and entertaining season but, while it does much of the same good stuff that season 1 did, it does generally come over as "bigger" and a bit sillier in its plots and situations. This creates bigger comedy moments with broader appeal but do lose the proximity and convincing pain of Partridge as a character, giving fewer opportunities for the character to work as well as it did in the previous season. Not to be sniffed at and still a good season but it is very much the lesser of the two seasons.
- bob the moo
- Oct 18, 2009
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Details
- Runtime28 minutes