ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA
Cast: Steve Coogan, Colm
Meaney, Felicity Montagu, Tim Key, Monica Dolan, Simon
Greenall
Alan is now in his mid fifties and clinging like grim death to his career as a bland radio host/dj on an ailing digital radio station in his home path - Norwich. But changes are imminent from the station’s slick but soul-less new management team, with either Partridge or his Irish DJ colleague Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) likely to be relieved of their on-air slot in a cost-cutting, rebranding exercise. Ultimately, Farrell gets his jotters, partly due to Partridge privately back-stabbing his chum, but soon afterwards, the upset Irishman gatecrashes a staff party at the station with a shotgun. He takes 12 hostages, with Partridge becoming the go-between with police negotiators, a role he cynically relishes as a chance to boost his media profile. With quick-fire, dialogue-driven farce, this is also quite a dark but equally very funny thriller. Meaney is a highly accomplished actor, and does a fine job of suggesting simmering madness beneath bluff surface charm, although it has to be said that the light-hearted hostage scenes never quite manage to develop anything resembling real jeopardy, but that perhaps was the point. As a first big screen outing for Coogan’s best-known alter-ego, this is a worthy addition to the ever-growing Partridge archive, with enough out-loud laughs to hugely entertain anyone with a sense of humour.
Director: Declan Lowney
Writers: Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Armando Iannucci
Running time: 90 mins
Steve Coogan steps back into his comfort zone with this first feature-length outing for his long-running character, Alan Partridge, a satirical creation born over 20 years ago on BBC radio and television. Alpha Papa is a sharply-scripted comic thriller that playfully references Hollywood blueprints with affectionate irony. There are subtle allusions to any number of erstwhile American screen thrillers here, drawing humorous inspiration from the radical contrast between those big-city dramas and this film’s gentler setting in provincial Norwich. The joint creation of a bunch of like-minded comedy writers, including Coogan himself but also The Thick of It/ In The Loop creator Armando Iannucci, Partridge is now a household name. A former sports reporter and spoof chat show host, his is an uncomfortably familiar kind of Middle English conservatism: seemingly worldly and confident but actually a prudish, parochial, chauvinistic, narcissistic mild sociopath! One of the pleasures of Coogan’s most famous creation is how the Partridge character has evolved in real time, chronicling twenty years or so of career vicissitudes through various radio shows, TV series and live concerts. Through this organic transition he's grown into a layered , vain and pompous persona, still however in possession of a certain naïve charm. The narrative of Alpha Papa follows on from the most recent web/TV series, Mid Morning Matters. For Partridge novices however, no background boning-up is really required.Alan is now in his mid fifties and clinging like grim death to his career as a bland radio host/dj on an ailing digital radio station in his home path - Norwich. But changes are imminent from the station’s slick but soul-less new management team, with either Partridge or his Irish DJ colleague Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) likely to be relieved of their on-air slot in a cost-cutting, rebranding exercise. Ultimately, Farrell gets his jotters, partly due to Partridge privately back-stabbing his chum, but soon afterwards, the upset Irishman gatecrashes a staff party at the station with a shotgun. He takes 12 hostages, with Partridge becoming the go-between with police negotiators, a role he cynically relishes as a chance to boost his media profile. With quick-fire, dialogue-driven farce, this is also quite a dark but equally very funny thriller. Meaney is a highly accomplished actor, and does a fine job of suggesting simmering madness beneath bluff surface charm, although it has to be said that the light-hearted hostage scenes never quite manage to develop anything resembling real jeopardy, but that perhaps was the point. As a first big screen outing for Coogan’s best-known alter-ego, this is a worthy addition to the ever-growing Partridge archive, with enough out-loud laughs to hugely entertain anyone with a sense of humour.
