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Alan Partridge is back, and this time he wants your money. The BBC has released a new video to promote How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), which launches on Friday October 3.
In it, Steve Coogan’s alter ego appears in full fundraising mode, pitching a Crowdfunder to cover the spiralling “cost of television.”
“Because of inflation and the unions, making a documentary has never been more expensive,” Partridge laments, before offering fans a range of increasingly absurd perks.
For £20, he promises “an autographed photo, unframed.” For £50, a voicemail: ‘Happy 49th birthday.’ For £150, “an original self-portrait in oils of me and your pet.”
But the best gag comes with dinner: “For £400, a dinner date with me at a restaurant of your choosing. For £200, a dinner date at a restaurant of my choosing.”
Naturally, there’s also a corporate tier: “For £10,000, you’ll get to call yourself an executive producer on the finished series.”
At one point, Partridge insists this isn’t charity: “This is a quidd pro quo. You give me the quid, I’ll give you the quote. And we will rock. We will rock.”
The spoof even finds a way around BBC rules banning name-drops for cash. With the help of a “freelance wordsmith,” Partridge says he can weave names into scripts via “visual metaphor” or awkward phrasing.
“For £1,000, I’ll say your name out loud in a way that feels both natural and sympathetic to the context,” he explains, shoehorning in names like “Beth Anderson” for effect.
The actual show
Behind the spoof, the new series is very real. How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) is a six-episode run that finds the broadcaster back in Norwich after a year in Saudi Arabia.
What begins as a documentary on homecoming quickly becomes a deeper dive into Alan’s own “funk.” Across the series he tackles themes from work and relationships to nature, pastimes and the tricky business of middle-aged malaise.
The BBC says the show will explore whether Britain is “mentally unwell, mentally challenged, sad, cross, disturbed or just plain fed up.”
Partridge himself put it another way: “The kingdom of Saudi Arabia enjoys extensive oil and natural gas reserves, but has also seen economic growth in other areas such as agricultural production, retail trade, construction, and transport.
“It directs some $69 billion to military expenditure each year. And yet despite all that, I somehow felt incomplete.”
All six episodes will land as a boxset on BBC iPlayer from 3 October, with the first airing that night on BBC One at 9.30pm.
Alan’s back. And apparently, he’s also skint.
