“Mental health, if I could use an outdated term, has just gone mental,” says Alan Partridge in his new six-part BBC series, the first time Steve Coogan’s parody of a television presenter has been on screens since 2021.
Now, first things first: you’d be forgiven for finding Partridge a bit old hat. The character created by Coogan in 1991 exists more in the mind’s eye these days than on the box; he's become the fodder of smartarse university graduates who quote old episodes until the jokes are flogged to within an inch of their lives. But like wide-leg jeans, you could argue Partridge has come around again, fitting rather snugly into the cultural zeitgeist.
After all, the ignorant, acerbic Partridge chimes well with the much-reported eroding of woke culture on TV and in entertainment in general. Gen Z are into un-PC jokes, and a book entitled The End of Woke was published this May, suggesting now may be the perfect time for Coogan to publish an entire comedy series laughing at mental health. Thankfully, the writing, by Coogan and writer-collaborators Neil and Rob Gibbons, justifies the provocation.
Having been fired from the BBC, we learn that Partridge has been working in Saudi Arabia presenting puff piece television shows including one entitled Happy Birthday Crown Prince, but has managed to self-fund a new UK programme. Alongside voiceover work for church tours, van companies and Hungry Horse pubs, he’s developing How Are You?, a series examining mental health, in which Coogan’s presenter character interviews experts around the UK and reflects on his own childhood in an attempt to ascertain just what’s going wrong with the UK’s healthcare system and Brits as a whole.
There are some absolutely killer lines, like when Partridge suggests to a mental health worker that in his youth an ADHD diagnosis would have been called “ants in their pants,” and “bipolar would have been moody”. In another skit he’s preparing to grill a male employee of a jet pack company about improper treatment of a female colleague, but ends up sacking off the conversation to have a go at flying instead. As he whizzes around gleefully in the sky as part of the broadcast, text on screen conveys the message that “20% of women feel fully supported at work”. It’s just wonderful madness.
Amongst the ridiculousness, a deliciously litigious mention of “horrible Gregg Wallace,” and vox-pops in his hometown of Norwich, “the only city I love more than Dubai”. We hear a tape recording from when Partridge was paid to impersonate a Black voice for an advert, and there is a hilarious put down about therapy speech by way of a conversation between Partridge and an old radio colleague of his whom he clearly hates. “I feel like I shouldn’t have given you the day off when your dad died,” he spits.
Coogan is now around the same age as his alter ego, and so Partridge looks and feels believable. In a way, that makes him funnier too. Coogan has joked that his real-life clothes are becoming more Partridge, and they certainly seem comfy together. I hope there’s plenty more cringeworthy life in him yet.
Streaming now on BBC One and iPlayer
