Product Description

Steve Coogan

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1301 in DVD
• Brand: DVD Boxsets
• Released on: 2002-11-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
I'm Alan Partridge finds Steve Coogan's media creation back in his native Norwich, having lost his beloved chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You, and now reduced to the pre-Breakfast slot playing old T'Pau and Soft Cell singles to an audience of farmers and all-night bakery workers. He's also lodged at the Linton Travel tavern, whose permanently smiling manageress, bland decor and themed buffets are redolent of what vast tracts of England have become. He's very much at home there. While there's much media satire in Partridge's pitiful pitches of programme ideas to the BBC ("Inner city sumo? Monkey tennis?"), I'm Alan Partridge is more a bleakly hilarious take on Modern Middle English Man, irascible and profoundly bored. Between innumerable moments of high, wild comedy, such as a disastrous video Partridge does for a boating agency and an encounter with his one (insane) fan, the most telling moments of the series come with his efforts to fill his dismally empty days, taking a trouser press to pieces, staring at the astro turf at an owl sanctuary or walking to a service station to buy windscreen cleaning fluid just for something to do. All this proved a little too darkly uncomfortable for mainstream audiences--yet Alan Partridge was probably the finest British comic creation of the 1990s. --David Stubbs

Special Features
Commentary by Alan Partridge
Commentary by Steve Coogan, Armando Lanncci and Peter Baynham
Add-on Alan (out takes and Deleted Scenes)
Unused Alan (An Improvised Deleted Scene)
Cast and Crew Biographies
Photo Gallery
Scene Selection

Episodes
A Room with An Alan
Alan Attraction
Watership Alan
Basic Alan
To Kill a Mocking Alan
Towering Alan

Synopsis
Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge, a failed talk show host, in this hilarious BBC sitcom. The collection features six episodes, including "Room with an Alan," "Alan Attraction," "Watership Alan," and "To Kill a Mocking Alan."

Customer Reviews

The Remains of the Alan
Sentient beings everywhere will need no introduction to the moribund world of the anchor (rhyming slang) of Norwich FM's graveyard slot, "Up With the Partridge," or the reasons why he's tragicomic on a level never seen before on TV: "I don't want salvation ... I just want to be able to say - 'I'm Alan Partridge - join me tonight when my guests will be, I dunno, Chris Rea...'"

So you already know that "I'm Alan Partridge" is far superior to established classics like "Fawlty Towers" and "Blackadder," in that it shares with those programmes an absolutely fastidious attention to detail and density of jokes, but mixes in far more pathos and depth than they ever did. The only comparison has been, of course, David Brent in "The Office," which came later and also favours curling toes over laughing bellies, whereas Partridge blends the two to perfection.

The series was released on DVD before, but then withdrawn over the unauthorised inclusion of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi." That was a blessing in disguise, as the BBC has now taken the opportunity to give "I'm Alan Partridge" the deluxe DVD treatment, a la "The Office" or "League of Gentlemen:" two discs, amusing menus, authentically hideous cover - the lot. Best of the extras are the deleted scenes (already seen on the VHS and first DVD), all of which seem to have been cut for time reasons alone and not quality: a particular moment of genius is Alan's other programme idea pitched at Tony Hayers over that legendary uneaten lunch, a perfect insight into the man's impoverished, flailing imagination: "A costume chat show with me as Samuel Pepys ... you could have John Thaw as Robespierre ... and Stephen Hawkings [sic] behind a curtain whispering clues through his voicebox..."

Also recommended is the commentary by writers Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham, who have the humanity and humility to laugh at the jokes but not too much, and give plenty of glimpses into the creative process, not to mention the slightly alanly-retentive side of the trio which feeds so much authenticity into their just-about-larger-than-life grotesque creation. Less worthwhile is the commentary by Coogan in character as Alan Partridge, along with Lynn, which resembles a rather eventless and drawn out version of the improvised car scene (another DVD bonus) and compares poorly with the same technique used in the DVD of "This is Spinal Tap," where David St. Hubbins so memorably advised us that he had split up with Janine because "the millennium changed and so did she..."

Oh and don't forget the finest comic scene ever recorded in complete darkness - Alan's valance-("the skirt thing round the end of the bed")-darkening bedtime experience with lovely Jill, 50. So beg borrow or steal this DVD. Actually not the last one - I will not condone lawbreaking. Although I will do 80 on the motorway if I have to get somewhere quickly.

The definitive comedy genius
As good as it was popular, as it influenced the style of comedy for a generation. Armando Inanuci deserves maximum credit for utlilising Steve Coogan's character talents, and giving Partridge a sense of vulnerability, which in my eyes is key in order to gain laughs, rather than mere distain at his lengthy list of faults! This is top quality classic comedy up there with Fawlty Towers and The Office, too dark for BBC 1, and too good not to own

Fantastic!
This has to be THE best DVD I've bought! This is a 2 disc set (although thats not clear anywhere...) the opening menus are amazing. The first disc opens with a "Linton Travel Tavern TV" menu (complete with audio buzzing!), the second disc (with lots of extras on) has amongst other things "Alans Jingle Jukebox"!!! I have never seen anything so well presented and polished. Well done BBC. Worth EVERY penny!