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Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
| Released |
7 August 2013 |
| Director |
Declan Lowney |
Starring
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Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Sean Pertwee, Anna Maxwell Martin, Monica Dolan, Felicity Montagu, Simon Greenall, Nigel Lindsay, Simon Delaney |
Writer(s)
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Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons |
| Producer(s) |
Kevin Loader, Henry Normal |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
90 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Rating |
15A |
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Back of the net.
Comedy’s natural habitat is television. Once it goes beyond a half an hour, it can struggle to hold attention. Even a film like Spinal Tap, with its brilliant, original jokes and razor sharp observations can be a slight drag to watch. You see we like to laugh, but it’s usually not enough on its own. That’s one of the reasons why class clowns usually don’t get girlfriends (they can be overweight too).
So when TV comedy ventures into feature film territory, it’s usually done for commercial reasons, not because a longer running time is needed to explore the situation in greater depth. The resulting films can be flabby, with overblown plots and locations, which often remove the comedy from the situations which made it funny in the first place.
In a way, the new Alan Partridge film, Alpha Papa, is one such film, in that there was no need artistically for a feature film and it is full of cinematic touches, which seem a bit incongruous with Alan Partridge, a character who we usually find languishing in mundane situations and who is obsessed with the minutiae of life.
However, the film works due to a quite engaging plot, a more developed Alan Partridge character and a bounty of brilliant jokes. In Alpha Papa, we find our hero in quite a good place (mentally - physically, he remains in Norfolk). He is working as a DJ on North Norfolk Digital and enjoying his work. When a big media company buy out NND, they want to get rid of the dead wood. The dead wood is an old fashioned, Irish DJ played by Colm Meaney, who subsequently takes the employees of the radio station hostage, while Alan is sent in to negotiate with Meaney (or host the siege as Alan likes to put it).
Alan is in his element during large parts of the film. The character has evolved subtly over the years. In the original series, especially the chat show, he was a dark, pathetic, almost grotesque figure. In Alpha Papa, we see a more likeable Alan, a man more at ease with himself. In a way, it feels like a celebration of Partridge, Alan’s day in the sun.
The character has also grown slightly more reminiscent of David Brent. I often wonder has there been a kind of symbiosis at work between Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais. I can’t help but think that Gervais must have been inspired by Partridge when conjuring up David Brent, but similarly I see evidence that Coogan has subsequently been influenced by The Office.
Overall, Alpha Papa is a success. The character is rounded enough by now to sustain a film and the plot is rich enough to keep the attention of the viewer. Most importantly though, the jokes are relentless and brilliant. As Alan would say, back of the net.
- Eoin Murphy |
