🔗 Share this article

Alan Partridge finds himself in a predicament! However, many are in similar straits today? In his last TV appearance, Alan was melting down live on air while hosting the light magazine show This Time, wrapping up with him excluded of the BBC. In the opening of his independent production, the light documentary How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), Alan discloses he’s encountered further difficulties by passing out in front of a guest at a corporate event for Norfolk agribusiness stalwarts. Tough times, but personalities of Partridge’s calibre know how to bounce back: connect struggles with societal themes and see if you can get a series out of it.

Exploring the Epidemic of Anxiety

How Are You? features Coogan’s timeless character in roving factual mode, examining a wave of mental health issues that he perceives as escalating: “If I can use an outdated term, it’s just got mental!” His path includes dabbling in faith, reconnect with friends from school, and embark on calming rural strolls, alongside facing his history. The first installment leads to a tense yet relieving meeting with “Sidekick” Simon Denton (Tim Key), his old partner from past shows, and as the episodes progress, we’re shown unseen clips from Alan’s stints.

Alongside his co-writers and directors, How Are You? marks a change of pace. While the previous show explored new ground, How Are You? often retreads it: along with bringing back former styles, it mirrors earlier faux-documentaries from the 2010s. As his life intertwines with the subject matter, viewers will think of his podcast work.

The Two Sides of Alan Partridge

It creates a slight challenge. The character has two facets: Successful Alan (with high-profile jobs) and Outcast Alan (on the sidelines), and despite Wilderness Alan leading the beloved show I’m Alan Partridge back in 1997, a more wistful Wilderness Alan has recently taken flight in books and audio projects. How Are You? brings us into his space and casts Katherine Kelly as Katrina, his highly inappropriate love interest from the podcast. But that tragic tale – he ignores her infidelity with a pal and business owner – feels like one that would have benefited from the slower pace of audio-only Alan, enabling mental imagery to amplify laughs. When we can’t see him, Wilderness Alan has room to breathe: television nowadays feels more suited to putting Winning Alan under pressure and observing his collapse, as seen before.

Humor in Mistakes

Yet, these issues pale beside a key reality: across all platforms, he delivers the most laughs in Britain, and even placeholder Partridge has more laughs-out-loud per half-hour than other TV programs. How Are You? has Alan in multiple creative roles, which highlights his talent for mistakes and bad choices. If he thinks Britain’s mental health problems are best illustrated by an aggressively edited montage of exploding fruit, it will be included, and no one corrects his verbal errors or the phrase “mental bealth henefits” in his voiceover. The slight grimace we regularly catch as he strides out of shot knowing on some level that that piece to camera was another balls-up never stops being funny, and nor do the idents he’s made to fit between segments, topped by his earnest, flawed grins while drinking tea clumsily.

Visual and Emotional Highlights

What could be funnier than his dumpster antics? Definitely not. Visually he’s a feast too, with his new dye job several shades too light to be plausible, and his attire including bright trousers, black-and-white pundit pumps, assorted vests and over-the-top joy about style revivals.

Additionally, the theme offers peeks into his inner world that emerged with the current writers. More than once the series pulls off flashes of pathos, where Alan’s lack of self-awareness reveals a sadness that nearly brings viewers to tears, then the comedy returns and laughter resumes. That can happen because we’ve loved him for so long: every appearance is appreciated.