TV’s Alan Partridge — Steve Coogan’s brilliant skewering of small-time celebrity vanity — gets the big-screen treatment in this suitably parochial action thriller. The premise feels like the kind of ridiculous scenario the radio DJ would fantasize about in between songs: Pat (Colm Meaney), an ex-employee of North Norfolk Digital, returns to the station armed and takes his former colleagues hostage, refusing to negotiate with anyone but Alan. Those familiar with Coogan’s painfully self-absorbed character will foresee that going straight to his already delusions-of-grandeur-filled head, and it does; as one character puts it, he’s like a puffed-up robin.
Much of the hilarity comes from the way Alan’s obvious glee at the heroic position he’s found himself in distracts him from actually saving the day, but there is equally sharply drawn satire in the supporting characters, too. Favorites from the TV series, like Alan’s put-upon assistant Lynn (Felicity Montagu) — herself a brilliant feat of perceptive comedy — make welcome returns here, but, like Alan, their eccentricities are made accessible enough that Partridge virgins won’t feel their ignorance. With all the original writers back onboard (including Armando Iannucci, the comedy genius behind The Death of Stalin and Veep), Alpha Papa is another reliably hilarious entry in the Partridge canon. Back of the net.
"It's funny stuff, to be sure, but don't be surprised if you find yourself checking the time whenever the actual plot kicks in."
— Bilge Ebiri
"A scissor-sharp comedy of ineptitude and failure."
— Leslie Felperin
When famous DJ Alan Partridge’s radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.
When an armed and disgruntled ex-employee takes 12 of his former colleagues hostage, it’s up to North Norfolk's premier radio host, Alan Partridge, to defuse the situation and save their lives.
Coogan is on typically brilliant form here: every line is delivered with his characteristically impeccable timing, and he’s full of the inspired energy that originally made Alan such a hit when the character debuted in the ‘90s. It’s no easy feat, keeping a satirical creation as funny and as incisive as it originally was 20 years later, and especially so when you consider how many beloved TV-to-movie adaptations lose something of their sharpness in the transition from small to big screen.
If you’re not familiar with the crowning achievement of cringe comedy that is Alan Partridge, this is basically what Threat Level Midnight was for The Office’s Michael Scott.
