Aha! Comedy Review, Alan Partridge: Welcome To The Places Of My Life/Veep

Aha! Etc...

So last night saw some of Sky's first self-made British comedy, Alan Partridge: Welcome To The Places Of My Life.  Not exactly within Sky Atlantic's remit (it was  a channel set up with the intention of showing US series in the UK), it was an incredibly welcome return to this character who it seems will never leave Steve Coogan's career alone.

Alan Partridge dates from the very early 90s, but has not dated.  His character doesn't really need an introduction to anyone who's lived in Britain and owned a TV set (or in recent years, computer) in the last 20 years.  He's one of those fictional characters that works in any genre.  He began life in sketches, moved into full-length spoofs with the chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You and was dropped into traditional farce-based sitcom in I'm Alan Partridge.  Coogan's also used him in webisodes in probably the most popular of that mini-genre so far; and now he's in the travelogue documentary format.

Welcome To The Places Of My Life was essentially a remake of a similar concept from a Christmas episode of Knowing Me, Knowing You; Partridge takes us around his home town and lets his character do the comedy.  (And yes, I am sad enough to be able to reference a 15 year old sketch without having to look it up or cry into my pillow.)  There was no plot here; the only thing remotely close to a plot takes up less than 5 minutes of the programme and you could blink and miss it.  In one scene you glimpse Alan reading a letter with an NHS heading; later you see him in a pessimistic mood before going into a hospital, and a very relieved mood coming out of the hospital.  Everything else revolves as ever, around Partridge displaying a severe lack of self-awareness and delusions of importance.  The prgramme was full of instantly quotable lines from the start - "I like to think of Norfolk as the Wales of the East" for instance.  That's a relatively gentle example, but the description of the Black Death as being "the HIV of its day", and its being passed through the air making it "flying AIDS" shows the darker, twisted side of his personality.  We can only laugh at the dark side of Partridge (which is essentially his views on everything to do with sex, disability, race yadda yadda yadda) because there is also so much pathos.  This was brought not just through the hospital 'plot' but also seeing his current workplace.  A local digital station (with presumably no listeners), with Partridge making impressions of food blenders.  His career his basically been in a downward spiral since the end of Knowing Me, Knowing You and because his self-worth is entirely based on his career he comes across as a character deserving pity, despite the horrendous outlook he has on life.

A particularly good scene was one where Partridge is treading water in a swimming pool chatting to a hydro-therapist.  As the conversation goes on, it is more and more obvious that he is finding it difficult to stay afloat.  However, the interview has been edited so that when the camera is on him he is relaxed and calm, whereas when the camera cuts back to the hydro-therapist he is heard splashing and struggling for air.  The character's vanity and ridiculousness is displayed without even being on screen.  His selling of Norwich Town Hall as being the place Hitler would have made his victory speech from had he won WWII was another highlight - "the more I find out about Hitler, the less I like the sound of him."

The programme saw Coogan ressurrecting a classic comedy character then, but it should be remembered that this is a one-programme idea.  It will be interesting to see what else is done with the character in the next year or so with a film due just around the corner...

Veep - The anti-West Wing?

The other comedy on Sky Atlantic was Armando Iannucci's Veep.  Armando Iannucci (ex-Alan Partridge writer/producer) is now best known as the creator of The Thick Of It and In The Loop and for having an honour from the Queen and everything, and it is unavoidable for British viewers to watch Veep without comparing it to the previous series and film.  Structually, In The Loop was The Thick Of It with some of the characters having American accents.  Veep is something different entirely.  The focus is skewed; The Thick Of It generally uses the format of drab politician being manipulated by the spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, who is undoubtedly the star of the show.  In Veep, however, the main focus is on the drab politician.  This makes sense.  American politics has never made a celebrity culture out of its spin doctors as much as British politics has in the last 15-20 years or so.  Just remaking The Thick Of It with an American setting would be completely irrelevant.  It is probably more useful to compare Veep to the West Wing than The Thick Of It, as it reacts against the liberal idealism of that show.  Let's face it, everyone loved The West Wing for a time but it eventually became unbearbly cloying and sentimental.

The thing about Veep is that I suspect it will be more of a slow-burner than The Thick Of It.  There are a lot more characters and it will take a lot longer to get to know them.  The plot of the first episode was very much the type of thing that happens in The Thick Of It (politicians trying to avoid the unwelcome media attention while trying to boost their reputations), with the Veep (that's the Vice President, btw) indirectly upsetting the oil industry and calling someone a retard.  It was all very well acted, and there were some good understated one-liners, but it wasn't as immediately laugh-out-loud funny as I expected.  It does look as if a story arc is being set up with a ruthlessly ambitious aide however, and I wonder whether we are going to see the birth of a Malcolm Tucker style figure.  Tucker arrived fully-formed in The Thick Of It, and perhaps Veep is going to show how such figures come about.

Both shows were very enjoyable, but if Sky is hoping to improve its reputation for home-grown comedy in Britain it had better have been an opening salvo.  As I said earlier, the Partridge programme was defined as a one-off by its format, and although Veep is funny it is too rooted in American politics for it to connect with a mainstream British audience (The Thick Of It is rooted in British politics and doesn't connect with a massive British audience).  A good start maybe, but Sky can't rest on its laurels if it's hoping to be a big contender as a comedy focused channel.