TV review

Anyone who’s driven to Dundee barefoot while gorging on Toblerone probably knows a thing or two about mental illness.

But following a more recent incident – fainting into the lap of a female interviewee during a corporate event – Alan Partridge is presenting what he bills with his typical blend of self-aggrandisement and lack of awareness as ‘Britain’s first ever documentary about mental health’.

Naturally, Steve Coogan’s evergreen alter-ego gets the pitch of How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) just that little bit wrong. He’s got good intentions – or at least enough savvy to know this is the sort of documentary broadcasters want – but, ever superficial, he’s never quite prepared to confront his depressive tendencies full-on.

Indeed, he’s quite boastful about his successful life and seems to think contentment will come in settling old scores rather than any inward-looking reflection. 

We meet Partridge happily living in his oasthouse with Katrina (Katherine Kelly) ‘one of the fittest women over 40 in Norfolk’ and doing rather well for himself. He’s no longer a regular on national TV, admittedly, following the incident on This Time, but finding lucrative work in the North Norfolk region, having just returned from Saudi Arabia where he was doing similar for their regime. A very topical note given the ongoing Riyadh Comedy Festival.

The series is something of a slow-burner for a 9.30pm BBC One show, and while the comedy is occasionally patchy, the show benefits from repeated viewing as the nuance becomes more apparent. As usual with Partridge, there are plenty of hidden joys in the detail of the writing, performance and presentation.

The conceit is that this series has been made by Partridge’s Pear Tree Productions, so has all the heavy-handedness of a slightly clueless vanity project with no one questioning Alan’s decisions  – such as depicting a breakdown via a montage of exploding fruits or our presenter grimacing his way through a run in another laboured metaphor.

Yet he’s more directly funnier when he doesn’t have control – a brief clip of him struggling high-pressure cooking show is one of the highlights of episode one, the humiliation writ larger than some of the more subtle moments here.

There are many such enjoyable sketch-style scenes, including the great parody of an information-heavy voiceover that opens the series. Other moments are a bit slower, such as the focus group session, or chewier, such as Alan’s awkward pass-agg reunion with Tim Key’s Simon – now sidekicking for another DJ – leaves viewer and participants alike squirming in excruciation, all part of Alan’s belief that redemption will come from being proved right.

When he tries to find happiness through good deeds, he can never appreciate the moment. Working at a soup kitchen, for instance, he can’t quite hide his suspicion that some clients are not truly homeless, but just on the blag.

Coogan’s co-writers the Gibbons Brothers have, over the books and podcast especially, ensured Alan has evolved into a more three-dimensional figure since his hilariously tragic days in the Linton Travel Tavern. There’s more pathos, bathos and just plain discomfort here than ever before, and we warm to him a little more even if we laugh at him a little less.   

• How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) is on iPlayer now  and airs on BBC One at 9.30pm tonight.

Review date: 3 Oct 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett