Movie Review Alan Partridge Alpha Papa

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2013 - Spoiler alerts Not everyone likes Steve Coogan or his best known TV creation, the egomaniacal bigoted local radio presenter Alan Partridge, but I always liked his shows. The joy of Partridge is that he thinks he is cool and politically correct despite his often monumental patronizing ignorance. In his big movie debut Partridge discovers that the independent Norfolk radio station is being taken over by a new management company who are likely to get rid of some of their presenters. He makes a desperate passionate plea to them for why the job-axe should fall on Irish presenter Pat Farrell, played by Star Trek Deep Space Nine actor Colm Meaney. The board take up Partridge’s suggestion, and Farrell is fired but he takes the station and its staff hostage to express his anger over the situation. Partridge narrowly escapes the siege but with Farrell convinced that he is his only loyal friend, he finds himself reluctantly helping as the official hostage negotiator between the police and Farrell. Partridge initially has modest success and becomes a modest local hero, but the role appeals to his rampant egotism, and though he has several opportunities to get hold of Farrel’s shotgun, he consistently fails to do it, and Farrell eventually discovers Partridge is the primary cause of his redundancy in the first place, leading to Partridge desperately hiding in a septic tank on a camper van and a siege stand-off on a seaside pier. Smart scripting and memorably likable eccentric characters compensates for a lack of big budget spectacle, with great performances and nicely slotted in cameos for characters from the Partridge TV shows, and a rather under-used Sean Pertwee as the exasperated cop handling the siege. Meaney is particularly great as the embittered if rather dim DJ waging his one man war against corporate decision makers everywhere. The soundtrack is well worth paying attention to as well. The film was a huge success, deservedly and there are strong indications of more Partridge movies in the pipeline. Arthur Chappell