Reviews of Strategem
some bitter, some nice
Alan Partridge: Stratagem: the kind of show Partridge himself would deviseThirteen years since he last brought the hapless presenter to the stage, Steve Coogan is back – with mixed but at times irresistible results  It is the year 2065, and Alan Partridge is still stalking the streets of Norwich, all his hubris and Little England pettiness intact. This future – conjured with a bit of ageing makeup and back-projected video – may be merely a brief flight of fantasy in Steve Coogan’s likeable new stage tour, but it’s a very plausible one: Partridge’s longevity seems boundless. It has been three decades since Coogan created the character (in Radio 4’s news spoof On the Hour) and 13 years since he last trod the boards as the hapless presenter. In those 13 years, the stream of Partridgiana has become a torrent. We’ve had a film, a web series, a podcast, two books, various mockumentaries and sitcoms on Sky Atlantic and BBC One, and now this song-and-dance extravaganza. Despite once accidentally killing a chat-show guest on air, the Partridge of 2022 is “thriving in a cross-platform media environment” – as his seven-strong troupe of backing dancers puts it, in a Hamilton-esque opening rap. The loose premise is that Partridge has reinvented himself as a life coach. In an all-white athleisure outfit (“I thought, what would Jesus Christ wear, if he was Steve Jobs?”) he’s here to explain the secrets of his success. There’s a clammy desperation to everything he does. He’s keen to move with the times, if only to boost his career, so he mouths all the right buzzwords. “Is there a lack of diversity in our audience? Yes, but I’m taking steps to address that, along with my partners the National Trust and the Countryside Alliance.” Arriving on stage by gingerly sliding down a metal bannister, Coogan slips into the character like one of Alan’s old driving gloves. It’s a fine performance, a gear above the broad-strokes script he has cooked up with his directors, twin brothers Rob and Neil Gibbons (the writing team behind the past decade’s Partridge ventures).  There are entertaining set-pieces – including one marvellously elaborate sight-gag, a great surprise that it would be a crime to spoil here – but Stratagem never generates the fist-biting awkwardness that made Partridge’s best TV outings such a painful pleasure. Coogan’s former co-writer Armando Iannucci once said the challenge with Partridge was “reining him in”. Coogan is funniest when he has a foil; his best acting is his reacting. But Stratagem is – for better and worse – almost precisely the kind of show Partridge himself would devise, a big, glitzy vehicle designed to keep all eyes on its preening star, complete with a closing medley of off-key 1980s power ballads. In the right format, uninterrupted Partridge can make for fine comedy – as the wonderfully mundane Gibbons-written podcast proved – but in the theatre more dramatic friction is needed to create sparks. While Tuesday’s show began and ended with deafening applause, that rock-star reception seemed out of proportion to the sometimes muted laughter mid-show. The best scenes here pit Partridge against un-cooperative guests; a polished protégée who’s outgrown him and a gobby, Love Island-ish audience volunteer (both played by rising comic talent Emma Sidi), as well as an Irish, bucktoothed Partridge lookalike (Coogan again, reprising a popular This Time character via pre-recorded video). Alan Zooms the latter to offer an apology via one of his god-awful self-penned poems (“’Tis Ireland… the clover-clad clump”), but is cut off before he can finish. In those moments, when Partridge realises he’s had his own spotlight stolen, the pitiful spasms of pain that cross Coogan’s face speak louder than words, and the whole show clicks into place. Those scenes suggest that perhaps a format closer to Knowing Me, Knowing You – a series of on-stage interviews – might have proved funnier than all the slick choreography and multimedia musical bells-and-whistles. Still, there’s enough here to keep fans on board with the prospect of another three decades of Alan. A-ha! Alan Partridge: Stratagem review – two hours of tremendous silliness4/5
In a joyful return to the stage, Steve Coogan’s deathless alter ego delivers a motivational lecture he keeps on derailing
Wed 27 Apr 2022 15.11 BSTThe last time Alan Partridge graced the nation’s stages, he was trying his hand as a life coach, in Steve Coogan’s 2008 tour Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters. The idea clearly stuck because, 14 years on, it’s been developed into a full show. Stratagem, Partridge tells us, is “a fun way to share knowledge that, I believe, will change your life.” And so begins a very satisfying two hours for fans of Coogan’s deathless alter ego, as Alan combines motivational PowerPoint with time travel, song-and-dance, and a relaxation exercise turned slanging match with an upstart protege. The whole show, created with Coogan’s Partridge co-writers Neil and Rob Gibbons, is tight, well-worked and has its own satisfying little narrative arc, as the flimsiness of Alan’s life-coach pretensions is revealed. Coogan is far from the first comic to find pathos in the overreach of motivational speakers, but Stratagem doesn’t turn much fire on that soft target. Really, it’s just two hours of tremendous silliness, revelling in Partridge’s foot-in-mouth illness-at-ease, making hay in the chasm between his fussy, small-minded reality and the big-vision sophisticate he longs to be. All this is achieved with the help of a troupe of young backing dancers whose friendship Partridge is needily eager to claim, and cameos from comic and Starstruck actor Emma Sidi as a successful Stratagem graduate and a mouthy audience member whom Alan ill-advisedly invites on stage. None of which, of course, suggests a man whose life advice you’d go anywhere near. But no matter: in act one, Partridge focuses inwards instead, co-opting the magic of theatre (as he keeps telling us) to address first his 11-year-old and then his 103-year-old selves. The latter is to be found in a dystopian 2065 cyber-Norwich, a half-man, half-avatar with an ageing Partridge face and the lower half of a can-can dancer in fishnets.  Will we still be laughing at Partridge when he’s a centenarian? You wouldn’t bet against it: the character whom Coogan once considered “an albatross around his neck” is nowadays at the centre of his own thriving multi-platform metaverse. And Coogan clearly takes pleasure in the performance. I don’t just mean the endless adenoidal pettifogging, which reaches its apogee here in an 80s power-ballad routine that Partridge keeps interrupting to discuss the finer points of Lib Dem politics. It’s also the rich comedy of physical awkwardness, as Alan inches uncertainly in and out of someone else’s follow-spot, or disguises himself as soft furnishing. His trendy upstage graphics, which ape the famous iPod silhouette ads, are also hijacked by a precious visual gag that will live luridly long in the memory. Where does all this leave the Stratagem programme, and changing our lives for the better? Barely anywhere. In act two, Partridge gets back to the point, extrapolating some daft anagrams and bullet-pointing the programme’s nonsense principles. One of these – atonement – is illustrated in dialogue with a newer Coogan alter ego, the Irish rebel singer Martin Brennan, whom Partridge slighted on BBC One’s This Time and now seeks to make peace with by means of a penny whistle. The show is, then, an extension rather than an expansion of what Partridge does. Another splash around in the shallows of self-delusion, sexual repression and midlife unease. But no one makes that territory funnier than Partridge, as Coogan proves again in this joyful show. Steve Coogan’s cringe-meister Alan Partridge is as mad and chaotic as usual in his stupidly brilliant Stratagem ‘seminar’ at The Brighton CentreRating: More than 30 years since he first appeared on Radio 4’s On The Hour, Alan Partridge is now so enmeshed in the national comedy fabric, there’s no longer any need to mention his creator Steve Coogan in the show’s title. Since he last toured in 2008, Partridge, right, has bucked the hit-sitcom-to-dismal-feature-film trend with his movie Alpha Papa, and diversified with TV specials, new series and even a documentary, but still we can’t get enough of the blissfully deluded cringe-meister. Now he’s back with a whole show to himself in Stratagem, a life-coaching seminar incorporating musical bombast, dancing girls, poetry, Hamilton-inspired rapping, epistolary storytelling and, er, time travel, all courtesy of the show’s purported sponsors, P&O and Bet365.  We still can’t get enough of the blissfully deluded cringe-meister Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan, above), and Stratagem is as mad and chaotic as it sounds Yes, it’s as mad and chaotic as it sounds. Oh, and there’s one astounding sight gag in which Alan, disguised as part of the set, erupts from his hiding place like a marauding transformer built from soft furnishings. Entirely, stupidly brilliant! At times the show comes on like Partridge The Musical, and is all the funnier for it. The set is aptly over the top with metal ladders, an elevated walkway and a giant screen on which Alan interacts superbly with long-suffering PA Lynn (Felicity Montagu) and Irish farmer/rebel singer Martin Brennan (Coogan), breakout star of This Time With Alan Partridge. We are also treated to grotesque close-ups of a gurning Partridge via a hand-held camera. Clad from head to foot in shimmering white, he cuts a messianic figure, at odds with the mundanity of his maxims: ‘Grab life by the throat and throttle it.’ In this age of cancel culture he must have his say: ‘In these gender-sensitive times, you can’t say “tits-up”, but you can say “cock-up”. Interesting!’ A bolted-on romantic sub-plot and the odd clunky moment do nothing to distract from what is two hours of pure, unadulterated Partridge. And, as he croons his way through a medley of 1980s power ballads, that is more than enough. Alan Partridge: Stratagem2.5/5 The key to Alan Partridge’s longevity – besides Steve Coogan’s incredible immersion in the creation – is that he’s so perfectly gauche in any situation, always falling just short of the self-awareness that would save him from humiliation. Not that he ever quite realises how socially inept he’s being. His latest venture, Stratagem, is a motivational personal improvement seminar and is pure, unadulterated Partridge. But comedically that’s not quite the asset it might seem. For if Partridge were to put on such a presentation, it would be clumsily ambitious, a stodgy jumble of strained, over-the-top ideas that don’t fit together, making it sluggish to watch. True to the character, that’s what we have, with the parody sailing so close to the real thing that it stumbles into the same pitfalls. The audience really are asked to watch an awkwardly weird time-travelling playlet in Partridge interacts with a future avatar of his 105-year-old self with a can-can dancer’s legs. It might have seemed a good idea in the minds of either Partridge or Coogan and his co-writers Rob and Neil Gibbons. But in reality, it loses much of the audience. And are these dated, sub-Clarkson jokes about Richard Hammond being small the actual gags, or is their weakness supposed to be ironic? Partridge is at his most cringingly funny when he has a smarter adversary to clash with, in front of someone he’s trying to impress. When he’s outwitted or brought down by his hubris, he loses face, and possibly more if the jeopardy’s ramped up. But Stratagem is his ego project, and he only occasionally interacts with someone else. So when things go wrong, there’s no consequence, he just blasts on with his big-budget show. It starts impressively strong. Within the first few minutes, we have a misfiring Hamilton-inspired rap as ’Dr’ Alan Gordon Partridge, in his white polo neck (‘what Jesus Christ would wear if he was Steve Jobs’) boasts of his command of the ‘cross-platform media environment’, introduces his awful sponsors and mocks the lack of diversity in his overwhelmingly white, middle-aged audience. The character’s desperate bids for relevance are aways strong, from his lamentable attempts to be chummy with his young, diverse troupe of back-up dancers, to the underlying suggestion this whole project is a cynical leap on to a mental health bandwagon. But this gets lost in a selection of disjointed sketches, with Coogan spending much time interacting with the giant screen, his back to the audience. With no great concern for the ‘life coach’ premise, we used the CCTV in Alan’s house to eavesdrop on long-suffering PA Lynn who’s house-sitting. While it’s a delight to see Felicity Montagu, even via screen, this seems a clumsy add-on. More successfully, we visit Martin Brennan, the Irish farmer from This Time, who mercifully cuts short Alan’s dreadful poem of Emerald Isle clichés.
Some moments zing with the choreographed moments adding a suitable sense of arena-scale occasion. The second half opens with a brilliantly ridiculous sight gag, and as expected, in-person interactions work better than the giant Zoom-style conversations. Emma Sidi shines brilliantly as two characters so totally different she’s almost unrecognisable as the same actor: a confident graduate of Stratagem now outshining Partridge and a loud woman pulled out of the audience, above, disrupting his hoped-for slickness. In both cases, Alan’s upstaged, and his pathetic essence comically exposed in a way it’s not when he’s at the centre of an elaborate showpiece. So while there are scenes of brilliance, overall Stratagem puts the ‘a-ha!’ in ‘a half-baked concept’. • Stratagem With Alan Partridge is on tour until June 3. Alan Partridge tour dates Review date: 29 Apr 2022 Going into Alan Partridge’s new live show, I knew I could not review this with the critical eye of a seasoned theatre reviewer. An absolute Partridge super fan (with an impression to match), I knew that whatever spewed out of Norwich’s greatest DJ’s mouth was going to make me laugh. However, as was painfully obvious sitting in the Manchester Arena on a warm Saturday evening, no one other than the super fans really take much interest in Partridge anymore. If you’re reading this then, I must assume you know the man, the myth, the legend. As such, please forgive the biases of this piece. Here we go then. It must be recognised that the Partridge delivering this new live show, Stratagem, is a different incarnation to the Alan of Knowing Me Knowing You or I’m Alan Partridge. No longer the exciting, young BBC talk show maverick nor the disenfranchised Disk Jockey living out of a travel tavern, Alan has moved with the times. Chat show success and a BBC pay cheque to rival gardening legend Monty Don has spurred his desire to be revered and now, his incessant desire to appear ‘woke’. More than anything in the show, it’s this wokeness which is pressed upon audiences. And for the most part, it works. Imparting wisdom, conducting interviews teaching how to better yourself, and offering another insight into the turbulent life of TV’s most iconic presenter are the focuses of the show. Various dance routines and a second act that overshadows the first were undeniably a strong basis. Moments where he just misses the PC mark never quite appears as ‘hip’ as he thinks he is and manages to offend ‘the left’ with his mistimed and inappropriate remarks are by far the best moments of his theatrical return and capture the essence of Alan’s comedic appeal. Always in fear of being upstaged and jumping onboard Black Lives Matter rhetoric by mimicking cultural staple Hamilton to appear diverse combine with constant call backs to bygone characters in the Partridge saga. For fans who have meticulously dedicated themselves to the two decades worth of material, this is a must. Lynn Benfield, Alan’s much beleaguered personal assistant, makes a stirring return if only through a pre-recorded ‘live video’ of her pottering around the Partridge household. The perfect foil to Partridge’s bombast, even this meek, middle-aged secretary has evolved over the years, now just as vindictive as her boss and clearly gunning for a pay raise from her meagre £12,000 salary. Who would’ve thought a woman resembling, in Alan’s words, a “brown cloud” could elicit such adoration from fans? A tribute to the recent passing of Seldom, Partridge’s loyal mastiff, also touched the hearts of everyone during the interval break. Not a dry eye in the whole arena, I’m sure. Alan now clearly recognises his rather exclusive appeal. Joyfully pointing out a member of the audience who isn’t White, middle-aged and male, he’s clearly riding high on self-awareness and success. The usual angst of the character is somewhat replaced by the motivational speaker facade he dons throughout whilst maintaining the sense that Alan believes he really is helping to change the world. However, the halfway point of the show threw up some real questions. Speaking to some men in the toilet (where else would you talk to strange men?), it was clear not everyone was happy. The resounding sense was that Coogan has sold out. In trying to appear woke and aware, the Alan persona often slips and Coogan’s own left-wing leanings suddenly come to the fore. Jabs at the Tory government, Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson seem out of character for Alan, whose own conservative biases and excruciating unawareness constitute half the hilarity of this beloved presenter. Moments of the performance therefore felt all too easy and poorly thought out. Perhaps this was Coogan simply going through the motions and picking up his pay cheque at the end of the day. Even skits that tried to do something new with the live form, satirising the theatre format – “let’s imagine we’re travelling back to the 60s” – felt forced and uninspired. The self-consciousness Partridge exhibits on TV coupled with the lack of self-awareness, the sense that if he doesn’t impress NOW he’s lost his chance of fame forever, is wholly lost in a staged production in which Alan is actually too self-assured. Central to this is that Coogan, along with Partridge’s success, means he knows he will always have a small but loyal collective of fans. As such, it never feels like either are really fighting for something. The show doesn’t seem to fit the Partridge trajectory we’ve all known. He has nothing to prove, nowhere to go. Therefore, his bumbling idiocy falls flat. When there is nothing at stake, who really cares? And a moment of ‘romance’ towards the end seemed woefully shoe-horned in. Truthfully, seeing Alan in control is not all that funny. This is surely a problem that stems from the live aspect of the show. Whereas the sitcom format of previous Partridge shows allows Coogan to continue through his mishaps and build longer, more developed comedic situations, the ‘theatre’ format requires quicker gags, necessary gaps for audience laughter and the need to make the staged appear spontaneous. His TV incarnation can dominate the world he’s in whilst this staged version must share his space with an audience. In doing so, Coogan sacrifices that which makes Partridge so funny. So don’t get me wrong, Stratagem with Alan Partridge is a lot of fun. An iconic soundbite here and there and the odd call back constitute some of his best moments. Clever uses of screens to interact with elements outside of the stage are hit or miss, but when they do hit, are supremely funny. However, it’s hard to see where the character goes from here. Disappointing stakes, inconsistencies in the ‘live’ character and the lingering sense that Coogan wants to get on and off that stage as quickly as possible are to the shows detriment. A final tour de force of Partridge genius? Unfortunately, not. An entertaining ode to the fans as Steve Coogan ekes every last penny out of his greatest creation? I reckon so. Alan Partridge: Stratagem at the O2 Arena review – patchy, but this snake oil salesman is a reliable joySteve Coogan inhabits his desperate, naff creation so seamlessly you completely lose sight of him  There is a moment during Alan Partridge’s 02 Arena spectacular when he sees an older version of himself onscreen from the year 2065. Could Partridge still be going in another four decades, albeit in cyberform for tax reasons? Well, he’s already been at the forefront of character comedy for three decades, so why not?
Partridge’s tour – his first for 13 years – finds our hapless broadcaster presenting a “life management system” called Stratagem. It is, he explains, a way of getting what you want. Of course, it’s all self-help nonsense and inane inspirational quotes, but there is plenty of fun to be had watching him sell his snake oil. And really this is just a comedy clothes line on which to peg a series of sketches, some stronger than others. There are all-singing, all-dancing musical numbers complete with backing ensemble and welcome interactions with familiar characters via video. Faithful retainer Lynn, played by Felicity Montagu, is glimpsed softening her bunions in a foot spa on his home security camera. Elsewhere Partridge has to deal with an over-exuberant audience member and a superior Stratagem graduate, both skilfully played by Emma Sidi. And fans of Irishman Martin Brennan, who appeared in Partridge’s latest BBC series, will be delighted to see him zooming in direct from County Sligo.  So far, of course, I have not mentioned that Partridge is played by Steve Coogan. This is because Coogan so totally inhabits his desperate, fragile ego creation it is easy to forget that he is the man in naff all-white in the joke-filled first half and equally naff blazer in the more hurried second half. Maybe after all these years Partridge comes easily, but that does not take away from such a committed performance. It is not just the gags – co-written with brothers Rob and Neil Gibbons – but the pitch perfect portrayal of a man out of time. Our host desperately wants to be down with the kids, but cannot help being derailed when he discovers two female members of his troupe are lovers.
Unlike the latest Ricky Gervais Netflix special SuperNature, Stratagem will not stoke controversy. There are some jibes at the likes of Priti Patel and Piers Morgan but this is largely an apolitical woke-free zone. Occasional asides about diversity rub shoulders with references to the National Trust. Instead this show offers full-on broad entertainment. A little patchy but never dull. It is a measure of the wide appeal of Coogan’s creation – there were people here not born when he first trod the boards – that he can play three cavernous 02 nights. I wish he was less successful. I would have enjoyed this much more in a smaller West End theatre. Steve Coogan brings Alan Partridge to Scotland with a STRATAGEM for living our livesThe multi-hyphenate broadcaster turns lifestyle guru to deliver his manifesto for the modern world with a UK tourWho doesn’t like the sound of ‘a manifesto for the way we can move forward, a roadmap to a better tomorrow, an ABC for the way to be’? TV personality Alan Partridge’s heart is in the right place and his head mic is firmly in place but as he hits the road with STRATAGEM, “a live stage show that promises to inform, educate and entertain in approximately equal measure”, he’s guaranteed to put his foot in his mouth, repeatedly.
Not so Steve Coogan, who created and has been playing the popular exponent of the inadvertent social blunder since 1991, as he steps out from behind his persona to talk about the show which returns to Scotland this month after a recent sell-out in Edinburgh. Minus Alan Partridge’s snap-on wig, lifestyle guru white turtle neck, bomber jacket and slacks and only just reigned-in irritation, 56-year-old Coogan is a much less scary prospect, articulate and relaxed as he describes the show. “It’s Alan Partridge’s life coaching lifestyle guru guide to the modern world, where Alan helps people with their first world problems and helps them make sense of the modern world by imparting the wisdom that he’s garnered over the 60-odd years that he’s been on the planet.”
Ted Talk meets powerpoint presentation with musical interludes STRATAGEM WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE, presented by Phil McIntyre Live Ltd and Baby Cow Productions and written by Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons sees the multihyphenate keeping up with the times and filling the show with interactive features. He talks to members of the audience, bearing in mind there’s not much room for responses with an ego like Partridge’s, and there is big screen interaction with assistant Lynn, as well as Martin Brennan, his Irish musician and chancer friend, also played by Coogan. He also uses the big screen to travel through time to talk to his younger and future selves, and there’s singing and dancing with cast members as Alan gets his groove on. “It’s quite a technical show,” says Partridge. “There are lots of interactive elements and lighting and projection and VT inserts, and there’s dancing and singing so it’s a proper variety show. It’s not just Alan standing at the microphone. “ For all his annoying and patronising tics, Partridge is sincere in trying to deliver STRATAGEM and Coogan sums it up neatly.  Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, who turns lifestyle guru as he brings his STRATAGEM show to Scotland this month. Pic: Trevor Leighton “Alan’s message of hope, it’s quite uncynical. He’s trying to show how people can realise their full potential and not regard themselves as limited, so it sounds like quite an enlightened point of view for him, but in actual fact it’s not because he isn’t enlightened. “It’s Alan making a pig’s ear of trying to help people in their lives. He deals with both people’s personal issues and wider culture wars that are going on at the moment, such as identity politics and the post-woke landscape, helping people interpret it and make sense of it.” It’s territory Coogan also explores with great success in current Channel 4 comedy-drama Chivalry, created with co-star Sarah Solemani, and set in post-Me Too Hollywood, with appearances by Sienna Miller, Aisling Bea and Peter Mullan. Now in his third decade playing Partridge, Coogan has seen the character evolve and develop as he tries to stay abreast of the zeitgeist.  Alan Partridge on ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ TV Show, 2022. Pic: Kieron McCarron/ITV/Shutterstock “There are two things that have evolved,” says Coogan. “One is the way we write the character, making him more nuanced and less of a caricature, so he isn’t just a monster. He has weaknesses and foibles and insecurities and imperfections that make him more human, therefore however odious or ill-informed he is, he’s flesh and blood. He’s more like a real person now. “The other thing that has changed is the world and our cultural landscape which is constantly evolving and therefore we’re able to draw upon that and behave in a way that reflects the way people like Alan have changed. For example, 30 years ago, what would have been regarded as a modern Conservative might not have been socially progressive but these days there are economically conservative but socially progressive politicians. Alan might have been more homophobic 30 years ago but these days he’s embracing modernity and different lifestyle choices. He’s always one step behind but he does try to keep up. And part of the humour is seeing him mishandle cultural evolution.” For all his flaws, Partridge never retreats into cynicism or defeat, making him an ideal cheer-leader for the positive thinking brigade. “No, he’s not cynical and that’s a redeeming feature,” says Coogan. “He’s earnest and not mean-spirited. He’s just clumsy and makes faux pas. There’s a character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio, who’s very like Alan Partridge I think, a bit pompous but he’s not wicked or pernicious.  Steve Coogan as Cameron and Sarah Solemani as Bobby in Channel 4 comedy-drama Chivalry, set in post-Me Too Hollywood, with appearances by Sienna Miller, Aisling Bea and Peter Mullan. Pic: Matt Crockett “I think people like Alan because he’s sort of like an uncle or maybe a parent who just doesn’t quite get it. And that’s fun because you can laugh at old-fashioned or outdated views about something from someone that you have great affection for.” So we have Coogan’s take on Partridge but what does he think his character would think of him? “I don’t think he’d like me,” he says and laughs. “Because sometimes I’m a bit opinionated and he would see me as … those phrases my mother used like, ‘a know it all, ‘too big for my boots’, a ‘clever clogs’. I think he would regard me as someone who is too negative. And Alan loves the establishment, wants to be part of the establishment, to hang out with royalty, get an MBE, and I’m a bit cynical about all that, so he would regard me as being ‘a party pooper’ I think.” Fresh from the Irish leg of the tour, where Partridge has inadvertently insulted the Irish, Coogan is ready to witness a similarly clumsy assault on the sensitivities of the Scots. “Alan tries to talk about Britain in a constructive way but he will unfortunately be accidentally insulting to the Scots. He would not quite understand them, probably be slightly scared of them and see them as slightly culturally alien, because Alan is a Little Englander through and through. So he would try to be polite, but just secretly a bit suspicious.” Born and raised in Manchester, now living in Sussex “with all the other retired Liberals”, Coogan started out as a comic and impressionist, before working as a voice artist for the satirical puppet show Spitting Image before winning the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1992 with long-time collaborator John Thomson, so unlike Partridge, Coogan is comfortable in Scotland. He also spent several weeks in Edinburgh in 2021 making his new film The Lost King, a comedy-drama directed by Stephen Frears and written by Coogan and Jeff Pope about the 2012 discovery of King Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park. The film will star Sally Hawkins as Edinburgh-based amateur historian Philippa Langley, and Coogan as her husband John.  Steve Coogan with the Bafta Award he won in 2011 for The Trip, his spoof travel show with Rob Brydon. Pic: Joanne Davidson/Shutterstock “Yes, 30 years ago I first played here and as the years go on, your formative years you recognise more as defining moments. I’d been doing comedy since I was 20, but at 26 in Edinburgh I won the Perrier and I’ve got great affection for that time. It was an experimental, you’re finding your feet. I was throwing everything at what I was doing and it was an exciting time. “My life so far has been a really interesting adventure. I feel lucky about things I’ve won and been fortunate in that I’ve been recognised in the way that people who do very important stuff are not recognised, but nothing has been as exciting as winning the Perrier Award, the Fringe Comedy award, in Edinburgh. “I can still remember the excitement of it like it was yesterday. It was really tangible, electric, in a way that really nothing has been since. And especially in the Edinburgh Festival – it feels like the world ends at the outskirts of Edinburgh, like nothing beyond that really matters, so it’s a bit special.” “I remember the very first show we did at the old Gilded Balloon on Cowgate. I got changed amongst crates of beer in a side room and that was all part of the experience and fun and exciting. We got six people at the first show and then a week later, you’re packed out. Just through word of mouth… no social media in those days, and a couple of good reviews. You can go from zero to hero in a short space of time. That’s what was so exciting.” How about cross-over characteristics, does Coogan think she shares any with Partridge, given that along he was created by him and producer Armando Iannucci for the 1991 BBC Radio 4 comedy programme On the Hour? “When I’m being rational, no, but when I’m feeling pressurised or short-tempered then I might say something that wouldn’t be out of place if Alan Partridge said it. There is a Venn Diagram where Partridge and myself overlap. The only difference is when I say something that is slightly prejudiced or a huge generalisation I know I ought not to be saying it, whereas Alan doesn’t.” Partridge famously hails from Norwich, but with a middle name of Gordon, is there a Scottish link? “I don’t know. I’d have to ask the archivist. When you create a fictional character that has a long story the more you have to manage that narrative. You can’t just willy-nilly throw in new facts. I don’t think we really explored his genealogy but you’ve just given me an idea.” As well as writing the new Alan Partridge live show in lockdown and making The Lost King, Coogan has more recently been filming The Reckoning for the BBC, in which he portrays Jimmy Savile. Why was this something he wanted to take on, and was it a difficult choice? “Why do it is quite simple. Because it is an intelligent script by Neil McKay who wrote the Moors Murders and about Fred West so he knows about tackliing difficult subjects. It was done in collaboration with the victims, many of whom visited the set, so it was a sensitive, intelligent script that looked at the whole man. There’s inevitably a dilemma that if you look at someone who behaved badly you are elevating them by virtue of giving them airtime, but the fact is we do that with the greatest monsters, like Hitler, it’s just that more time has passed. Things are better talked about than not talked about. “I did a film called Philomena that looks at some of the excesses and misjudgments and mistakes of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and that was not welcomed initially but in retrospect, most people realise it was a good thing, a sort of bloodletting and that sometimes you have to confront difficult subjects and then you can move on. You have to go through a painful process of looking at why something was allowed to happen. You can’t just demonise someone and caricature them, you have to see how that person emerged, how they were accommodated, how they were allowed to thrive, how they were protected, enabled. You only understand that by looking at the whole person.” With The Reckoning, a four-part series due to air in the autumn, Coogan hopes it will be vindicated by the way it has been made. “It’s better to talk about things than not talk about them. If you just say we don’t want to talk about that, that might feel good in the short term but then you’re destined to allow those things to happen again.” In his long and varied award-winning TV and film career, from the likes of24 Hour Party People to long-running spoof travel show The Trip with Rob Brydon, Coogan has played both fictional and real people such asDCI Clive Driscoll in Stephen (2021) and Stan Laurel in the 2018 film Stan and Ollie, with John C Reilly, Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda. “I have played lots of real people; it’s just the way it’s turned out. I quite like doing it. Stan Laurel was a nice man, so it was quite good to play someone like that. Also I played DCI Clive Driscoll – who investigated the Stephen Lawrence murder [Stephen, 2021] and he is one of the decent people who walk on this planet and that was enjoyable. It’s more of a challenge to play a decent person, but quite a relief too. And when you play someone who’s real, it’s easier because someone has done the research for you by living a life. It’s all there, you’re not inventing something, you’re looking at something that already exists. “The Lost King, about Philippa Langley who found the body of Richard III, that’s another true story. When you look at real stories and meet real people, it’s wonderful to talk to them. Part of the pleasure of writing is meeting real people, talking to them, listening to their stories. That’s the joy of writing I think, to discover those little nuggets of humanity by talking to someone. So the film was the result of conversations I had with Philippa. And she lives in Edinburgh, so yeah, she’s coming along to see Alan Partridge.” Aha! As Alan Partridge might say. Alan Partridge Stratagem live show brings iconic character back for a night that no one wanted to endThe live show in Liverpool embodied everything Alan Partridge is, was and should be
He’s back and better than ever. Steve Coogan brought the iconic Alan Partridge to life in Liverpool last night and I never wanted it to end. After several failed TV shows and a family life that didn’t quite work out, Alan’s back and trying his hand at being a life coach. Half TED Talk, half musical theatre, Stratagem takes everything we know and love about Alan Partridge and puts it front and centre. The show, written by Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons, sees Alan donning a head-mic and wearing an outfit inspired by “what Christ would wear if he was Steve Jobs”. The stage design is simple and effective, with a huge catwalk-style bridge with stairs on either side and a huge screen which becomes integral to the show – it was inspired by a women’s prison, according to Alan. He appears alongside an ensemble of backing dancers and makes good use of them as he tries to explain just what Stratagem is – a strategy that will turn you into a gem, we later discover. Stratagem is essentially Alan’s roundabout way of teaching us how to improve our lives post-Covid. According to Alan, who appears on stage – and sometimes in the audience – during lockdown his mind, “like freshly milked Rice Krispies”, went “snap, crackle and pop”. Now, he’s here to tell us how he got through it and how we can make similar changes to our lives. Alan takes a look back at his childhood, where he was hounded by bullies, before using a time machine – ah, the magic of theatre – to head into the future to meet his 105-year-old self. They’re both quite bizarre meetings, but infused with jokes you can’t help but belly laugh at. Between specific segments, Alan’s one-liners carry the show well, with jokes about Eamon Holmes, Nick Clegg and Jeremy Clarkson worked in so seamlessly you’d think he’d come up with them there and then. Tailored for Liverpool, there’s even a joke about Oasis only being a Beatles cover band. There are also a number of guests throughout the show, from one of Alan’s former patients, who he helped using Stratagem, to the much-loved – and Alan’s long-suffering assistant – Lynn Benfield. While she only appears on screen, Lynn’s arrival was welcomed with huge applause and wolf whistles. Another impressive appearance comes from Martin Brennan, who fans will remember from his appearance on This Time with Alan Partridge back in 2019. Hilarity soon ensues and I couldn’t quite stop myself from laughing too loudly. He’s always been an all rounder and this show proved it, with singing, dancing, comedy and even some very over the top theatrical performance thrown in, Alan Partridge’s Stratagem has something for everyone. The show closes out with Alan and his ensemble singing and dancing to 80s power ballads – and what a way to go. I didn’t want the night to end, but if I know anything about Alan Partridge it’s that he’ll be back with something new and exciting soon. REVIEW: Alan Partridge brings trademark humour to P&J LiveSteve Coogan’s marmite-esque comic persona took to the live stage for the very first time in the north-east in front of what was a busy crowd. The performance explored Partridge’s dabbles as a lifestyle guru, with humour that only Partridge himself could inject, before ending with a signature style finale. 
The show wasn’t perfect – at times sketches lacked originality and the transtition from TV screen to 15,000 capacity arena wasn’t quite seamless. But more than 30 years on from his debut as Partridge, it was evident that Coogan still enjoys delving into his oddball, East Anglian comic character. P&J LiveThe mood among the crowd at P&J Live was wholeheartedly positive on Friday night as Partridge prepared to take to the stage. He immediately got the crowd on his side with his Aberdeen inspired rendition of Starship’s We Built This City, before showcasing his middle-aged awkwardness in a well-crafted urban dance sketch. 
The front row of the audience took a hammering – a sign of any good comedy show – and Partridge took occasional jeers throughout in his stride. However, despite being fortunate myself to have landed a seat near the front, as the show progressed the intimacy of the performance began to fade. Comedy is best up close; a slightly smaller setting would’ve improved this and made what was a nice evening into a more memorable one. Silliness personifiedCoogan may have told the P&J himself that the Stratagem show is “a load of baloney”, but that’s exactly what Partridge thrives upon. He is silliness personified and with Stratagem, it was his unmistakably quaint humour that the Aberdeen audience lapped up. The focus of the show revolved around Partridge trying to help people with their lives through his Stratagem programme. Stage mic and gleaming white shell suit adorned, he ran through presentations in a similar vein to the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs. 
Partridge’s latest BBC series, This Time: With Alan Partridge, evoked some of the live feel that he could’ve shown a bit more of at P&J Live with hilarious off-camera portrayals a highlight of the TV show. But as it was, the first half of Stratagem unfortunately lacked originality and dragged at times. Unafraid to go risqueCoogan is revered as a comedian for poking fun at tricky topics – and that’s no different when it comes to Alan Partridge. The modern world of comedy has been susceptible to cancel culture with some comedians pushing jokes beyond the fringes of acceptability. 
But Partridge’s acute, purposely ignorant persona tackled this territory uncynically, making funny interpretations of how to make sense of gender fluidity and diversity in society. His imperfections are what makes Partridge so likeable – he never quite gets it. And though these parts only peppered throughout Stratagem, they showed the freshness of the character that Coogan has successfully continued to evolve for the last three decades. Improved second halfAmends to Stratagem were certainly made in the much more dynamic second half of the performance. A Zoom call and live performance with Martin Brennan (a stereotypical Irish folk musician and another of Coogan’s comic characters) had the crowd clapping with joy. 
Scrapping the Stratagem script and jumping into a cheesy 80s medley also worked a treat, showing the side of Partridge that the audience were much more accustomed to and bringing the entertainment they desired. If only this had been the same throughout the whole of the performance, Partridge’s live stage exert would’ve been highly commendable. An enjoyable evening – but not one for the history booksOn paper, Stratagem showed signs of great promise. In reality, this promise glimmered at times in what was an enjoyable – but not unforgettable – performance. Perhaps the script could’ve been a little more inventive with some sections feeling a little blasé. The classic charisma exuded in the second half was the highlight of the show, but its unimpressionable opening was a bit of shame. Overall, there was room for improvement. But nonetheless, Partridge succeeded in doing what he does best – bathing in silliness and making people laugh Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem – Review – Hull Bonus Arena By Roger Crow, May 2022 I hate to think about the amount of hours I’ve spent lost in the world of Alan Partridge over the years, or the amount of catchphrases I’ve dropped. “Yes, it’s an extender,” is a must when examining any table, but unlike Radio Nowich’s most famous DJ, there is no hidden extra when he takes to the stage at Hull’s Bonus Arena. There’s no warm-up act either, which is a bold move for any comedy show, especially one this obviously expensive. Well, there’s a big catwalk-style bridge with steps on either side and a huge screen which is integral to the comedy. Yes, we may get a welcome appearance from Lyn (Felicity Montagu), Alan’s long-suffering assistant, who gets a welcome round of cheers from the masses, but she’s only on screen. Alan is a man on a mission, to give us, the audience, a talk on how to improve our lives. He does it partly through the power of rap, though many of the lyrics are lost on me; it’s all a bit fast, and yes, could I sound any more middle aged? There are also dancers, and flashbacks to Alan as a young man, though the youngster in the snorkel Parka is not what you might expect. There’s also a glimpse at Alan in the future, and we get a glimpse at how good Partridge is at disguise when he literally blends in with… okay, I’ll not spoil that bit. “Unashamed Partridge worship”
The encore for that gig went on for so long I thought I’d miss my train. No such danger with Alan’s show. It’s so punchy, the first half is over before you can say: “Hi Susan. I was a bit bored so I dismantled my Corby Trouser Press. I can’t put it back together again. Will that show up on my bill?” But comedy should be brisk. No rib-tickling movie longer than 90 minutes ever really works, so ‘Stratagem’ should be equally snappy, right? Well, yes, in theory. So why am I left wanting more when Alan and his dancers during that finale take a bow and don’t come back for an encore? Is it the fact our seats on row B were so eye-wateringly expensive I felt like Alan should have appeared in front of me and offered me a wheel of cheese, or at least given me one of his big plates from 1997 masterpiece I’m Alan Partridge? Yes, it’s often very funny, but it’s also somehow unfinished. Maybe the lack of great comedy stooge Tim Key is a factor, or could it be the show just needed more material? I wanted a big blanket of comedy to wrap me up, but we were given something closer to Alan’s tiny pants from his fantasy sequence for TV boss Tony Hayers. Yes, it covered enough to be embarrassing, but only just. Had Paul Calf popped up at some point and done a routine about dissertations, I would have been so much happier. Or maybe Tommy Saxondale reflecting on Prog rock of the 1970s, but this is not the MCU, where characters can appear willy nilly from an extended universe, more’s the pity. I’m so glad I saw the show after years of unashamed Partridge worship, and the routine with Irish doppelganger Martin Brennan is achingly funny, but I do wonder whether this was like Avengers: Infinity War, where there was no real end, and that finale will pay off when Alan and company return to the Bonus Arena on May 15. I was going to write another more satisfying sentence to round things off, but in the spirit of the show, I’ll leave you wanting more. Ahaaaa!
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