Steve Coogan has been a comedy legend for more than 20 years and I, Partridge brings the entire length and indeed breadth of his career together in the life and times of his most famous character, Alan Partridge. From glorious birth to slight North Norfolk Radio celebrity, its filled with laughs on every page and while it bounces around in terms of consistency, you’re guaranteed to throw your head back, and roar the roar of comedy every five to ten minutes or so at least.
The page notes are a particularly funny addition with random asides and notes to himself thrown in for good measure. This combines with the off-camera story of Alan Partridge that comes through the book, giving us an insight into the real-life back story of the character Steve Coogan created in his head.
There’s a good size hole in the visual comedy and vocals that makes Partridge such a signature basted-turkey dish, but if you can picture every scene as though it were the building blocks of a ten to twenty part tv series and speak with the voice of Partridge in your minds eye, then you can compensate for that pretty well.
The funniest elements of I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan include the graphic description of what he remembers of his birth, his worrisome youth, his burgeoning suspicions about his ex wife Carol and the amount of time she was spending with her gym instructor before their eventual split and his Toblerone obsessed breakdown drive to Scotland.
I, Partridge isn’t necessarily perfect, but it is incredibly funny at times. For fans of Partridge or Coogan, it’s a must read, but if you haven’t seen much of his work before, you might struggle to get some of the jokes.
I, Partridge by Steve Coogan review: 3.7/5
P.S. I know it’s not a real autobiography, dehhehhh, and no, it’s not a pathetic attempt to get one review to cover multiple sections because we’re stuck for time (A. We’d never be so shallow, and B. We’ve got way too much integrity). It’s actually a conscientious attempt to cover all bases for the discerning visitor.
