Title: Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Director: Declan Lowney

Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney.

Steve Coogan – after the success gained with the movie starring Dame Judi Dench as ‘Philomena’ – brings to the big screen the fictional character that he has long embodied for BBC Radio 4, on the programme ‘On The Hour’: Alan Partridge.

The parodic radio host – who welds sports commentators with chat show presenters – in ‘Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa’ is just as wonderfully conceited, petty, anal, idiosyncratic as he has been over the past twenty years, through all the possible multimedia platforms with the exception of the silver screen (as of yet) – TV news spoof, ‘The Day Today,’ ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You,’ sitcom ‘I’m Alan Partridge,’ webcom ‘Mid-Morning Matters,’ pseudo-documentary ‘Welcome To The Places Of My Life’ and an appearance on a faux talk show ‘Open Books with Martin Bryce.’

The Alan Partridge directed by Declan Lowney, finds Alan at the center of a siege, when a disgruntled fellow, DJ Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney), decides to hold their station hostage after learning that he’s getting sacked by the new management.

Steve Coogan, accustomed as he is to wearing many hats – as actor-producer-screenwriter – gathered the co-creators of Alan’s original character to find a format and story for the film version. Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham, along with Coogan have indeed found an entertaining key of newly presenting Alan without betraying his legacy.

The witty humour and pacing speed, keeps spirits high and will tickle you pink for the many gags that come along the way during the hazardous situation. The cleverly calibrated flick transports the British comic phenomenon on the other side of the pond with success. Director Declan Lowney, fulfils the comedic promise of a much loved icon, portraying Alan Partridge as relentlessly hilarious, deeply embarrassing and completely loveable.

Technical: B

Acting: B+

Story: B+

Overall: B+

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Alan Partridge in the studio

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

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