Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge

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Ah-ha! In 1995, Alan Partridge made the transition from radio to TV with Knowing Me, Knowing You, a talk show so wholly misunderstood that one TV critic described it as "moribund." By way of rebuttal, just consider Alan's parade of fantastic guests, including a hypnotist who persuades Alan that he's an owl; an American pop diva with whom Alan shares a memorable Abba duet that happens to be in all the wrong keys for him; raunchy male dance-act Hot Pants; Cirque des Clowns, whose extreme violence upsets Alan; and, most exciting of all, Roger Moore (via mobile phone from a traffic jam on the Chiswick roundabout).

Steve Coogan's creation fell on hard times later, but here he's reveling in his primetime exposure with no thought of becoming "clinically sad" or gorging on Toblerone bars. Co-writers Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber lovingly re-create everything that's fake and contrived about the whole chat-show genre: the shameless plugging, the recalcitrant celebs, the novelty acts and, most of all, the insufferably smug host oblivious to his own tediousness. Coogan's regular guests are ably played by some faces familiar from The Day Today: Rebecca Front, Doon MacKichan, David Schneider and Patrick Marber himself. Other game guest stars are John Thomson (as a naval officer also called Alan Partridge) and Minnie Driver (as a transsexual agony aunt), not forgetting Steve Brown as disconcertingly gay music director Glen Ponder.

The high-water mark of Alan's career arrived with his Christmas special Knowing Me, Knowing Yule in which his own living room was lovingly re-created at Television Centre. Unfortunately, and despite the presence of Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, the new Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC TV, Tony Hayers, is deeply unimpressed with the show and gets punched in the face by Alan, who, it turns out, is handy with a turkey. On that bombshell, Alan's career took a downward turn.

Knowing Me, Knowing You is a two-DVD set including all six episodes and the Christmas special. There's a group commentary throughout with contributions from Armando Iannucci plus Patrick Marber, Rebecca Front, Steve Brown and Dave Schneider speaking in and out of character. Other extras include the original pilot show, Alan on Comic Relief, Alan's rural rambles, his TV trailers, plus stills and cast biographies. --Mark Walker

Description

Alan Partridge is the hilariously unprofessional host of the cheesiest talk show imaginable. Self-absorbed and further handicapped with an ABBA fixation, Alan confronts an endless parade of C-list celebrities week after week with mounting frustration and antagonism. For anyone whoever lost the remote control during an inane talk show, Knowing Me Knowing You delivers the "Scenes We'd Like to See." This two-disc DVD set includes all 6 episodes of the series, as well as Christmas Special "Knowing Me Knowing Yule."

DVD Features:
Additional Scenes:Never-before-seen footage
Audio Commentary:Cast and writers' commentaries
Biographies:Cast and crew biographies
Other:Alan Aid (from Comic Relief '95)Ruralan (Alan Partridge's Country Ramble)Originalan (Untransmitted test footage 4/14/94)
Photo gallery

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant Comedy.......2007-08-26

The original Alan Partridge show is as good as the Travel Tavern series and 13 years later remains as funny as when I first watched it. Never has a chat show host been so rude, humiliated so many people and been humiliated by so many people in the history of television.

If you've only ever seen the two later series, or if you managed to miss Alan Partridge completely you really do need to see this. As previous reviewers have said it has some of the same cringe worthy elements that make The Office so brilliant. Imagine combining the the characters of David Brent and Gareth together (from the original British version) and it'll give you some idea just how dreadful Alan Partridge is. Dreadful he may be but its very very funny. Partridge is mainly self-obsessed and hates being upstaged by his guests, even though in some cases he worships them (Roger Moore for example). Roger Moore of course never appears on the show.

A particular favourite moment of mine is when Alan gives his three guests a chance to complain about the show, which inevitably has been a complete disaster.
Alan: "If you've got any criticisms I can deal with them"
All three guests then complain vehmently for a minute or so.
Alan: "UP YOURS" (sticking a single finger up at his guests)

Subtlety is not Alan's strong point.

This is endlessly watchable, with some very funny extras, which makes the DVD a great purchase.

Knowing Me, Smash B, Knowing You, the Reader.... A ha .......2006-10-17

Watch Alan Partridge as the chat show host you'll love to hate as his "moribund" chat show spirals further and further downward. During each episode, Alan's guests of C-list celebrities become harder and harder to control. But funniest of all is Alan himself as the self-absorbed, arrogant host who can't help but speak his mind when he should not.

For all of you who are tired of all the political correctness so replete in today's world, you'll love to see Alan's complete lack of tact or understanding as he says the things we all wish we could say at times.

In short, this show makes fun of the all too prevalent chat shows of today with their overly staged perfection. This is the chat show you've always wanted to see but couldn't seem to find.

This set contains all six episodes of the series plus many fabulous extras involving Alan including the side splitting Christmas special, "Knowing Me, Knowing Yule," which degenerates into Alan's shameless begging for a second series with the BBC. These special features are not to be missed.

Also of note, if you enjoy this show, don't miss the hilarious sequel, "I'm Alan Partridge," due for release on October 24, 2006.

This is truly one of the funniest Britcom's available on DVD. So don't miss the opportunity to own it now.

Smash B

"Knowing Me Alan Partridge Knowing You Another Alan Partridge".......2006-05-20

Steve Coogan's toothy, self-satisfied Alan Partridge gives Ricky Gervais's David Brent a serious run for his money as one of New Britain's most smarmy upwardly-mobile creations. Coogan's got Partridge's class position down pitch-perfect: Norwich wine bars, childhood vacations in Spain, two A-levels, a disdain for Oxbridge liberals, and an instinctive "little Britain" conservatism that's quite happy to grab all the goodies a burgeoning Europe offers. The show's funny, but I found myself less interested in the laughs than in the world Coogan builds around his character, so that you feel you know him much better than you should after six short shows. The skits are also clever in a low-key offbeat way, like the recurring segment where Alan Partridge interviews other people with the name of Alan Partridge. "Knowing me Alan Partridge knowing you another Alan Partridge, A-ha!"

The thing about Partridge, like Brent, is that as loathsome as you're supposed to find him, you end up kind of pulling for him. They're basically overgrown boys, not vicious so much as clueless, British lads baffled by a PC world. The historians of the future will have a field day working out why post-Thatcher Britain turned to characters like these, and why they play so funny over here.

Little Scary Monster -- "Grrrrrr" .......2005-12-24

"Whenever you hear the word A-HA, you will become a little scary monster!"

This is one of countless classic moments in this hilarious series which showcases the further broadcasting adventures of the Alan Partridge character. KMKY combines a wickedly hilarious script, superb comical acting and a knack for making the viewer feel silly, uncomfortable and ready to burst with spontaneous fits of laughter all at once.

I watched one episode of this series on BBC America and instantly became hooked. Having watched several cheesy talk shows in my time it was refreshing to watch a character like Partridge successfully spoof the genre as a whole. Steve Coogan's portrayal of Partridge is performed with a whole-hearted dose of comical cheese, ignorance, stubborness and cluelessness. From his silly grin and 70's sportscaster wardrobe to his plastic like hairdo, Partridge epitomizes, again, the schmaltzy "I think I'm larger than life" attitude of all the Regis Philbins, Geraldo Riveras and Jerry Springers put together.

Lots of great extras are included on this 2 DVD set, including a test pilot which is every bit as funny as the series itself and the KMKY Christmas Special.

After KMKY ended the Alan Partridge character continued in a series of his own (which also airs on BBC America) called "I'm Alan Partridge." Hopefully the BBC will give that series a proper DVD release in North America as well so those of us across the pond can fully enjoy the genius of Coogan's comical mind.

And on that bombshell......

King of Comedy: the TV series?.......2005-10-06

Before The Office made uncomfortable humour hip again, Knowing Me Knowing You was on British TV and quickly developed a cult following-enough to spawn several additional series and a one-off special. The show was created by talented comedian Steve Coogan for a BBC Radio 4 comedy show called On the Hour in 1993. This was successful enough to spawn Knowing Me in 1994 as Coogan and co-writer Armando Iannucci skewer British talk shows with its hopelessly inept host, Alan Partridge (Coogan). Like The Office's David Brent, Alan is a legend in his own mind. He's also an arrogant git who is useless at hosting a chat show.

Most people know Steve Coogan from either 24 Hour Party People or Coffee and Cigarettes-or, heaven forbid, Around the World in 80 Days-but his claim to fame in England came from Knowing Me. He is perfect as the selfish, self-absorbed Alan. Unlike David Brent, there is little redeemable about Alan but Coogan does give him a shred of sympathy and maybe even pathos. Coogan looks the part with his shellacked helmet of hair and has all of the chat show host mannerisms down cold. Alan wants desperately to be a big time talk show host but is unable to get any celebrities to come on and is therefore doomed to the margins. He is hopelessly and terminally unhip but doesn't seem to ever realize this fact. In some respects Alan is Rupert Pupkin from The King of Comedy if Scorsese had decided to make a TV show spin-off.

Some of the best moments of Knowing Me come when Alan loses his cool, like when Roger Moore fails to show up and the talk show host unleashes all of his frustrations on his guests after they complain and criticize him. Knowing Me is the kind of talk show we'd all like to see. In this day and age when talk shows are carefully scripted and staged, there is virtually no spontaneity anymore. And so, to see Alan insult and often lose control of his guests and, in the process, his show, is akin to driving by an accident: it is painful to watch but you can't look away.

The first disc features audio commentaries for all six episodes with writer/producer Armando Iannucci, actress Rebecca Front, writer Patrick Marber, actor Steven Brown and a couple of the "guests" from that particular episode. These are fairly amusing tracks that spend a lot of time slamming Alan (and rightly so). In fact, every commentary begins with Alan not being able to join the other participants because of some embarrassing ailment.

The second disc begins with "Festivalan" a.k.a. Know Me Knowing Yule made two years after the first season. Alan somehow survived the devastating last show of his first season for a Christmas special complete with ski lodge décor perfect for that faux-intimate feel that eventually degrades into a naked appeal on his part for a second season. Also included is an optional commentary by Iannucci, Marber, Front, Doon MacKichan, David Schneider and Steve Brown. There is lots of dry humour as they make fun of Alan once again.

"Originalan" features test footage shot for the pilot episode that was never aired and done for little money in order to see if the concept worked. This is the show in its infancy. Alan's hair looks even more artificial (if that's possible) with a glistening plastic sheen.

"Ruralan" features Alan rambling through the northern English countryside. He skips stones across a pond (and promptly loses his watch) while pontificating endlessly via voiceover.

"Alan Aid" sees Coogan reprise his character for three segments for the U.K. version of Comic Relief in 1995. As usual, Alan makes a mess of things and is even humiliated in one segment by some locals.

Finally, there is "Additionalan" that includes nine promos for the show, a stills gallery and biographical sketches for the cast and crew with one for Alan that is quite funny.

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