This Time with Alan Partridge

Yes, it's main purpose isn't a parody of a TV magazine show, it's a comedy vehicle for a character. It's not meant to have cast iron logic and be exactly like the programmes it is based on. It's about Alan, and he exists in an exaggerated reality and always has done. He is central to the story arc, 'This Time' is just incidental

The format is a good one as it can accommodate lots of different types of jokes - last nights had slapstick (the audience member fall) , it had visual jokes (the newspaper listing), parody (the package on the battles) etc.

Because of this the comedy is tightly packed - and there are lines in episode 2 that first time round you don't realise are a joke until you know what happens at the end, then things like take on a whole new meaning.

Really clever stuff

I get all that, it's just not particularly funny and it's making some obvious jokes that aren't original any more. I am a huge fan of Alan Partridge as a character, across all 'his' shows, the film and Mid Morning Matters. Given that he was a 'fallen' TV presenter after KMKY, I think the shows that have most depth are the ones where he's unobserved by a live TV audience - that is, the radio shows and to a lesser degree, the filmed documentaries.

I see it as Alan slipping back into bad habits - and then something will happen at the end which will lead to his next show and that new format.

This is a long-term play I feel.

Exactly! Which is why he wouldn't have hired for the show in the first place. And definitely not invited back the second time. You could imagine him being invited to present and being on his best, most professional behaviour, reading the script as given but desperate to change it and adlib. He reads the autocue "it says here" but can't help making small asides and his face belies the fact he thinks the script is uninspired. At the end of the show he goes completely off script. If there was an actual warm-bodied audience there, they may laugh nervously at first, then start laughing at him. Alan thinks he's getting a good reception and laps it up, thinking he's back to his best.

Anyway that's just my idea for bringing some drama to it. At the moment, it's a bad and awkward recreation of a magazine show with some unconnected but half-decent ideas for comedy moments.

I wonder if by the end of the series it's going to emerge that John was a full Savile-like predator.

You really don't understand comedy do you? Almost all of the classics are based around people being inept at what they're doing. Heck, indeed in life most of the biggest laughs come from other people failing.

You're really not very good at debating without being patronising and using ad hominem are you?

Why wouldn't he? As is discussed on the podcast interview with the writers it's perfectly plausible, look at some of the odd stand ins they have on The One Show and This Morning for example.

It's it beyond the realms of possibility that they'd bring back someone like Partridge though the writers thinking is that he wasn't 1st choice, maybe 5th or 6th. And the end of episode 2 would suggest why so many others didn't take the gig.

Having said that remember... it's not meant to be an accurate parody

I suggest you have a listen, it's an excellent insight into the writing and producing of the series, it would explain a lot to you

I have been meaning to listen to it. However if a comedy show needs a podcast to explain itself, I'd suggest it's not a very good show and I suspect the viewing figures reflect that. Having the writers explain it is not going to make it funny.

Extra insight can often add enjoyment to a programme. No one is suggesting you "need" to listen to it to find it funny.

You've been quite clear in what you look for in comedy, and I don't think you were ever going to find This Time funny using such rigid boundaries.

Not sure anyone having trouble with the verisimilitude of This Time should listen to On The Hour, where Alan's wife dies and subsequently returns as a member of the undead.

Also, if a group of farmers dropped a cow off a bridge on top of you, it would kill you.