Alan Partridge: Every TV Show And Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

The disastrous conclusion of Alan's original TV career came with this extended Christmas special following his gaffe-prone chat series Knowing Me, Knowing You. Here he tries to salvage his career, after accidentally shooting a guest in the final episode of that show, by inviting the new commissioning editor of the BBC on as a guest. It doesn't go well.

Set in an expensive exact replica of the middle brow, middle England, bad taste interior of Alan's own home, the Christmas special is Partridge at his most Noel Edmonds, throwing a fake house party in which the host struggles to keep things on the course that he would like. Alan is distracted by attempting to respond to the festive season by formulating some poorly thought-out theology ("God is a gas. Not a small one like Calor gas, something big like oxygen"), and underwhelming stunts (pulling the world's biggest Christmas cracker with whimper rather than a bang).

Guests include Kevin Eldon as "Fanny Thomas", a failed radio DJ who's become a popular daytime TV chef by dressing in drag and spouting innuendo (here cooking, predictably enough, stuffed partridge), which is a highlight and ends with Alan, hand stuffed inside an actual Partridge, punching his boss in the face. Other guest segments run a little bit too long, though.

Ultimately, the 45-minute runtime does this normally half-hour show no favours and, for all that it provides some good laughs, there are plenty of places where it could use a bit of tightening up.