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

This is where the current era of Partridge really begun, introducing the Gibbons brothers as the new creative driving force, Alan's new career in digital radio (which continued through the movie and various Sky specials), and the addition of new regular cast member Tim Key as Sidekick Simon, Alan's out of his depth, eager to please co-host/minion.

Mid Morning Matters premiered in 2010 as a webseries of 15-minute shorts on fostersfunny, the short-lived comedy platform for the Australian lager, before getting a full series airing on Sky Atlantic. It's a slightly odd format for a legendary comedy character to do a webseries that's just him in a tiny single location, but here it plays to the strengths of the chataholic who loves the sound of his own voice.

Key is a strong addition to the regular Partridge supporting cast, simultaneously causing Alan trouble by upstaging him with better jokes and by being an even more hapless broadcaster, timid and outspoken at all the wrong times.

Highlights of the series include Alan's extraordinarily specific fantasy date scenario with Anthea "The Body" Turner ("the Ford Escort Cabriolet of middle-aged women") and Simon's prank that the Inland Revenue are after Alan going horribly wrong, humiliatingly for both of them.

The only real downside is that the sketch-like nature of the series means that it lacks for much by way of overarching plot and perhaps doesn't fully explore the pathos of Partridge at his most tragic points of failure.