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

Alan's latest return to TV, drafted in as a last minute replacement for the sick male host of a Good Morning Britain or One Show-style anodyne magazine show, before being given the job permanently on that former host's death, is the funniest and most relevant that the character has been in years.

The show, which smartly uses the moments where the show-within-a-show cuts to Alan-less VT footage to instead give us a glimpse behind the scenes, allows for both the disturbingly accurate sendup of this sort of TV's turn on a dime from ultra serious subjects to lighthearted puff pieces and to give us more of the I'm Alan Partridge feel of a hubristically out of his depth Alan floundering to avoid another gaffe as Lynn (a welcome return) bustles around attempting her own brand of reassurance and support.

In fact, the return of a regular cast and an ongoing narrative really help the show, and Key's Simon and Susannah Fielding's Jennie (the younger female co-host, forced to plaster on a bright white smile through her co-host's more misjudged comments) bounce off Coogan really well.

All of which means that a series which started a little slowly gets better and better as it goes on, peaking in the penultimate episode in which Alan tries to readjust and rebrand himself in the #MeToo era, which proves that Partridge's inappropriate remarks are all the funnier when in the context of someone genuinely trying to say the right thing and just really not knowing what that is.