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** ''Alan'' claims the show was screwed by the network; given Alan's levels of self-delusion, it's more likely that the in-universe show failed because it was terrible.
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** Sally Hoff and Gina Langland.
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** Big American singers Sally Hoff and Gina Langland.
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* {{Expy}}: Some of the interviews/interviewees in the radio series are recycled, to varying degree, into the TV series. Yvonne Boyd even appears in both the radio series and TV series. All the examples below are played by the same actor both times (except for Shirley Dee and Terry Norton, and the child prodigy and the child stars)
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* {{Expy}}: Some of the interviews/interviewees in the radio series are recycled, to varying degree, into the TV series. Yvonne Boyd even appears in both the radio series and TV series. All the examples below are played by the same actor both times (except times, except for Shirley Dee and Terry Norton, and the child prodigy and the child stars)children.
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* FailureIsTheOnlyOption:
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* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: {{Expy}}: Some of the interviews/interviewees in the radio series are recycled, to varying degree, into the TV series. Yvonne Boyd even appears in both the radio series and TV series. All the examples below are played by the same actor both times (except for Shirley Dee and Terry Norton, and the child prodigy and the child stars)
** Lord Morgan of Glossop and Forbes McAllister. [[spoiler: Both also die live on air.]]
** French racing driver Michel Lambert and French chef Philippe Lambert.
** Sally Hoff and Gina Langland.
** The Duchess of Stranraer and showjumper Sue Lewis are both shy and awkward.
** When Alan interviews cockney celebrity Shirley Dee, he starts dragging up the violent past of her gangster uncle Dennis and ends up humbly apologising when he discovers she's still in touch with him and he will be listening to this interview. When he interviews cockney boxing promoter Terry Norton in the TV series, he drags up the incident where Norton was accused of murder and ends up humbly apologising when Norton threatens him.
** Alan is humiliated by a bratty child prodigy in the radio series, and in the TV series he's humiliated by a pair of bratty Hollywood child stars (although with the child prodigy Alan has the last laugh when he defeats him in an argument and the boy wets himself)
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption
** Lord Morgan of Glossop and Forbes McAllister. [[spoiler: Both also die live on air.]]
** French racing driver Michel Lambert and French chef Philippe Lambert.
** Sally Hoff and Gina Langland.
** The Duchess of Stranraer and showjumper Sue Lewis are both shy and awkward.
** When Alan interviews cockney celebrity Shirley Dee, he starts dragging up the violent past of her gangster uncle Dennis and ends up humbly apologising when he discovers she's still in touch with him and he will be listening to this interview. When he interviews cockney boxing promoter Terry Norton in the TV series, he drags up the incident where Norton was accused of murder and ends up humbly apologising when Norton threatens him.
** Alan is humiliated by a bratty child prodigy in the radio series, and in the TV series he's humiliated by a pair of bratty Hollywood child stars (although with the child prodigy Alan has the last laugh when he defeats him in an argument and the boy wets himself)
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption
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Deleting \"Stealth Parody: The radio show, which did not have a laugh track.\" It did.
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* StealthParody: The radio show, which did not have a laugh track.
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* CatchPhrase: There's the "A-ha!" that he uses several times during his shows, and he's fond of ending with "and on that bombshell..." (which was picked up by [[Series/TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]])
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This wiki uses Christmas Special for something else
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* ChristmasSpecial: ''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule''.
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* ChristmasSpecial: ChristmasEpisode: ''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule''.Yule'', which takes place in a replica of Alan's home.
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It wasn\'t a turkey, the cook said it was a partridge
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling pistol on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling pistol on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) partridge) that ended his TV career.
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket pistol on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
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* RunningGag: Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
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* RunningGag: RunningGag:
** Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
** Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
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** Each episode has a "New, regular segment" that inevitably fails miserably and is never seen again.
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* StealingFromTheHotel: Alan accuses RogerMoore of being a towel thief, until Moore's lawyers force him to apologise on air.
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* InvisibleGuestStar: In the first episode of the TV series, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air.
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* InvisibleGuestStar: InvisibleCelebrityGuest: In the first episode of the TV series, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air.
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* InvisibleGuestStar: In the first episode of the TV series, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air.
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[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''Series/TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
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[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan Creator/SteveCoogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''Series/TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
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* StudioAudience: An interesting case. This being a spoof chat show, it made sense for Alan to have audience, which he did. The audience, however, were well aware that they were really watching a fictional comedy show. Hence the same audience both represented Alan's fictional audience and provided the real-life laugh-track.
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* StudioAudience: An interesting case. This being a spoof chat show, it made sense for Alan to have an audience, which he did. The audience, however, were well aware that they were really watching a fictional comedy show. Hence the same audience both represented Alan's fictional audience and provided the real-life laugh-track.
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* StudioAudience: An interesting case. This being a spoof chat show, it made sense for Alan to have audience, which he did. The audience, however, were well aware that they were really watching a fictional comedy show. Hence the same audience both represented Alan's fictional audience and provided the real-life laugh-track.
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
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* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The most obvious one is probably Yvonne Boyd who parodies Vivienne Westwood, also Forbes McAllister is Michael Winner (he even mentions him as a rival) Keith Hunt seems partly based on Chris Evans, Lawrence Knowles is Max Clifford and in the radio series; Shirley Dee is Barbara Windsor, Sally Hoff is Liza Minelli and Conrad Knight's voice is basically a Roger Moore impression.
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The most obvious one is probably Yvonne Boyd who parodies Vivienne Westwood, also Forbes McAllister [=McAllister=] is Michael Winner (he even mentions him as a rival) Keith Hunt seems partly based on Chris Evans, Lawrence Knowles is Max Clifford and in the radio series; Shirley Dee is Barbara Windsor, Sally Hoff is Liza Minelli and Conrad Knight's voice is basically a Roger Moore impression.
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* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackichan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
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* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the show's reality, a major contributing factor to the failure of ''Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was due to it being scheduled against the ten o'clock news.
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* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the show's reality, In-universe, a major contributing factor to the failure of ''Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was due to it being scheduled against the ten o'clock news.
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* OverlyLongGag: Alan opening the CD door of a demo home stereo at the Norwich Tandy from the Christmas special. It's a quality action.
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** Reportedly Moore was told off by a friend for not turning up for his appearence.
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[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
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[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''TheDayToday''), ''Series/TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
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Read Handling Spoilers. Under no circumstances put spoilers above the example list.
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Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan [[spoiler:accidentally shot a guest dead live on air]]. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he [[spoiler:punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television.]] Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.
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'''Provides examples of:'''
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* ByNoIMeanYes: When interviewing the author of a salacious book about the BritishRoyalFamily:
-->'''Lawrence Knowles:''' Believe me, Alan, I obtained some photos that were frankly unpublishable.
-->'''Alan:''' And are they in the book?
-->'''Lawrence Knowles:''' Yes, they are.
-->'''Lawrence Knowles:''' Believe me, Alan, I obtained some photos that were frankly unpublishable.
-->'''Alan:''' And are they in the book?
-->'''Lawrence Knowles:''' Yes, they are.
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added some spoiler formatting.
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Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan shot a guest dead live on air. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television. Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.
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Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan [[spoiler:accidentally shot a guest dead live on air. air]]. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he punched [[spoiler:punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television. ]] Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.
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* HypnoFool
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* HypnoFoolHypnoFool: "Aha! Grrr."
* {{Hypocrite}}: When speaking to the agony aunt, Alan claims that his [[IHaveThisFriend "friend"]] never strayed from his wife, but later, under hypnosis, he tries to take an imaginary Ursula Andress to a hotel where the staff know him and are "very discreet."
* IHaveThisFriend: Played straight when Alan asks a personal question to the ''Playboy'' agony aunt.
* {{Hypocrite}}: When speaking to the agony aunt, Alan claims that his [[IHaveThisFriend "friend"]] never strayed from his wife, but later, under hypnosis, he tries to take an imaginary Ursula Andress to a hotel where the staff know him and are "very discreet."
* IHaveThisFriend: Played straight when Alan asks a personal question to the ''Playboy'' agony aunt.
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* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Alan is very uncomfortable around gay people, and often feels the need to reassure people that he himself is straight.
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* ThePeterPrinciple: It's unclear how an incompetent [[Series/TheDayToday sports correspondent]] came to host his own chat show in the first place, but the results prove that this was not a good idea.
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* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackickan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
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* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackickan, Mackichan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
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[[quoteright:400:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/partridge_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:400:AHHH-HAAAH!]]
[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
However, the show was a savage and razor sharp mockery of the clichés, shortcomings and failings of the poorer chat-shows on television, perfectly lampooning the egocentric and smarmy hosts, bored and inappropriate guests, shallow and inane questions, and the overload of kitsch and cheesy set-pieces that abounded. And in the centre was Alan, utterly egocentric, convinced that he was the master of ceremonies but hopelessly out of his depth, completely lacking in charm, talent or sense of professionalism, and always completely losing what little control of his guests and employees he had managed to scrape together by the end of the episode ("... and on that bombshell...").
Guests would openly insult him, acts that he claimed were excellent (but had most likely never even seen) bombed hopelessly, and strange variety performances were the order of the day. One such performance was the live re-creation of the 1936 British Women's Olympic Hurdle team victory by the elderly surviving members of that team in an 'Olympic Stadium' that was little bigger than a child's sandpit.
Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan shot a guest dead live on air. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television. Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.
Based on a radio show of the same name, the TV series reusing many of the jokes and characters.
----
'''Provides examples of:'''
* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackickan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Liz Heron in the Christmas special.
* BorschtBelt: Alan interviewed Borscht Belt style comedian (who even uses this phrase) in the Las Vegas episode of the radio show. This being Alan, he failed to get most of the comedian's humour and then told an offensive Jewish joke.
* BritishBrevity: possibly only one season was ever planned, but at any rate they knew that the subsequent Christmas special would be the last episode, and made this a central part of the comedy.
* BullyingADragon: Either to or by Alan, it usually doesn't end pretty either way.
* CannotTellAJoke: The truly awful ventriloquist act of Joe Beazley and Cheeky Monkey.
* CaptainObvious: "That's the Eiffel Tower" Alan, while narrating clips of himself in Paris, modelling his "sports casual" clothing.
* ChristmasSpecial: ''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule''.
* CrapsackWorld: The show itself. While Alan is obviously awful, many of the guests are either rather horrible and egocentric people themselves and who enjoy winding Alan up for the laughs, or nice people who Alan somehow manages to offend and provoke an argument with until they end up becoming just as nasty with him as he is with them. Forbes [=McAllister=] is probably the most ghastly:
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Are you ''entirely'' motivated by hatred?"
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "Yes I am actually. That's quite a perceptive question."
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Thank you."
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "I hate you."
* DiggingYourselfDeeper
* EnemyMine: Alan and his house band, led by Glenn Ponder. At the end of one episode, Alan fires Glenn live on the air for not inviting him to a staff party which he had invited everyone else (included that week's guests) to. The next week, Alan reveals that Glenn filed a court injunction preventing his dismissal... and then goes on to do his weekly "light banter with the band" segment with a man who does not want to play along.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption:
* TheGhost: Roger Moore in the first episode of the TV series. Alan keeps expecting Roger to show up for the entire episode, and valiantly attempts to host a segment called "An Audience with Roger Moore", despite Roger's absence.
* HypnoFool
* IntoxicationEnsues: Happens to Alan in one episode of the radio series after he unthinkingly swallows a tablet offered to him by one of his guests.
* KarmaHoudini: A lot of the people on the show are suggested to get away with their outrageous behavior on air (though granted we never hear about them or their careers again). While Alan is shown to become a failure [[Series/ImAlanPartridge later on]], it's still kinda off scale to some of the stuff he commits on his show.
* KnifeThrowingAct: After a critic describes the show as 'moribund', Alan decides to prove them wrong by having himself strapped to 'Wheel of Death'.
* MisaimedFandom: In-universe; although most of the lyrics aren't played, Alan's choice of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by {{ABBA}} is questionable, since the lyrics depict a relationship that's falling apart and "this time we're through!" Of course, given Alan's interactions with most of his guests, [[FridgeBrilliance on another level this is perfectly appropriate.]]
** Alan's 'biography', ''I, Partridge'', expands on the joke by Alan explaining that his initial choice of song/title was "The Winner Takes It All"... a song which is about a woman sadly giving up on a relationship after a divorce. Of course, Alan just latched on to the title lyrics because they stroked his ego.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The most obvious one is probably Yvonne Boyd who parodies Vivienne Westwood, also Forbes McAllister is Michael Winner (he even mentions him as a rival) Keith Hunt seems partly based on Chris Evans, Lawrence Knowles is Max Clifford and in the radio series; Shirley Dee is Barbara Windsor, Sally Hoff is Liza Minelli and Conrad Knight's voice is basically a Roger Moore impression.
* ProductPlacement: This was mocked by Alan's constant, feeble attempts at placing 'subtle' placements for sub-standard products throughout his show. As his show (both real-life and fictional) was broadcast on the BBC, which being a public broadcaster has strict guidelines about that kind of thing, this often got him into a lot of trouble in the show. It was a key plot point in the Christmas Special, as he vainly attempted to plug Rover cars under the watchful eye of his boss.
* RacistGrandma: Alan unwittingly finds himself interviewing one when he interviews the 'The Olympic Golden Girls of 1936'.
* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
** Lampshaded by Alan. How was he supposed to ''know'' it was loaded, ''who'' hands someone else a loaded pistol and ''why'' was it loaded anyway? Of course, while this clearly means that Forbes has some fault here as well, this doesn't let Alan off the hook entirely since, as any responsible gun user will tell you, the first rule when handling a firearm is always to assume it's loaded until you confirm otherwise.
* RunningGag: Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
** By the final episode, the main theme song is ''rewritten'' to squeeze in "With Alan Partridge" after ''every'' "Knowing Me, Knowing You".
** Alan mimes attacking the audience with a different weapon each week, with the level of mimed violence increasing with each episode. And the name of Glenn Ponder's house band always changes.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the show's reality, a major contributing factor to the failure of ''Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was due to it being scheduled against the ten o'clock news.
** Sort of splits since his show is suggested to have failed for perfectly normal and logical reasons, rather than repeated insulting and abusing (and at one point even killing) his guests and numerous other foul ups that should have earned Alan a long term prison sentence.
* SmarmyHost: Alan.
* SoundToScreenAdaptation: The show originated on BBC radio before its television incarnation.
* SpecialGuest: Subverted; in the first appearance, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air. The other guests who appeared were fictional.
** Played straight in the Christmas special, in which Mick Hucknall really did appear.
* StealthParody: The radio show, which did not have a laugh track.
* StylisticSuck
* TalkShow: A spoof. And how.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Alan.
----
[[caption-width-right:400:AHHH-HAAAH!]]
[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.
However, the show was a savage and razor sharp mockery of the clichés, shortcomings and failings of the poorer chat-shows on television, perfectly lampooning the egocentric and smarmy hosts, bored and inappropriate guests, shallow and inane questions, and the overload of kitsch and cheesy set-pieces that abounded. And in the centre was Alan, utterly egocentric, convinced that he was the master of ceremonies but hopelessly out of his depth, completely lacking in charm, talent or sense of professionalism, and always completely losing what little control of his guests and employees he had managed to scrape together by the end of the episode ("... and on that bombshell...").
Guests would openly insult him, acts that he claimed were excellent (but had most likely never even seen) bombed hopelessly, and strange variety performances were the order of the day. One such performance was the live re-creation of the 1936 British Women's Olympic Hurdle team victory by the elderly surviving members of that team in an 'Olympic Stadium' that was little bigger than a child's sandpit.
Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan shot a guest dead live on air. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television. Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.
Based on a radio show of the same name, the TV series reusing many of the jokes and characters.
----
'''Provides examples of:'''
* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackickan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Liz Heron in the Christmas special.
* BorschtBelt: Alan interviewed Borscht Belt style comedian (who even uses this phrase) in the Las Vegas episode of the radio show. This being Alan, he failed to get most of the comedian's humour and then told an offensive Jewish joke.
* BritishBrevity: possibly only one season was ever planned, but at any rate they knew that the subsequent Christmas special would be the last episode, and made this a central part of the comedy.
* BullyingADragon: Either to or by Alan, it usually doesn't end pretty either way.
* CannotTellAJoke: The truly awful ventriloquist act of Joe Beazley and Cheeky Monkey.
* CaptainObvious: "That's the Eiffel Tower" Alan, while narrating clips of himself in Paris, modelling his "sports casual" clothing.
* ChristmasSpecial: ''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule''.
* CrapsackWorld: The show itself. While Alan is obviously awful, many of the guests are either rather horrible and egocentric people themselves and who enjoy winding Alan up for the laughs, or nice people who Alan somehow manages to offend and provoke an argument with until they end up becoming just as nasty with him as he is with them. Forbes [=McAllister=] is probably the most ghastly:
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Are you ''entirely'' motivated by hatred?"
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "Yes I am actually. That's quite a perceptive question."
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Thank you."
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "I hate you."
* DiggingYourselfDeeper
* EnemyMine: Alan and his house band, led by Glenn Ponder. At the end of one episode, Alan fires Glenn live on the air for not inviting him to a staff party which he had invited everyone else (included that week's guests) to. The next week, Alan reveals that Glenn filed a court injunction preventing his dismissal... and then goes on to do his weekly "light banter with the band" segment with a man who does not want to play along.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption:
* TheGhost: Roger Moore in the first episode of the TV series. Alan keeps expecting Roger to show up for the entire episode, and valiantly attempts to host a segment called "An Audience with Roger Moore", despite Roger's absence.
* HypnoFool
* IntoxicationEnsues: Happens to Alan in one episode of the radio series after he unthinkingly swallows a tablet offered to him by one of his guests.
* KarmaHoudini: A lot of the people on the show are suggested to get away with their outrageous behavior on air (though granted we never hear about them or their careers again). While Alan is shown to become a failure [[Series/ImAlanPartridge later on]], it's still kinda off scale to some of the stuff he commits on his show.
* KnifeThrowingAct: After a critic describes the show as 'moribund', Alan decides to prove them wrong by having himself strapped to 'Wheel of Death'.
* MisaimedFandom: In-universe; although most of the lyrics aren't played, Alan's choice of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by {{ABBA}} is questionable, since the lyrics depict a relationship that's falling apart and "this time we're through!" Of course, given Alan's interactions with most of his guests, [[FridgeBrilliance on another level this is perfectly appropriate.]]
** Alan's 'biography', ''I, Partridge'', expands on the joke by Alan explaining that his initial choice of song/title was "The Winner Takes It All"... a song which is about a woman sadly giving up on a relationship after a divorce. Of course, Alan just latched on to the title lyrics because they stroked his ego.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The most obvious one is probably Yvonne Boyd who parodies Vivienne Westwood, also Forbes McAllister is Michael Winner (he even mentions him as a rival) Keith Hunt seems partly based on Chris Evans, Lawrence Knowles is Max Clifford and in the radio series; Shirley Dee is Barbara Windsor, Sally Hoff is Liza Minelli and Conrad Knight's voice is basically a Roger Moore impression.
* ProductPlacement: This was mocked by Alan's constant, feeble attempts at placing 'subtle' placements for sub-standard products throughout his show. As his show (both real-life and fictional) was broadcast on the BBC, which being a public broadcaster has strict guidelines about that kind of thing, this often got him into a lot of trouble in the show. It was a key plot point in the Christmas Special, as he vainly attempted to plug Rover cars under the watchful eye of his boss.
* RacistGrandma: Alan unwittingly finds himself interviewing one when he interviews the 'The Olympic Golden Girls of 1936'.
* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
** Lampshaded by Alan. How was he supposed to ''know'' it was loaded, ''who'' hands someone else a loaded pistol and ''why'' was it loaded anyway? Of course, while this clearly means that Forbes has some fault here as well, this doesn't let Alan off the hook entirely since, as any responsible gun user will tell you, the first rule when handling a firearm is always to assume it's loaded until you confirm otherwise.
* RunningGag: Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
** By the final episode, the main theme song is ''rewritten'' to squeeze in "With Alan Partridge" after ''every'' "Knowing Me, Knowing You".
** Alan mimes attacking the audience with a different weapon each week, with the level of mimed violence increasing with each episode. And the name of Glenn Ponder's house band always changes.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the show's reality, a major contributing factor to the failure of ''Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was due to it being scheduled against the ten o'clock news.
** Sort of splits since his show is suggested to have failed for perfectly normal and logical reasons, rather than repeated insulting and abusing (and at one point even killing) his guests and numerous other foul ups that should have earned Alan a long term prison sentence.
* SmarmyHost: Alan.
* SoundToScreenAdaptation: The show originated on BBC radio before its television incarnation.
* SpecialGuest: Subverted; in the first appearance, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air. The other guests who appeared were fictional.
** Played straight in the Christmas special, in which Mick Hucknall really did appear.
* StealthParody: The radio show, which did not have a laugh track.
* StylisticSuck
* TalkShow: A spoof. And how.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Alan.
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