History Series / ThisTimeWithAlanPartridge

** Alan's marksmanship, previously mentioned in ''Film/AlanPartridgeAlphaPapa'', gets a mention in the SAS feature. He does manage to get two killing shots on each of the four targets ... the only problem is, he shot the four hostage targets rather than the four terrorist targets.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Hugh Bevell has been a royal correspondent for Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Digital ... and Al Jazeera.

** In a segment on the expansion of Heathrow Airport (sorry, [[InsistentTerminology "adding a third runway"]]), Ruth Duggan slightly snidely catches Alan when he comments that the proposal will add "billions" to the economy by pedantically pointing out that he didn't specify whether he was talking about pounds (despite this being pretty clear in context, as he was talking about the British (sorry, [[InsistentTerminology UK]]) economy). When she, in turn, notes than an objection is that it will have negative impacts on the health of "thousands", he immediately picks her up on ''her'' imprecision by demanding she clarify whether she's talking about thousands of humans or other possible flora and fauna that could be affected. She's clearly seething to have to clarify, but can't call Alan out on the obviousness and how childish he's being without facing the same charge regarding her own pettiness.
** Again with Ruth, in one episode she's agreeing wholeheartedly with Jennie's viewpoints and automatically dismissing everything Alan says as per usual... until Alan reveals that his and Jennie's notes have 'accidentally' gotten swapped somehow, meaning that it turns out that Ruth actually agreed with all of Alan's viewpoints. She's again clearly fuming at Alan trapping her like that.

* ManipulativeBitch: It's only hinted at with Jennie — until the final episode of series two, when Alan advises her to take advantage of the post #[=MeToo=] climate as much as she can in order to advance her own career, to which she responds by telling him that that's what she's already doing.

* NeverMyFault: After getting pulled over by the police for a traffic offence and refusing to take a breathalyser test, Alan gets arrested. His response is to make a news report for ''This Time'' about his "ordeal" in which he presents himself as a blameless victim of police over-zealousness and brutality. However, video footage clearly shows that the cop who pulled him over did so because he ''really had'' committed a traffic offence (ignoring a "no turning" sign), following which his behaviour gave the cop reasonable grounds to assume that he may have been intoxicated (which, as it happened, he wasn't -- although as he'd refused to take the breathalyser, the cop had no choice but to take him into custody).

** The theme tune from ''Series/TheWorldAtWar'' is played during Alan's Spitfire flight [[note]] this probably counts as an example of Alan's StylisticSuck, as a less somber piece of war-related music (like, for example, the theme tune from ''Film/BattleOfBritain'') would've worked much better [[/note]].

* {{Headscratchers}}: There are doubtless a few people InUniverse who are wondering how a failed chat show host from TheNineties who ''accidentally killed one of his guests on live TV'' (and who has subsequently been unheard-of outside local radio in Norfolk) has managed to get a job as one of the main presenters on a daytime TV show on Creator/TheBBC. Although it is explained in-universe why there was a vacancy (temporary at first) for a male presenter on ''This Time'', no explanation is provided for why Alan was chosen over someone like, say, Sam (who is stated to have been a guest presenter of the show in the past).

** It was tactless and self-defeating of him, but let's face it; his rant in the Series 2 finale about how the viewing audience of the show is largely composed of banal idiots whose trite and pointless nattering on social media doesn't contribute anything of worth to the world ''and'' how the show's production team in particular (and the BBC in general) is largely composed of smug elitists hypocritically pretending to care deeply about their audience while privately viewing them with contempt and who are only interested in stirring up endless noise and conflict from said banal idiots purely for the sake of ratings is entirely on the mark.

* TheCastShowoff: Alan is trying hard to be this InUniverse; he recites his own poetry (a particularly cringe-inducing attempt to suck up to the BBC) and sings with the Quavers, in addition to which some of the musical pieces played during his feature segments are recognisably him singing.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The two regular presenters of ''This Time'' aren't really much better than Alan, they're just more charming and adept at hiding it.

** At one point, Simon tries to cram in as many [[Music/QueenBand Queen]] song titles as he can into the converation as part of a charity challenge. Alan takes a while to clue into this, but once he does, he joins in (or at least tries to).

** Alan claims to have been a ''Series/BluePeter'' badge holder when he was 13, although his story of how he got it sounds unlikely, and he doesn't have the badge any more because he sent it back in protest when ''Blue Peter'' awarded one of their badges to a dog.
** The theme tune from ''Series/TheWorldAtWar'' is played during Alan's Spitfire flight. Probably counts as an example of Alan's StylisticSuck, as a more uplifting piece of war-related music (like, for example, the theme tune from ''Film/BattleOfBritain'') would've worked much better.

* HowDidYouGetIt: Alan asks this if audience member Ted when he sees that the latter is wearing a tooth badge identical to his own; this is the only time the badge, which Alan wears on his lapel in most episodes, gets mentioned.

** The part of Alan's rant in the final episode which ''isn't'' about how the audience of ''This Time'' are by and large made up of idiots is about how the BBC is largely made up of condescending elitists who make a big deal in public about caring about the opinions of the viewers while privately viewing them with sneering contempt.

** A few of the tweets shown on Simon's big screen (when he gets it to work) are either rife with spelling mistakes or bear no relation whatsoever to what's being discussed on the show.

* FreezeFrameBonus: In the John Baskell memorial episode, we have the names of his old TV shows (which sound like the sort of crap Alan might have pitched, back in the day). In that same episode, quite a few of the tweets on Simon's big screen include the #[=JohnGone=] hashtag, which Alan suggested (rather surprisingly, he doesn't pick up on this).

** Alan's rant at the end of series 2 is consciously modelled on Howard Beale's "mad as hell" rant in ''Film/{{Network}}''; if you look closely at the viewer tweets on Simon's screen, you'll see that one of the even [[LampshadeHanging compares the two]].

** When Joe Beazley appears on the show, he uses his Cheeky Monkey puppet to attack Alan, who he blames for the disaster that was his appearance on ''Knowing Me, Knowing You''.

** Alan is in a role similar to that of Piers Morgan on the Creator/{{ITV}} breakfast TV show ''Good Morning Britain''. Like Morgan, Alan is the middle-aged, tactless, unaware, self-promoting and petty male co-host working alongside a beautiful and younger woman who only barely tolerates his repulsive antics. However, Alan is far less of a boorish sleazebag than Morgan, probably in order to keep him from being ''too'' horrible to watch.

* CallBack and {{Catchphrase}}: Alan 's old '''[[Series/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge "AH-HAAA!"]]''' catchphrase gets a few airings, much to his annoyance; his Irish lookalike shouts it out (and is told that he did it wrong), and on one of his reports a heckler is heard shouting it off-camera.

* NoodleIncident: We get a few references to feature segments that aren't shown, such as Alan shouting through a letterbox at the home of the man who invented the hand-dryer, Alan's apparently disastrous feature on female Olympic swimmers (which mostly consisted of him talking about their feet), the disabled guy who needed his house repaired, and Jennie in a leotard.

** During one of Alan's outdoor pieces to camera, an off-camera passer-by can be heard to shout: "AH-HAAA!"

** Alan sometimes ends up on the receiving end of this too. The security guard who won't let him back into the building after he runs out into the street following his rant is only doing his job (part of which involves making sure that people without security passes are not allowed inside), even if he is being a big of a jerk about it.

* ManipulativeBitch: It's only hinted at with Jennie — until the final episode of series two, when Alan advises her to take advantage of the post #[=MeToo=] climate as much as she can, to which she responds by telling him that that's what she's already doing.

Over twenty years after his first (and last) television hosting gig ended ignominiously with the shooting of a guest and the punching of a senior programming executive with a chicken, Alan Partridge has (somehow) returned to [[Creator/TheBBC BBC television]]. After the regular male host of ''This Time'', a weekly late-night magazine program (think ''The One Show'') has suddenly fallen ill, Alan is drafted to temporarily act as the host alongside Jennie Gresham, the chipper young female host. Eagerly grasping what may be his last chance to return to broadcast television and escape the dreary world of local digital radio, Alan launches into his new role with all the talent, ability, charm and skill he is able to muster.

** Alan sometimes ends up on the receiving end of this too. The security guard who won't let him back in the building after he runs out into the street following his rant is only doing his job (part of which involves making sure that people without security passes is allowed inside), even if he is being a big of a jerk about it.

** When the topless Punkbitch protesters invade the set, Alan tries to chase them away, but then shouts at the camera not to film him, as it'll look like a Creator/BennyHill routine.

** It was tactless and self-defeating of him, but let's face it; his rant in the Series 2 finale about how the viewing audience of the show is largely composed of banal idiots whose trite and pointless nattering on social media doesn't contribute anything of worth to the world ''and'' how the show's production team / the BBC in general is largely composed of smug elitists hypocritically pretending to care deeply about their audience while privately viewing them with contempt and who are only interested in stirring up endless noise and conflict from said banal idiots purely for the sake of ratings is entirely on the mark.

* PungeonMaster: Alan. In his head, at any rate.

*** Alan and Tiff discuss the status of Moneypenny, who Alan is adamant is "just a secretary" even though she's shown wielding a gun in the most recent film (which, going on when the episode was first broadcast, would have been ''Film/{{Spectre}}'') [[note]] the second series was broadcast in April-June 2021, and ''Film/NoTimeToDie'' was (belatedly) released in cinemas in October 2021 [[/note]].

* WhamLine: Near the end of the final episode of series two, Alan discovers that pictures of him in blackface have been leaked to the tabloid press and makes the ill-advised decision to show them on TV so he can offer a weak excuse, jeopardising his career and costing him an interview with Princess Anne. Then we get this exchange, revealing that the images hadn't been leaked after all:

** InUniverse, Jennie is clearly trying hard not to laugh when Hugh Bevell is revealed (by way of a mirror) to be naked from waist down while doing a video interview.

TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Hugh Bevell has been a royal correspondent for Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Digital ... and Al Jazeera.

** clearly having been given too much creative control over some of the pre-recorded segments — for example, what should have been an easy-going report about the Peasants' Revolt involving a battle re-enactment group becomes a gory fight scene right out of movies like ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''.