https://twitter.com/bbcpress/status/1382332770853261325
I have to say I'm surprised this is returning even though I personally enjoyed it a lot. They really nailed everything that's tedious about The One Show.
I still think it would be better to strip it Monday-Friday as an event rather than a weekly series. I also think it would sit better on BBC Two.
Yes, amazed it has been recommissioned as it rated very poorly and to be honest not sure there is much more to mock.
I like the idea though of it as a one week event at 7pm on BBC1 and to see if anybody notices the difference.
I’m pleased he’s finally been given a second series.
I was pleasantly surprised to see it was getting a second series too, and agree it nailed its sendup of the One Show.
I wonder if this series will be set at the outset of the pandemic and take aim at how live TV and shows of that ilk adapted during the various lockdowns? Alan struggling with a new technical setup so he can present the show remotely, Jennie welcoming the 2 metre rule so she can sit far away from her co host, features about coping with toilet roll shortages or how to wash your hands correctly (and even a replay of his "how to use a public toilet without touching any surfaces").
If there isn't a big change like that in the "world" of the show, I'm not quite sure if a second series will have much new ammunition when it comes to spoofing those shows without retreading much of the gags from the first series, though I'm sure it will still be very enjoyable.
Brekkie post_id=7005 time=1618560655 user_id=976 Wrote:Yes, amazed it has been recommissioned as it rated very poorly and to be honest not sure there is much more to mock.
It didn't do much ratings-wise, maybe, but it was no worse than most comedy shows on BBC1, and the only reason they were repeatedly mentioned in the papers is because all the papers hate Steve Coogan and will take any opportunity to stick the boot in.
Seems strange it's got a second series, it feels like one of those shows that works for one series, but is stretching things when you do a second.
It was one of those shows that was very hit and miss, but I’m surprised it’s got a second full series, but I’m happy to be proved wrong. The skit with the Irish Alan at the end of the third or fourth episode was probably the best moment in the series.
According to
this, there was a travelogue series planned as follow up to This Time.
I wonder if it was changed to a second series of This Time because of the pandemic?
Brekkie post_id=7005 time=1618560655 user_id=976 Wrote:Yes, amazed it has been recommissioned as it rated very poorly and to be honest not sure there is much more to mock.
It wasn't primarily a spoof of a show, it's a situation for a character to exist in. The fact that situation is a BBC magazine show that's similar to The One Show is irrelevant. It's Alan in a new location and format just like the studio of North Norfolk Digital or his Oasthouse for last years podcast
They've been doing Alan Partridge for 30 years and not run out of jokes to be made yet
Ash101 post_id=7019 time=1618568066 user_id=936 Wrote:According to this, there was a travelogue series planned as follow up to This Time.
I wonder if it was changed to a second series of This Time because of the pandemic?
No, the second series of This Time was commissioned back at the start of 2020 and the travelogue was commissioned in 2019 (which saved Steve from getting a driving ban!).
Inspector Sands post_id=7023 time=1618568881 user_id=1003 Wrote:Brekkie post_id=7005 time=1618560655 user_id=976 Wrote:Yes, amazed it has been recommissioned as it rated very poorly and to be honest not sure there is much more to mock.
It wasn't primarily a spoof of a show, it's a situation for a character to exist in. The fact that situation is a BBC magazine show that's similar to The One Show is irrelevant. It's Alan in a new location and format just like the studio of North Norfolk Digital or his Oasthouse for last years podcast
They've been doing Alan Partridge for 30 years and not run out of jokes to be made yet
They've not run out of jokes because they've constantly changed his situation. And I mean that positively - it's why he's had the longevity he has as a character, because they throw him into new situations/surroundings and there's always something new for him to Patridge-ise. So Brekkie has a point. As you say, it wasn't just a spoof, but even as a backdrop to the character it felt like they did everything they set out to do with Alan in that setting, and there was a clear through line narrative of Alan going from cover host to full time host, then changing the show around himself.
As I mentioned in my post above, I half expect it will be set during the pandemic so as to give the series a different backdrop and the character new situations to find himself trying to adapt to, because as you say they have always thrown that character into new surroundings. They're not in the habit of sticking to the same format with Alan like they do in more traditional sitcoms. So I'd be very surprised if this is just 6 more straightforward records of This Time as we left it, without something big changing the status quo (whether that's a pandemic backdrop, or something internal like the show getting revamped by a new producer, or Jennie finally upping and leaving)
I think a second series of This Time isn’t stretching it too far.
This article suggests there will be more of Alan and Jennie’s personal lives featured in this series, so hopefully its scope should be a bit broader.
We’ve also had more than one series of Mid-Morning Matters, plus I remember Armando Ianucci saying that on reflection he wishes they’d done a second series set in the Linton Travel Tavern.
From the Radio Times article..
Quote:“We’re trying to set ourselves a task of having the [chat show] stuff on-screen and then have a kind of parallel unseen story that we get glimpses of, this parallel narrative of what’s going on in [Alan’s] private life and Jennie, his co-presenter’s, private life,” he explained.
Coogan said the two narratives would go parallel and they “want it to end up in a strange and unexpected place”.
To me, this sounds like that for the 'This Time' show to continue in the pandemic, the storyline could be that a 'presenter bubble' is formed, and Alan & Jennie end up living together at the same location.
James2001 post_id=7013 time=1618564245 user_id=956 Wrote:Seems strange it's got a second series, it feels like one of those shows that works for one series, but is stretching things when you do a second.
I feel that way about Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. The biggest fans of that show always say how they wished it could have had a second series, but to me the concept of that show seems perfectly suited to being a one series thing. I can't imagine there would have been anything left of that genre to parody in a second series, save perhaps for a Christmas special.
Hatton Cross post_id=7054 time=1618583596 user_id=1471 Wrote:To me, this sounds like that for the 'This Time' show to continue in the pandemic, the storyline could be that a 'presenter bubble' is formed, and Alan & Jennie end up living together at the same location.
According to Boyd Hilton on this week's Media Podcast it's not going to be covid related but carry on from the situation at the end of the last series