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Once again, Alan Partridge faces turmoil! But then, who isn’t these days? During his previous television outing, Alan suffered a public collapse while fronting the entertainment series This Time, ending the series quite literally locked out of the BBC. In the opening of his independent production, the light documentary How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), the broadcaster reveals he’s encountered further difficulties by collapsing onto a woman during an interview at an industry gathering for an agricultural firm. Challenging periods, yet figures like Partridge recover: connect struggles with societal themes and see if you can get a series out of it.

Exploring the Epidemic of Anxiety

How Are You? showcases the beloved persona in investigative guise, examining a wave of mental health issues that he believes is intensifying: “If I can use an outdated term, it’s just got mental!” His path includes dabbling in faith, revive old school ties, and take a lot of restorative country walks, as well as confronting his recent past. Initial episodes culminate in a fraught but healing gathering with “Sidekick” Simon Denton (Tim Key), Alan’s former colleague on This Time and North Norfolk Digital radio, and throughout the series, we’re shown unseen clips from Alan’s stints.

For Coogan and his long-term writing/directing collaborators, How Are You? is a sideways move. In contrast to earlier innovations, How Are You? often retreads it: in addition to resurrecting classic structures, it mirrors earlier faux-documentaries in recent years. And, as Alan’s private life bleeds into his investigations, viewers will think of his podcast work.

Contrasting Alans

It creates a slight challenge. We see two versions of Alan: Successful Alan (with high-profile jobs) and Wilderness Alan (doesn’t), and despite Wilderness Alan leading the beloved show I’m Alan Partridge back in 1997, a reflective version has emerged lately in books and audio projects. How Are You? places us inside the oasthouse and features Kelly as Katrina, his highly inappropriate love interest from the podcast. Yet this heartbreaking narrative – Alan is in denial about Katrina cheating on him with his friend and local tanning-centre mogul – might have worked best in audio form, where the listener’s imagination can co-write the comedy. Without visuals, he seems more free: television nowadays feels more suited to putting Winning Alan under pressure and watching him implode, as happened on previous shows.

Comedy Through Flaws

Still, these are minor points compared to a major truth: whatever medium he inhabits, Partridge remains the funniest comic creation in Britain, and brief appearances yield constant humor than anything else on telly. How Are You? is produced and directed by Alan, as well as starring him, which highlights his talent for mistakes and bad choices. If he thinks Britain’s mental health problems are best illustrated by an aggressively edited montage of exploding fruit, viewers will see it, and there’s nobody to tell him that he’s accidentally used the word “tastistics” or similar gaffes in narration. The brief pained expression he makes exiting sensing the scene went poorly always delights, and the same goes for his transitional clips, the best of which sees him attempt to fix us with a sympathetic smile while drinking tea clumsily.

Visual and Emotional Highlights

Can anything top his skip-side groans? Absolutely not. Visually he’s a feast too, with his new dye job several shades too light to be plausible, and his attire including bright trousers, contrasting shoes, an arsenal of body warmers and over-the-top joy about style revivals.

Moreover, the content reveals his deeper side that have been there ever since the Gibbons brothers took over co-writing duties. More than once the series pulls off flashes of pathos, where Alan’s lack of self-awareness reveals a sadness that nearly brings viewers to tears, before the persona snaps back in and we’re crying from laughter again instead. That can happen because we’ve loved him for so long: any version of Alan Partridge is always welcome back.