I'm Alan Partridge : Complete BBC Series 2 [2003] [DVD] [1997]

Steve Coogan, Peter Baynham, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Greenall, Melanie HudsonDirectors: Adam Tandy

The second series of I'm Alan Partridge finds the Norwich-based former celebrity "bouncing back" from being "clinically fed up" after gorging on medium-sized Toblerone bars and driving to Dundee in his bare feet. He's finally moved out of the soul-destroying Linton Travel Tavern and into a well-appointed static caravan while his luxurious suburban mansion is being constructed. Sales of his new autobiography might charitably be described as slow, but Alan has the third best slot on Radio Norwich, a cable-TV military-based quiz show and a Ukrainian girlfriend called Sonja with whom he has sex at least twice a day. Life is good. And with old pal Michael comfortably installed behind the counter at the local BP garage, Alan can drop in for a chat while buying petrol for his new Lexus, putting the odd Flavia frothy cappuccino, a Ginsters pasty or a bottle of Lucozade on the tab at the same time.

Initially seeming less focussed than the distilled genius of the original I'm Alan Partridge--perhaps because the Travel Tavern location of that series was such an inspired setting--this second instalment of Partridge life is nonetheless a simmering cauldron of repressed and not-so-repressed emotions as the dangerously unstable Alan teeters on the precipice of his own soul: will he regain the B-list celebrity fame for which he yearns so desperately, or fall back into chocolate-fuelled depression? Memorable situations for Alan this year include: trying to present a seminar whilst vomiting from the pain of an impaled foot; being offered a cup of beans on Michael's doorstep (the deluxe version, with a sausage, is "like a savoury 99"); being unnerved by a nymphomaniac's wandering hand coming within 30 mm of his "gland"; having disquieting homoerotic encounters with John, the buff builder from "oop north"; acting out the entire opening sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me; and watching the unsold print run of his autobiography being pulped like "word porridge". Needless to say, Alan has the last laugh.

On the DVD: I'm Alan Partridge, Series 2 two-disc set features commentaries on all the episodes with various members of the writing team and cast (Coogan included intermittently). The second disc's main extra is "Anglian Alan", a 30-minute Anglian Lives interview with the celebrated Norfolk Renaissance man. There are also deleted scenes and outtakes, plus more of Alan's botched Comic Relief segments, as well as a stills gallery and cast biographies. --Mark Walker