Series One
In series one, the former chat-show host Alan has been divorced by his wife, Carol; has distanced himself from his children and ended up living in the Linton Travel Tavern, a cheap motel equidistant between London and Norwich. At this stage of his life, Alan's career consists of broadcasting his own radio programme, Up with the Partridge, on the fictional Radio Norwich during dead time (4:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.), and occasionally making corporate appearances for various low-profile local businesses. Alan's personal life is shown to be crushingly empty; he has separated from his wife, and his only interaction with other people consists of chatting mindlessly to his personal assistant Lynn, the staff of the Linton Travel Tavern, and receiving infrequent phone calls from Bill Oddie.
Throughout the series, Alan displays his usual sexism, racism, homophobia, and general bigotry to everyone he comes into contact with, and via his radio show broadcasts.
Two unusual plot devices used during the series surround Alan's somewhat neurotic personal life.
One device consists of glimpses into his mind, depicting a fantasy night-club, which Alan seems to think of often and at the most inappropriate moments. In his club fantasies, Alan is a table dancer, dancing for whichever television authority he aims to please (usually Hayers, but also two Irish television executives he meets on one occasion). Even in these fantasies, Alan retains his unbearably boring and socially inept persona; he dances in a rubber thong but this is offset by wearing his jumper, shirt and tie in addition to his "erotic" apparel, and in his fantasies, Alan launches into his trademark dull and inane conversations.
The second plot device used throughout the series revolves around a drawer in Alan's hotel room. The viewers never see what is in the drawer, but the contents are occasionally glimpsed by other characters; Lynn becomes speechless when seeing the contents, Sophie bursts into a fit of giggling, and Alan himself goes to extreme lengths to keep the drawer closed when people are in the room.
Series one was first released on DVD in the UK in 2002 and in the United States on 24 October 2006.
Read more about this topic: I'm Alan Partridge
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