Magnificent, excruciating and genuinely touching

From its depiction of midlife ennui to its satirical take on therapy-speak, 'How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)' is the best Partridge-related project in years

- Phil Harrison

Alan Partridge has a problem. But he’s being very brave. Alan is opening up about his mental health. To many viewers, it won’t come as a surprise - Alan’s mental health has seemed sketchy ever since that punishing late-Nineties spell in the Linton Travel Tavern. But Alan’s realisation came later, after an amusingly minor breakdown while advertising high-volume pig-feed pellets as part of his portfolio of Norfolk-based corporate work.

His symptoms were mild - he fainted in someone's lap, basically. But even so, Alan found a new, potentially monetisable calling. The result is How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), a series he describes as “Britain’s first ever documentary about mental health”. One of Alan’s most enduring qualities is his dogged belief - usually in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary - in his own originality and genius. Whatever the opposite of imposter syndrome is, Alan Partridge has a terminal case. Does this qualify as a mental health problem? When it leads him to believe he can attempt a stand-up comedy set - as, excruciatingly, it does in this series - the answer is probably yes.

Because Alan Partridge is such a brilliant, comical character creation, it's easy to forget that he's a magnificently sustained satirical vehicle, too. In On the Hour and The Day Today, Partridge launched Steve Coogan's career (and vice versa) with a note-perfect spoof on every overearnest, underinformed sports jockey you'd ever seen.