Rent This Time: Series 1 (2019)

This Time: Series 1 (aka This Time with Alan Partridge) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Steve Coogan has done a fantastic job creating himself the notable character of Alan Partridge, a cocky media personality that often ends him up in awkward situations. Though this pompous sort of British celebrity has more or less become the character he has been typecasted for, his most recent effort playing a snooty billionaire in Greed, he just plays that character so well. Case in point, This Time finds something absolutely brilliant to do with Partridge.

When a BBC anchor is off, Partridge steps into the role of a nightly show co-host, gracing the small screen as a presenter of entertaining news items. His return to television is troubling, given his most notable TV appearance prior was a 1990s chat program that ended, well, grimly. This show is more or less his second chance to given a spot on television, handed such easy subjects of easy stories to cover with casual viewer interaction. Of course, nothing is ever easy for Patridge and an unease sets in.

The show proceeds with the format of a mockumentary of sorts, staging the show as if it were live but never cutting away to the B-roll or commercials in between, leaving all the lingering conversations to hang with an uncomfortable air. Such a format is uncommon but there’s a certain intriguing level of humor that harkens to the behind the scenes of live broadcasts. One of my earliest jobs was a camera operator during live studio shoots and I recall the director’s track in our earphones was always a salty bit of fast-paced direction, often slinging insults at the hosts and shouting when cameras were not at the right angle. This Time doesn’t quite have that same angle of a flustered control room, as easy as that comedy would be to stage, but it does come close in how it lets us sit in on a show between takes.

Steve Coogan is absolutely in his element with such a role. He always seems professional in his tone when the camera comes on but still has that awkward line of thinking that proceeds to churn behind his made-for-TV smile. He perfectly inhabits that behavior of a bewildered anchor, that kind of personality that always sets his tone to presentable while never quite feeling genuine, occasionally letting that unknowing idiot out of his mind to mess up an interview or incorrectly announce the next piece of the show. And it’s just as hilarious as Coogan has always played such a part, greatly playing off both his on-edge co-host and his deer-in-the-headlights interviewees, unsure of how to respond to such a personality.

For being little more than Alan Patridge of TV, this show is just as much of a hoot as it promises. It never goes too dry with the comedy akin to The Office, always finding the right way to punctuate rather than linger too long. Credit it to the spiffy direction that always keeps things moving and never wastes a moment of the character and his baffoon instincts. In the realm of such zippy satires of The Thick of It, This Time is another strong example of articulate and explorative British comedy, fearless in where it may tread.