Book review: Easily Distracted by Steve Coogan

Easily Distracted by Steve Coogan

Published by: Century

Let’s be clear: Steve Coogan is not Alan Partridge.

There are similarities, obviously. They both look almost exactly the same. Both are totally car-obsessed.  Both have a love for James Bond. In one episode of I’m Alan Partridge…, Partridge memorably recreates the entire opening sequence of The Spy Who Loves Me. Coogan, meanwhile, admits to having a picture of Roger Moore in a safari suit on his bedroom wall as a child. As an adult, he was overjoyed to be mentioned briefly in Roger Moore’s own autobiography.

But the resemblance soon ends. Partridge seems to be always around ten years older than Coogan himself. Coogan has just turned fifty, Partridge must thus be now about sixty, although the age gap seemed to narrow in the film, Alpha Papa. Coogan is a left-winger with an understandable and fully justified hatred of our tabloid press. Partridge is much less politically sophisticated, a Daily Mail reader and “homosceptic” who supports the death penalty “for treason and murder”. Coogan has been much more successful with women than Alan, who makes largely inept romantic overtures towards beauty show contestants, much younger radio station employees and whose idea of a hot date is going to a “cracking owl sanctuary”. Oddly, Coogan attributes his success in this regard, which predates his fame to his essential geekiness: “they liked the fact that I wasn’t an alpha male. I was a bit square. A bit nerdish.” It has often ended in disaster, however.

There is far more to Steve Coogan than Alan Partridge, however, and despite an occasional failure (like his 24 Hour Party People character, his real life friend Tony Wilson) to wear his learning lightly and avoid pretension (“I’ve learned late in life to understand the true beauty of thoughts and reflections”), this is an enjoyable well-written book. The first section deals with various highs and lows: his recent triumph with the film, Philomena, his war with the evil forces of News International, the filming of Alpha Papa and an early nadir at the 1990 Edinburgh Festival during which he “spent far too much time imagining what it would be like to be Sean Hughes” then seemingly bound for superstardom, hard as it is to believe now. The second section is more chronological, describing his generally happy Irish Catholic northern English upbringing. His brother later had a top twenty hit with the Mock Turtles’ “Can You Dig It?”

The third segment deals with Coogan’s rise to fame through college, Spitting Image and radio and TV up to the mid-nineties. There is perhaps not enough about Coogan’s actual career since he achieved fame: Around The World In Eighty Days isn’t mentioned, perhaps understandably as it was a big flop, nor is Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible. But successes like Cruise of the Gods and Coogan’s Run are barely mentioned either. Coogan will also doubtless surprise many by admitting to liking Saxondale more than Alan Partridge.

Comedy is a vicious business but while he admits to rightly loathing Bernard Manning who he has met, On The Buses and to not personally being a fan of Michael McIntyre (“not my cup of tea”), he is remarkably generous about almost everyone he has worked with, usually only encountering tension with them if they are unable to work with him again for some reason. He admits to finding Chris Morris “odd” and was “hurt” when John Thomson, by then a big star thanks to The Fast Show and Cold Feet understandably no longer wanted to be Paul Calf’s sidekick “Fat Bob” anymore. Coogan also once almost came to blows with early collaborator Patrick Marber (a regular on Alan Partridge’s sofa, who in one guise was accidentally shot dead on TV by Alan on the last episode of Knowing Me, Knowing You…”) and the two seem to have drifted apart, despite reconciling afterwards. Marber is now better known as a writer and screenwriter but Coogan is still clearly immensely grateful to him. “God bless Patrick Marber,” are words unlikely to crop up in Lee and Herring’s memoirs. They appear here.

In A Cock and Bull Story (and later The Trip) Steve Coogan’s character is continuously annoyed when Rob Brydon repeatedly adopts an Alan Partridge voice to impersonate Coogan. In truth, he seems far more at ease with his inner demons than tabloid mythology suggests. Let us hope so. He is a national treasure.

And the book? Lovely stuff.

Eight UK TV comedies than either soared or flopped on the big screen

A decade after The Office finished, Ricky Gervais’s most famous creation, the excruciatingly awkward “chilled out entertainer” David Brent is to return, this time on the big screen. Gervais is adamant that Life On The Road which focuses on Brent’s post-Wernham-Hogg existence as a salesman cum wannabe musician is NOT a full blown Office sequel. But which other small screen British comedy characters have attempted to break out into the world of cinema? And which have triumphed and which have failed?

1. Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000)
Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke’s sex-starved teenage creations followed the “going on holiday” formula favoured by many British sitcom movie adaptations ranging from On The Buses to The Inbetweeners, this time going to the party island of Ibiza where they run into a malevolent club DJ played by Rhys Ifans.
VERDICT: Neutral

2. The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse (2005)
With a tricky postmodern plot in which the creators of the TV series decided to destroy their own creations, the Royston Vasey cast made an awkward transition to celluloid, the cast later moving onto work on dark TV successes Sherlock, Psychoville and Doctor Who.
VERDICT: Failure

3. Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie (1997)
Loved by some, hated by others, Rowan Atkinson’s hapless hero performed well in his feature debut directed by the late Mel Smith. A sequel, the self explanatory Mr. Bean Goes On Holiday appeared a full decade later.
VERDICT: Success

4. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)
A-ha! Norwich’s favourite son played by Steve Coogan was transposed to a siege setting in this enjoyable film version of a dramatic event in the egocentric local radio DJ’s life. Partridge seems cooler and even slightly younger than in recent TV outings although never loses his essential naffness. Long suffering PA Lynn (Felicity Montagu) and Sidekick Simon (Tim Key) return although Mike the Geordie (Simon Greenall) appears to be killed off. A sequel is expected.
VERDICT: Success. “Lovely stuff” (not my words. The words of Shakin Stevens).

5. Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie (2014)
Despite receiving appalling reviews, the movie version of the gender-bending Mrs. Brown’s Boys proved a modest hit with fans of the controversial and (let’s face it) truly awful BBC sitcom.
VERDICT: Failure

6. In The Loop (2009)
This well received version of the excellent BBC political sitcom kept its most memorable character, foul mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) but other regulars from the series such as Chris Addison appeared under new names to accommodate the “Special Relationship” themed storyline. Tom Hollander crops up as an inept minister while American actress Anna Chlumsky made an appearance paving the way for her role in the US sitcom Veep (also largely penned by Armando Iannucci).
VERDICT: Success

7. Guest House Paradiso (1999)
Certainly very very very close to being the film version of slapstick sitcom Bottom starring Ade Edmonson and the late Rik Mayall (and yes, it still hurts to write that). But technically the names were changed. And this wasn’t very good.
VERDICT: Failure

8. The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
Proof that British sitcoms really can work on the big screen, the tale of four sex-obsessed lads going mad in Crete was a big hit, despite resorting to the overused “holiday” formula (see also: Holiday On The Buses, Kevin and Perry Go Large, Mr. Bean Goes On Holiday). It also doesn’t end properly. It enjoyed the biggest box office opening weekend for a British comedy film ever, however, and the sequel (out now) seems to be doing even better
VERDICT: Success

The trouble with satire

It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that political satire only tends to truly thrive under Tory Governments.

This has been true ever since the birth of the first modern satire boom of the early Sixties. Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Beyond the Fringe, Private Eye and That Was The Week That Was all prospered during the dying days of the Tory regime of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas Home. Likewise, although rarely overtly political, Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74) enjoyed its true heyday under the government of Ted Heath (1970-1974). Then came Thatcher and Major. Margaret Thatcher’s election in May 1979 coincided almost exactly with the birth of alternative comedy. But it wasn’t just that. Not The Nine O Clock News, Spitting Image, Have I Got News For You, Bremner, Bird and Fortune, If…, Dear Bill, The New Statesman, The Friday Night Armistice and Drop the Dead Donkey undeniably got a boost from their being a Tory Government in power.

Why should this be the case? Partly, it’s because true satire rails against the Establishment and the Tories embody the Establishment better than Labour ever can.

It’s also because, in general, right wing people tend not to be very funny. Lady Thatcher, despite inspiring great satire herself, famously had virtually no sense of humour. Boris Johnson’s buffoonery amuses but he rarely says or writes anything which is deliberately funny. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, is quickly out of his depth in the world of politics (as opposed to motoring) and rarely gets beyond saying anything shocking or childish when he venture into the political arena.

The myth that the politically correct Left lack a sense of humour is ill founded. It’s actually hard to think of anyone funny who isn’t on the Left. Ask anyone for a list of funny right wingers, meanwhile, and most likely their list will solely consist of the obscure, the racist or the dead.

After the 2010 General Election something clearly went wrong, however. We now have a Tory Prime Minister again. So why are we not enjoying a new satire boom?

Part of the problem might be that because New Labour were arguably almost as conservative as the Tories, satire never really went away under Blair and Brown. The Thick of It owes its origin to these times and in fairness, is still great. But Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week are clearly past their best and 10 O’Clock Live has never really got off the ground.

I blame the politicians. Whereas in the Eighties, politics was filled with colourful characters ranging from the Bennite ultra-Left to the uncaring Thatcherite Right, the Blairisation of British politics has been fatal to satire. Blair was the most successful politician of recent times: little wonder everyone wants to be like him, elect a party leader like him and fight for the centre ground like him. Cameron, Miliband and Clegg are all essentially Blair wannabes: posh, PR friendly men in suits. Miliband would never wear a donkey jacket, Cameron would never drive in a tank. From a comedic point of view, this is bad news.

The Coalition confuses things further. Try as we might to pretend Cameron’s lot are the new Thatcherites, this is only partly true. They are occasionally uncaring, more often incompetent, sometimes liberal and, yes, sometimes actually Liberal as in Democrat.

The global scene doesn’t help. The idiotic George W Bush was satirical gold, just as President Reagan had been two decades before. But Barack Obama, an intelligent, moderate, slightly disappointing but well meaning black president is hardly the stuff great satires are made of as the failure of the novel O demonstrates. In this respect alone, perhaps Governor Mitt Romney would be better.

British politics seems to lack the colour of the past too. But perhaps I am wrong to blame the political set up. Take the former Tory Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. He is a decent man, yes. An exciting man? No. Trust me: I have seen him speak. And yet in the hands of Spitting Image, voiced by Harry Enfield, with his hairstyle strangely coiled, his puppet was frequently hilarious.

There is surely enough material in the current political class – Michael Gove, Boris Johnson’s eternal rivalry with David Cameron, Ed Balls, the never ending evil that is Rupert Murdoch – to inspire great satire? Perhaps it’s simply a case of “could do better, must try harder.”