Times 2 - UK (2020-09-11)

(Antfer) #1

10 1GT Friday September 11 2020 | the times


podcasts


As almost always, I was surprised
by the durability of the character.
Part of the fun now comes from how
well worn Partridge is; the comedy is
in his inevitability, his hilariously
predictable obsessions and mistakes.
And because Coogan knows the
character so intimately he can stay
one step ahead and go to new
(sometimes weird) places to prompt
a laugh of surprised recognition.
“Damn,” you say, “of course that’s
exactly what Partridge would say.”
In some respects the podcast is even
better than the TV show. The comedy
of Partridge is so character-driven
that plot can stifle. The podcast
maintains a skeleton narrative: Alan
Partridge is going on a date/for a
walk/practising personal grooming,
but mostly it just allows for Coogan
to monologue in character.
I’ve never quite got on board
with the more surreal and slapstick
aspects of Partridge comedy (I could
mostly have done without the stuff
about hiding from a ferocious dog),
but the show is assembled mostly
from brilliant touches.
Of course he uses a dating service
for “high-class individuals” called
“Echelon” (that name couldn’t be more
perfect). A special highlight is the fake
adverts for other podcasts: “Recall!
Very much one for fans of Chernobyl
or Watergate, Recall! follows in minute
detail the lead-up to and fallout of the
1972 recall of the Triumph Toledo.
Featuring interviews with senior
executives, government sources and
private investigators, this 12-part series
takes a forensic look at the biggest
recall the United Kingdom has ever
seen. [Dramatic pause.] Narrated by
John Stapleton.”
I’m always recommending podcasts
about American politics, but, really,
why the hell should you trust me?
What do I know? Well exactly. Ignore
me and listen instead to The Times’s
Washington correspondent, the wise
and majestic Henry Zeffman, who
messaged me with a private tip I’m
now able to share exclusively with
you. The best election podcast in
his opinion is Hacks on Tap, hosted by
Barack Obama’s former chief strategist
David Axelrod and the Republican

political consultant Mike Murphy. The
Zeff is right. It’s really good.
Hacks on Tap occupies the
Goldilocks zone of political podcasts.
Because Murphy and Axelrod have
both run big political campaigns they
know what they are talking about. No
meaningless, ill-informed bloviating
here. They’re from opposite sides of
the political aisle, so the show isn’t
suffocatingly partisan (unlike last
week’s sometimes relentlessly liberal
Pod Save America). They have great
contacts and therefore good guests
(most recently Stephanie Cutter, who
produced the Democratic convention).
My one reservation is the
sometimes burdensome mateyness

(to Murphy, journalists are
“hackaroos” and conversations with
journalists are “hackaroo-athons”). But
they’re Americans, I suppose. It could
be much worse. This is my new go-to
podcast for the American election.
Thank you, Zeff. Or as Murphy would
probably call you, Zeff-aroo.
I tend to think of podcasts as
accessories of a frantic urban lifestyle:
stride to work, consult Twitter, aurally
insert information about current
affairs into brain. But now I have
listened to The Stubborn Light of
Things, a nature podcast from the
author Melissa Harrison, who writes
The Times’s Nature Notes column. It
is probably the most calming thing I
have yet heard. Harrison talks in a sort
of ASMR-style whisper about the rain
and blackbirds and clouds and deer
and walking in the grounds of a stately
home in drizzle and all the wonderful
gambolling things you tend to forget
even exist if you live in east London.
She’s thoughtful, but non-pretentious.
Goddam, how I wish I were in a field
whispering about badgers. Harrison, if
you’re reading this: can we swap jobs?

He uses a dating


service for ‘high-


class individuals’


called Echelon


A


lan Partridge has a
podcast. Of course he
does. I mean this two
ways. First, of course
Steve Coogan would
find a way to recycle
his Partridge character

yet again (after the TV show, the


books, the film.. .). Second, if Alan


Partridge did exist, he is exactly the


sort of person who would have a


podcast. The idea came, Partridge


claims in the first episode, after he


asked himself the question, “What


medium allows me to communicate


publicly without Ofcom regulations?” Oast toast: Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge revels in the attention at the launch of his new series of podcasts


Alan Partridge’s new


series is more fun


than the TV show,


says James Marriott


From the


Oasthouse: The


Alan Partridge


Podcast
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Hacks on Tap
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The Stubborn


Light of Things
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podcasts


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