Alan Partridge manspreads his wings once again and proves time hasn’t dimmed brilliance of one of comedy’s greatest creations

Pat Stacey

Long-suffering Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding) puts on a brave face as she joins co-host Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) for a new run of their spoof show

April 30 2021 10:10 AM

TONIGHT

THIRTY years. That’s how long it’s been since a then 25-year-old Steve Coogan unveiled his most famous character and one of comedy’s greatest creations.

As This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC1, 9.30pm) showed in its first season, time hasn’t dimmed his brilliance.

Coogan is once again joined on the titular fictional magazine show by the wonderful Susannah Fielding as Alan’s longsuffering magazine show co-host Jennie Gresham.

With a forceful new producer poached from E4 in charge, Alan worries that his return to the BBC fold, after years, may turn out to be short-lived.

New British science-fiction thriller Intergalactic (Sky 1, 9pm) announced its arrival with a flashy, action-packed trailer. In the London of 2143, cop Ash Harper (Savannah Steyn) is framed for murder and sent to a spaceship prison to await trial.

She’s soon caught up in an escape attempt.

The strong cast includes Parminder Nagra, Craig Parkinson, Eleanor Tomlinson and Thomas Turgoose.

It’s a drama-packed Friday, heavy on subtitled thrillers.

It’s to Italy first for Ice Cold Murders: Rocco Schiavone (More4, 9pm), starring Marco Giallini as the dry-witted, rule-bending, occasionally joint-smoking police chief from Antonio Manzini’s novels.

After a disciplinary scrape, he’s transferred from Rome to a provincial alpine valley, where he’s immediately faced with the case of a disfigured body found on a ski slope. All episodes available on All 4.

Miniseries The Innocent (Netflix) shifts the action of Harlan Coben’s novel, one of 14 the streaming company is adapting, from the US to Spain.

Nine years after accidentally killing a man in a quarrel, Mateo (Mario Casas) tries to start over with his wife Olivia (Aura Garrido).

The Mosquito Coast (Apple TV+) is probably best approached with caution if you’ve read Paul Theroux’s source novel or seen Peter Weir’s undervalued 1986 film version with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.

This time, it’s Justin Theroux, the author’s nephew, who plays Allie Fox, an American inventor.

In the book and film, it’s the character’s disgust with modern consumerist living that prompts him to drag his wife and kids off to a supposedly idyllic new life in a Central American jungle.

I haven’t seen it, but series creator Neil Cross (Luther) appears to have turned the story into an Ozark-style thriller by making the re-emergence of criminal charges from Allie’s past, his motivation for fleeing. On the face of it, a peculiar alteration.

SATURDAY

THE Saturday night schedules tend to be light on substance, so it’s refreshing — if that’s the appropriate word, given the subject is the history of white supremacy — to find Exterminate All the Brutes (Sky Documentaries, 9pm), a four-part series by Haitian director Raoul Peck, who made the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro.

The first 90-minute episode opens with the Native American genocide, moves on to other atrocities perpetrated in the cause of colonialism, then looks at the enduring impact of institutional racism.

If you need a reminder of the enduring impact of Scandi noir on TV drama, not to mention on chunky knitwear, all three seasons of The Killing (BBC4, 9pm) are being repeated, three episodes at a time.

Can it really be 10 years since we first watched the terrific Sofie Grabol as detective Sarah Lund? Yes, it can.

There’s little of the Scandi noir restraint in Keeping Faith (BBC1, 9pm), which reaches the end of its third, and apparently final, season in typically overwrought fashion.

If you want to see the lighter side of Line of Duty’s magnificent Anna Maxwell Martin (DCS Carmichael), check out the repeated Motherland (BBC4, from 11.50pm).

All six episodes from season one are showing back to back, with season two following tomorrow.

SUNDAY

IF the pulsating trailer for the finale of Line of Duty (BBC1, 9pm) is playing fair, then tonight we’ll finally discover the identity of the bent copper formerly known as “H” and now “the fourth man” (or maybe woman), bringing AC-12’s six-season hunt to an end.

But is it the end of the season, or the end of the series? All the signs are pointing to the latter, but as ever with the master of misdirection Jed Mercurio, speculation is pointless.

Either way, it’s been one hell of a thrill-ride.

There have been countless books, documentaries and even a film and a TV drama exposing Alfred Hitchcock’s unsavoury behaviour towards his leading ladies.

I Am Alfred Hitchcock (Sky Documentaries, 9pm), however, is a straightforward celebration of the master film-maker’s work and features tons of clips.

It also looks at his rather healthier dealings with women as off-screen collaborators, and the story of how his career very nearly didn’t get off the ground.

Hitler’s Secret Sex Life (Sky History, 9pm), a four part docudrama, trawls through the rumours and historical documents about his sexual psychology.

There were whisperings of homosexuality, incest and voyeurism, none of which fit the pure, virtuous image Hitler fabricated for himself.

BBC Young Musician (BBC4, 8pm) finally gets to stage its final, having been delayed for a year (it’s still the 2020 competition) by the pandemic.

Facing off are percussionist Fang Zhang, oboist Ewan Miller and French horn player Annemarie Federle, each performing a full concerto with the BBC Philharmonic.