‘Endlessly creative’ and ‘red hot’ - critics praise Alan Partridge’s return to television

Norfolk's most famous fictitious DJ Alan Partridge made a triumphant return to our televsion screens with his second series of Mid Morning Matters.

Critics were impressed with the first episode of the second series, which was screened on Tuesday on the Sky Atlantic channel.

Daisy Wyatt of the Independent described the script – co-written by Steve Coogan and twins Neil and Rob Gibbons – as 'red hot'.

'Start double-screening on your phone for more than a second and you will miss a tactless aside or a blundering gaffe. There's not much narrative drive and the episode feels more like series of sketches, but it works.'

The Guardian's Michael Hogan wrote: 'His fawning in the presence of the upper classes recalled Basil Fawlty, while his pretensions to be a serious playwright were pure Ernie Wise.

'We've now followed Partridge's career trajectory from sports reporter to chat show host, then back down the ladder to local radio windbag. Viewed as a whole, it makes an admirably ambitious, endlessly creative and consistently hilarious body of work: three radio series, six TV series, a best-selling spoof memoir and a feature film, spread across 25 years. We should treasure him. But first, traffic and travel...'

Tim Glanfield of the Radio Times said: 'Beyond the changes in Alan's circumstances, one thing has remained the same – the sheer bloomin' brilliance of the writing from Steve Coogan, Rob and Neil Gibbons and the delivery from Messrs Coogan and (Tim) Key on screen.

'From our discoveries that Alan's perfect dinner party guests would be Jesus and the entire Thatcher family to asking what part of 'multi-pack not to be sold separately' corner shop fizzy drink purveyors don't understand, this is vintage Partridge of the highest order.