MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

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181 episodes listed below

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Partridge fandom with proper comic scrutiny.

The gist

MONKEY TENNIS treats Alan Partridge as both shared language and comic machinery. The panel moves through episodes, books, adverts, appearances, and tiny Norwich details, testing which bits still land and which feel thin.

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About MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

MONKEY TENNIS is a fan podcast about Alan Partridge, but its real subject is how Partridge comedy is assembled. The panel knows the universe in detail. It can spot a Norwich location, clock a returning performer, remember an old cadence, and still pause to ask whether the joke actually pays off. That keeps the show from becoming simple nostalgia. Recent episodes move through How Are You?, This Time, and Big Beacon with a mix of recap, quotation, scene analysis, and comic suspicion. A discussion might start with renting, mental health language, farming satire, sign-language staging, binocular hygiene, or a dry stone wall. Then it widens. The panel links new moments to Knowing Me Knowing You and I'm Alan Partridge, wonders about Steve's own views, and compares Partridge's influence with another British comic character's afterlife in stand-up and online comedy. The tone is brisk and friendly, but not blindly approving. Some scenes are praised for odd specificity. Others are treated as decent texture without enough comic payoff. The best passages come when tiny details are read with mock seriousness, then softened by someone else adding a more generous angle. There is a strong sense of shared memory here. The listeners are assumed to know the universe, the catchphrases, the chronology, and the pleasure of arguing over a minor Alan choice as if it mattered greatly. It does, sort of. That is the point. MONKEY TENNIS suits fans who want a companion show with jokes, caveats, callbacks, and enough scrutiny to make familiar material feel newly inspectable.

Made for: For Alan Partridge fans who know the references and enjoy detailed, funny post-match analysis of episodes, books, sketches, and surrounding promo. It especially suits listeners who like affectionate criticism more than straight recap.

What sets it apart: The show combines fan fluency with a willingness to mark the work. It celebrates tiny Partridge details while still asking whether a scene, performance, format choice, or callback earns the laugh.

In their own words

The definitive Alan Partridge fan podcast, dissecting and celebrating his output episode by episode. Acclaimed as one of the best TV & Film podcasts by The Telegraph, featuring guest appearances from stars Tim Key, Stephen Mangan, Susannah Fielding, and Simon Greenall. Join us as we discuss our favourite moments, the character’s lasting legacy, and analyse the entire Alan Partridge Universe: I’m Alan Partridge, Knowing Me Knowing You, The Day Today, Alpha Papa, Mid Morning Matters and more. Plus, we delve into From The Oasthouse, and have all the latest on BBC One’s This Time. A-ha! Hosted on Acast. See ac...

As heard by us

Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Close reading turns Alan Partridge fandom into attentive criticism of comic writing, performance, character and production detail.

MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast treats comedy as material for exacting close reading, moving episode by episode through "How Are You? It's Alan Partridge" with jokes intact and analytical attention switched on.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Alan's electric drums get a joke audit; you get to decide whether the punchline lands.

Press play if you want

to argue over a tiny Partridge gag long after someone else would have moved on
to catch callbacks like Willa the Wisp playing the Boxy Wheat Sheaf

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Alan Partridge scene breakdownsHow Are You? episode analysisThis Time series discussionBig Beacon chapter recapsNorwich locations and callbacksAlan-adjacent promo appearancesBritish comedy influencecomic payoff and flat segments

Talks about

TV & Film

Best episodes of MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

167 • How Are You? Episode 4Jan 20, 2026

A podcast review that keeps finding the comedy in stubborn Partridge details.

Monkey Tennis keeps its attention on a run of Partridge oddities, from Josh P and Kieran calling his bats Kieran to the dry stone wall and Jamie Dimitri's character.

166 • How Are You? Episode 3Jan 13, 2026

A dry Alan close read that gets more mileage from the discussion than from the sketch.

Monkey Tennis reads as a close study of Alan's fear of renting, starting with the Jean-Michel Jarre mistake and widening to forced proximity, shared houses, and one bathroom between three.

165 • How Are You? Episode 2Dec 16, 2025

Norwich details and mental-health language give this Partridge chat its sharpest edges.

The piece gives the discussion a useful sense of occasion by tying the 10th-birthday live-show pitch to a close reading of the episode. It moves neatly from the Prince Charles Cinema return to Norwich Cathedral, the Shush line, and the way Alan's old territory is reopened…

164 • How Are You? Episode 1Dec 9, 2025

A live-show pitch, a 2065 dig, and a careful read of the sign-language gag.

Monkey Tennis marks its decade with a tidy opening: Adam's live-show pitch for the Prince Charles Cinema, then a patient drift into the 2065 line about animals eating other animals.

125 • John RobinsOct 12, 2021

A 10th-birthday Partridge conversation that ranges from Alan and Brent to stand-up, sketch comedy, and The Office.

Monkey Tennis returns for its 10th birthday with a live recording at the Prince Charles Cinema in London's Leicester Square, and the setting fits the material well.

170 • How Are You? Wrap Up + Your Feedback

A reflective fan afterword that turns the end of a run into a broader view of the series.

Monkey Tennis closes its episode-by-episode coverage of How Are You? by moving away from recap and into listener feedback and a wider look at the series. That shift gives the ending a reflective, fan-first feel, more like a summing-up than a routine wrap-up.

169 • How Are You? Episode 6

A sharp fan-panel look at Alan Partridge's awkward, tightly packed final-episode comedy.

Monkey Tennis stays on the last episode of How Are You? It's Alan Partridge, and the appeal is in the tiny, awkward details. The BBC meeting lands because it is so painfully specific, and the Norfolk media name-dropping, the accidental pitch title, and the Skechers callout all…

168 • How Are You? Episode 5

A close read of Alan Partridge minutiae that asks which gags land and which do not.

The discussion works best when it stays close to the details: the church setting, the running band joke, the seating dispute, and the electric-drums bit all get weighed against Alan's own logic.

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About MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

In their own words

As heard by us

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

Podcasts like MONKEY TENNIS - The Alan Partridge Fan Podcast

Episodes

169 • How Are You? Episode 6

168 • How Are You? Episode 5

170 • How Are You? Wrap Up + Your Feedback

174 • Feedback In The Big Time!

173 • Episode 1 Rerun (I'm Alan Partridge S1E1)

172 • Bank Holiday Bonanza!

171 • Ten Years of Monkey Tennis: Ask Us Anything!

167 • How Are You? Episode 4

166 • How Are You? Episode 3

165 • How Are You? Episode 2

164 • How Are You? Episode 1

163 • Big Beacon: Chapters 30 to 33 + Wrap Up

162 • Big Beacon: Chapters 26 to 29

161 • Big Beacon: Chapters 22 to 25

160 • Big Beacon: Chapters 17 to 21

159 • Big Beacon: Chapters 13 to 16

158 • Big Beacon: Chapters 9 to 12

157 • Big Beacon: Chapters 5 to 8

156 • Big Beacon: Chapters 1 to 4

155 • Big In The Back Time: Part 2 (Your Feedback)

154 • Big In The Back Time: Part 1 (Your Feedback)

153 • From The Oasthouse S3: Ep 11 + Wrap Up

152 • From The Oasthouse S3: Eps 9 + 10

151 • From The Oasthouse S3: Eps 7 + 8

150 • From The Oasthouse S3: Eps 5 + 6

149 • From The Oasthouse S3: Eps 3 + 4

148 • From The Oasthouse S3: Eps 1 + 2

147 • Alan Attack! Part 2 (Your Feedback)

146 • Alan Attack! Part 1 (Your Feedback)

145 • Stratagem Streaming Special

144 • From The Oasthouse S2: Ep 11 + Wrap Up

143 • From The Oasthouse S2: Eps 9 + 10

142 • From The Oasthouse S2: Eps 7 + 8

141 • From The Oasthouse S2: Eps 5 + 6

140 • From The Oasthouse S2: Eps 3 + 4

139 • From The Oasthouse S2: Eps 1 + 2

138 • Alan’s Deep Bath: Part 2 (Your Feedback)

137 • Alan’s Deep Bath: Part 1 (Your Feedback)

136 • Stratagem

135 • Alan Partridge And Other Less Successful Characters

134 • The Man Who Thinks He's It

133 • Anglian Lives

132 • Speak Your Brains: Part 2 (Your Feedback)

131 • Speak Your Brains: Part 1 (Your Feedback)

130 • The Witchfinder

Knowing Me Knowing Yule: Part 2 (LIVE) revisited

Knowing Me Knowing Yule: Part 1 (LIVE) revisited

Susannah Fielding (aka Jennie Gresham) revisited

Tim Key (aka Sidekick Simon) revisited

129 • Shaun Keaveny

128 • Scroobius Pip and Stu Whiffen

127 • Sooz Kempner

126 • Boyd Hilton

125 • John Robins

124 • Josh Berry

123 • From The Digiwall: Part 2 (Your Feedback)

122 • From The Digiwall: Part 1 (Your Feedback)

121 • This Time: Series 2 - Feedback and Wrap Up (Part 2)

120 • This Time: Series 2 - Feedback and Wrap Up (Part 1)

119 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 6

118 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 5

117 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 4

116 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 3

115 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 2

114 • This Time: Series 2 - Ep 1

113 • From The 'Post House': Part 2 (Your Feedback)

112 • From The 'Post House': Part 1 (Your Feedback)

Stephen Mangan (aka Dan Moody) revisited

Simon Greenall (aka Michael The Geordie) revisited

111 • Funny Stories: Part 2 (Your Feedback)

110 • Funny Stories: Part 1 (Your Feedback)