--- title: "Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life" year: 2012 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life" fi1m_id: "alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life" imdb_id: "tt2227372" tmdb_id: 455644 wikidata_id: "Q4707487" fi1m_score: 84 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-03T21:39:22.944112+00:00" updated: "2026-10-03T21:39:24.238119+00:00" region: "DE" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life (2012) Directed by Dave Lambert · 42m · Comedy ## Identity Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life - **IMDb ID:** tt2227372 - **TMDB ID:** 455644 - **Wikidata ID:** Q4707487 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2227372/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/455644, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4707487 **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A guided tour of Norfolk by a man who keeps mistaking the county for himself > Steve Coogan takes Alan Partridge round Norfolk for 42 minutes of mock travelogue and finds, under all the boasting, a frightened middle-aged man. It is as funny as anything the character has done, and sadder than we were ready for. ## Synopsis Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) presents a documentary tour of Norfolk, the county he regards as his own. He wants to show the camera the places that made him, chief among them Norwich City Hall, where he stands on the balcony and imagines addressing the city. Along the way he interviews locals who did not quite agree to the programme he has in mind, among them Annabel Swanson (Dolly Wells), Mike Greatbatch (Graham Duff), Atif (Harmage Singh Kalirai) and the Rev. Richard Hatcher (Robert Demeger). Each stop is meant to be about the place and ends up being about Alan. The whole thing runs 42 minutes. ## Review *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* is a 42-minute mock travelogue in which Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan’s Norwich broadcaster, shows a camera crew round Norfolk. The joke, as it always has been, is the gap between how Alan thinks he comes across and how he does. Coogan wrote it with Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons, and the three of them have worked out that a guided tour is the right shape for him. He gets to stand in front of things and explain them, and the things keep answering back. Our verdict is straightforward. This is as funny as Partridge has been in years, and it has something the earlier work mostly kept off camera: Alan is scared, and the programme knows it before he does. A couple of the stops are thin, and the last few minutes hurry. Neither spoils it. The city hall sequence is the one people will talk about. Alan is on the balcony of Norwich City Hall, mid-lecture on the building, when the documentary slides into his daydream of addressing a grateful city, and the daydream turns out to be borrowed from newsreel of Hitler. We laughed at it for longer than was decent, partly because of how long Coogan holds his face, and partly because Nick Webb, the editor, lets it build one shot at a time instead of running at the punchline. Dave Lambert, who directs, shoots the fantasy in the same flat, slightly over-lit style as everything else, so the madness arrives without any change in weather. Lambert and Webb have clearly watched a great many real regional travelogues. There are the wide shots of flat fields, the walk-and-talk to camera, the cutaway to a local who has plainly been asked the question four times. Webb’s habit is to hold on Alan for half a second after he has finished speaking, and that is where most of the laughs live. Dolly Wells, Graham Duff, Harmage Singh Kalirai and Robert Demeger play the people Alan corners, and all four understand that the job is not to react. They let him dig. Then there is a stretch we will not describe in detail. The tour takes Alan somewhere he had not planned to be candid, and he is, almost by accident. Coogan plays the scenes around it without changing his voice, which is the right choice: Alan does not have a tone for fear, so he uses the one he has for everything else. It moved us more than we expected a Partridge programme to. The reason is specific. The camera, which has spent half an hour catching him being ridiculous, catches him being ordinary, and he does not notice the difference. It is not flawless. The tour structure makes it a string of set pieces, and two or three of the stops exist to get Alan from one good idea to the next. At 42 minutes there is not enough time to let the darker material settle, so the programme reaches for a laugh at moments when silence would have been braver. And Alan’s cruelty to the people he meets, which was always the character’s engine, is turned down a notch here; those who liked him nastier will feel the loss. Against the character’s own standards it sits near the top, and the reviews so far agree with us; we have not read a lukewarm one. The programme takes him out into the county he claims to understand and finds he is just as lost in the open air as he ever was indoors. Watch it in one sitting, which at this length is no hardship, and preferably with someone who already knows who he is. Newcomers will laugh, but the sadder scenes land because of long acquaintance with this man and his habit of avoiding the mirror, and nothing you catch up on tonight will supply that. Norfolk, for what it is worth, comes out of it rather well. *Fi1m score 84, published 3 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life worth watching?** *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* is worth watching for anyone who already knows the character, and we scored it 84. It is 42 minutes of mock travelogue round Norfolk, as funny as Partridge has been in years and sadder than we expected. Newcomers will laugh, but the darker scenes land best after long acquaintance with the man. **How long is Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life, and what is it rated?** *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* runs 42m. It is a comedy film. **Where can I watch Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life in Germany?** *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* is not on any streaming or rental service in Germany at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life compare to I'm Alan Partridge?** *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* is gentler and smaller than [*I'm Alan Partridge*](https://film.one/tv/im-alan-partridge), which remains the tighter and nastier piece of writing. The travelogue is a string of set pieces, a couple of them thin, and Alan's cruelty is turned down a notch. Those who want him at his sharpest should start with the first series of the earlier programme. **What should I watch after Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life?** After *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life*, try [*I'm Alan Partridge*](https://film.one/tv/im-alan-partridge) (1997, Fi1m 88): The travel tavern years; the character at his nastiest and the writing at its tightest. Then [*This Is Spinal Tap*](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap) (1984, Fi1m 91): The mock documentary that taught everyone how to hold on a face too long. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Radio Times**, Tim Glanfield (90/100, inferred): Glanfield’s verdict is strongly positive, describing the programme as the best Alan Partridge of the 21st century. He praises its careful construction and well-observed humour. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/sky-atlantic-delivers-the-best-alan-partridge-of-the-21st-century/) - **The Guardian**, John Crace (85/100, inferred): Crace finds the special fresh, hilarious, and unexpectedly dark, with Partridge becoming more complex and sympathetic. He particularly praises the city-hall sequence that turns a documentary-style tour into a Hitler fantasy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/jun/25/alan-partridge-veep-tv-review) - **Digital Spy**, Alex Fletcher (95/100, inferred): The critic calls the special one of Steve Coogan’s funniest works and praises its humor and emotional depth. They single out the added pathos that makes Alan feel more than a caricature. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a388630/alan-partridge-on-sky-atlantic-preview-a-partridge-pilgrimage/) ## Details - **Director:** Dave Lambert - **Director:** Dave Lambert - **Writer:** Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Steve Coogan - **Editor:** Nick Webb - **Producer:** Dave Lambert - **Cast:** Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge; Dolly Wells as Annabel Swanson; Graham Duff as Mike Greatbatch; Harmage Singh Kalirai as Atif; Robert Demeger as Rev. Richard Hatcher - **Runtime:** 42m - **First release (the UK):** 25 June 2012 - **Genres:** Comedy ## Where to watch in Germany Not streaming, renting or buying in Germany at the last check. Also available in: AU. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *I'm Alan Partridge* (1997), Fi1m 88: The travel tavern years; the character at his nastiest and the writing at its tightest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/im-alan-partridge.md) - *The Trip* (2010): Coogan playing a version of himself across the north, with the same quiet dread underneath. - *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), Fi1m 91: The mock documentary that taught everyone how to hold on a face too long. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap.md) - *Marion and Geoff* (2000): Ten-minute monologues from a cab; a man explaining his life while it collapses. - *Toast of London* (2012): Another vain British broadcaster with no self-knowledge, played louder and stranger. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life