Rob Gibbons directs Alan Partridge with an eye for the small, embarrassing detail. His partnership with Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan still produces precise comedy, though familiarity with Alan sometimes does too much of the work.
Fi1m perspective
In the magazine photoshoot interview in How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) (2025), a few odd details about Alan's home slip out almost in passing. We laughed, and wanted more time to take in the domestic peculiarities. Rob Gibbons and his co-director Neil Gibbons are right to keep it short: explaining those details would only weaken the joke. Their scrappy mockumentary style makes the discoveries seem accidental. It is the kind of small, exact decision that gives us confidence in Rob's direction, even when the series around it is uneven.
Rob's work is difficult to separate from that of Neil and Steve Coogan, and there is little point pretending otherwise. The brothers began contributing to Partridge with Mid Morning Matters (2010), then co-wrote the feature Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013). They wrote and directed This Time with Alan Partridge (2019), while their creation The Witchfinder (2022) took them into period sitcom. Across the Partridge projects, the job has been to develop an established character across different formats. That makes their judgement about what to retain and what to change particularly important.
The Gibbons brothers' close working method involves shared taste and repeated feedback on scripts, which suits comedy built from small peculiarities. In How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge), they share the writing with Coogan, who keeps Alan recognisable even when the surrounding idea is thin. The pleasure is in how personally he gets things wrong. The directors' loose documentary manner gives that performance room without making every joke look prepared. When it works, we seem to have noticed something embarrassing before anyone making the programme has.
The weakness is their willingness to settle for that recognition. Too many jokes in How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) could fit almost any documentary Alan might front, and familiarity makes the next mistake easier to anticipate. The photoshoot shows that they can still be precise; the series needs more situations chosen with that care. Its supporting cast and sharper digressions are welcome, but they cannot make the central premise feel fully justified. Existing Partridge admirers should find enough to enjoy, but anyone hoping for fresh situations throughout should temper that expectation.
Biography
Rob Gibbons is an English writer and director. With his twin brother Neil Gibbons, he has co-written and co-directed multiple Alan Partridge projects with Steve Coogan since 2010, including the series Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, the film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013), This Time with Alan Partridge and the mockumentary series How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) (2025), on which he is also credited as executive producer.
The brothers also wrote an episode of the HBO series Veep (2015) and the BBC sitcom The Witchfinder (2022). They began working with Coogan after submitting material to his production company Baby Cow in 2008. Gibbons has received BAFTA nominations for comedy writing and a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Veep.
