--- name: "Rob Gibbons" canonical: "https://film.one/person/rob-gibbons" fi1m_id: "rob-gibbons" imdb_id: "nm1668152" tmdb_id: 1195539 wikidata_id: "Q54366406" roles: ["Writer","Producer","Director"] reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 83 average_as: "writer" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-10-03T21:32:57.714365+00:00" 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." --- # Rob Gibbons ## Identity Rob Gibbons - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/rob-gibbons - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** rob-gibbons - **IMDb ID:** nm1668152 - **TMDB ID:** 1195539 - **Wikidata ID:** Q54366406 - **Same entity:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54366406, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1668152/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1195539 Writer and producer. Born in Sandbach, Cheshire, England. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer, Director - **Active:** 2012–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 1 directing, 2 writing - **Frequently works with:** [Neil Gibbons](https://film.one/person/neil-gibbons.md), [Steve Coogan](https://film.one/person/steve-coogan.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 83, as writer, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 83 (2), 2020s 65 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54366406, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1668152/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1195539 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*Veep*](https://film.one/tv/veep.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Rob Gibbons > Rob Gibbons is good at keeping Alan Partridge recognisable, working with Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan to make small peculiarities funny. We are less convinced when familiarity has to sustain a whole series. In *How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)* (2025), a magazine photoshoot interview lets us briefly glimpse the oddities of Alan's home. We laughed at those domestic details and wanted longer to inspect them. Rob and Neil Gibbons, who direct as well as co-write with Steve Coogan, are right to move on without explaining them. Their scrappy mockumentary style makes the jokes seem accidental, though the brevity is carefully judged. It is the sort of precise character comedy we want more of from Rob, and which this uneven series does not supply often enough. The long Partridge collaboration began with *Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge* (2010), co-written with Neil and Coogan. The brothers went on to help write *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013), while their work with the character has spread into books, podcasts and live shows. That history helps explain how readily they can make Alan recognisable through a small detail of his behaviour. It also helps explain the reliance on recognition when a scene needs a new joke, though familiarity is no excuse for settling for less. The brothers also wrote an episode of *Veep* in 2015, then created, wrote and directed *The Witchfinder* (2022). We recommend *Veep* with reservations about its opening and closing seasons, but that judgement covers much more than their contribution to one episode. The original sitcom *The Witchfinder* marks a clearer move beyond Partridge, though it remains a shared undertaking rather than evidence of a separate comic voice for Rob. With Coogan, the Gibbons brothers still give Alan mistakes that feel personal rather than merely foolish. The problem in *How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)* is how readily that pleasure becomes all a scene offers. Too many jokes could fit any documentary Alan happened to front, and we can too often anticipate the next mistake. Recognising him is enjoyable, but it does not make each new situation funny. We would welcome another series that trusted small, unexplained details as much as the photoshoot does. ## 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*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, comedy.co.uk, radiotimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) ### Directed (1) - *How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)* (2025), Fi1m 65, Director, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/how-are-you-its-alan-partridge.md) ### Wrote (2) — the average rests on these - *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* (2012), Fi1m 84, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life.md) - *Veep* (2012), Fi1m 82, Teleplay — [page](https://film.one/tv/veep.md) ## Complete filmography (8) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)* (2025), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Director, Creator — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/how-are-you-its-alan-partridge.md) - *Alan Partridge - Stratagem* (2023), Writer, Director - *The Witchfinder* (2022), series, Director, Writer, Executive Producer - *Alan Partridge's Scissored Isle* (2016), Director, Writer - *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013), Writer, Executive Producer - *Alan Partridge on Open Books with Martin Bryce* (2012), Writer - *Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life* (2012), Executive Producer, Writer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/alan-partridge-welcome-to-the-places-of-my-life.md) - *Veep* (2012), series, Teleplay — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/veep.md) --- © 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/person/rob-gibbons