TV Comedy Tie-In Books Extra - The Fictional Autobiography

Yep, I realise that this was last week’s set of themed posts but I did mention at the end of the last one that I didn’t get round to these so you’re getting a little addendum to the theme (and if you’re bored of the theme, there’ll definitely be something different along tomorrow as I’ve pretty much exhausted the collection now).

There seemed to be a bit of spate of these in the late 80s/early 90s, particularly themed around BBC sitcoms. The War Diaries Of Rene Artois (from ‘Allo ‘Allo) and Dad's Army - The Defence of a Front Line English Village both spring to mind, using the diary format to retell stories from episodes of the TV show. While I had both of these, they were less interesting as they were representing material I was already familiar with. I’m much more interested in books that give you something you didn't get on the show, like the examples below.

Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host : The Autobiography of Larry Sanders (actually by Garry Shandling and David Rensin)
I’m a big fan of the Larry Sanders Show and have recently enjoyed rewatching it all. This tie-in is particularly meta as Larry spends an episode writing his autobiography which is ostensibly what this is. There’s some nice background to Larry’s early life and a fleshing out of his first marriage but sadly the book kind of tails off in the second half, resorting to pages of pictures of celebs he’s interviewed with a bit of blurb about them. A nice attempt but feels a little thin and padded out.

I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan & Nomad by Alan Partridge (actually by Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci & Steve Coogan)
These are absolutely superb. Completely nail the character which is unsurprising given that they’re written by both his creators and the men who’ve been writing for him since Mid Morning Matters. It’s very much in Alan’s voice - even more so if you listen to the audiobook version narrated by Steve Coogan. In fact, these are two of the only audiobooks I’ve listened to in the entirety (I struggle to just listen to a single narrator for hours sometimes) and they are completely worth it. The nicest touches come in the form of Alan’s relating of events from the TV shows, shown through his own spin in order to paint himself in a better light. A nice little touch for those familiar with the source material as well as being a commentary on the self-serving nature of the celebrity autobiography. The second book, Nomad, is more of a commentary on the celebrity travelogue but is no less enjoyable for it.

Of the the ones above, I definitely recommend the Partridge ones. If you’re a fan of Alan Partridge in any way, these will definitely satisfy any cravings for more.