This SPECTREd Isle James Bond, Alan Partridge, and Englishness

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also because he seeks relief from the multicultural heterogeneity he associates with London through explorations of provincial settings (Norfolk, in particular) in his attempts to rediscover and reassert what it means to be English. According to Berberich, this nostalgia for the "very national characteristics that had once made Britain great" is partly what attracts us to the world, and character, of James Bond (13). It comes as no surprise, then, that the misty-eyed Englishman, Alan Partridge, is a Bond super-fan.

"STOP GETTING BOND WRONG!"
Partridge's love of Bond was revealed in the very frst episode of Knowing Me, Knowing You in which Partridge excitedly promises his audience an appearance by "James Bond, 007, Roger Moore" that never comes to pass. Following the death of Moore in 2017, Caroline Westbrook wrote that "Sir Roger Moore had no shortage of fans -but we suspect few were quite as devoted to the late acting legend as Alan Partridge" (2017, n.p.). That Partridge prefers the suave sophistication of the quintessential Englishman depicted by Moore over the sharper-edged Sean Connery is, in itself, a patriotic act. It would appear that Connery's Scottishness somehow diminishes his Britishness for Partridge. When one of the other guests on Knowing Me, Knowing You (who happens to be Scottish) claims that "Sean Connery was a better Bond anyway", Partridge immediately responds by stating that it is "interesting you take that position -the Scottish position". Partridge quickly turns a predilection for a certain Bond actor into a question of patriotism and defends Moore vociferously. By the episode's end, however, Partridge is lef embarrassed and disappointed by Moore's no-show and must explain to viewers that Moore has gone straight to his hotel from the airport rather than to the television studio. Berberich has argued that the "groundbreaking" social and economic changes G. Groszewski · James Bond, Alan Partridge, and Englishness which took place in Britain in the "Swinging Sixties" prompted a reassertion of Englishness and the association of James Bond with "traditional" Englishness contributed to the initial popularity of the franchise (14). Discussing the social upheaval that took place in the decade that spawned Bond, Berberich notes that [w]hile many applauded these changes, for others they had come too quickly and at too high a price, the loss of traditions, manners and morals efectively culminating in a selling out of those very national characteristics that had once made Britain great. (ibid.) Partridge's disgust at his friends' preference for "American things" over Bond suggests a character who mourns for a lost British identity embodied by the man who skis of the side of a clif confdent that the Union Jack will literally save him as it is emblazoned on his parachute. to their radio shows. The pair undertake a bus tour and re-establish links with the provincial people they represent who greet them with placards in support of the stand they are taking and who phone in with messages of displeasure at the corporate takeover. Farrell describes these people as "my listeners: ordinary, working-class people" and the soundtrack to the reassertion of Englishness enacted by Partridge and Farrell is provided by John Farnham's "You're the Voice", which, in this context, constitutes a musical equivalent of the Brexiteer invocation that the G. Groszewski · James Bond, Alan Partridge, and Englishness

ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA
British people "take back control". In the fnal analysis, however much he would like to see himself as a snobbish Bond fgure, synonymous with suave Englishness, Partridge becomes the protector of regional Englishness by rejecting the capitalist threat to North Norfolk Digital established in the pre-title and title sequence in the style of the Bond franchise. As a fnal gesture to its debt to Bond, it is worth noting that two Bond themes make their way onto the ofcial soundtrack to Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa without appearing in the feature flm: Shirley Bassey's "Goldfnger" and, of course, Carly Simon's "Nobody does it Better", from the flm The Spy Who Loved Me. Although professing that he is "firmly in the Roger camp", it is evident that in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa Partridge sees himself as a version of his hero, Moore. In one scene, Partridge visits a stately home in a vintage car. Desperate to appear comfortable in the upper-class setting, Partridge fails miserably fnally admitting, in relation to his three-piece tweed suit: "I hired this". In his attempt to understand what has divided this "once-United Kingdom", Partridge also completes a stint as a checkout operator in a large supermarket and spends some time with a street gang. Throughout, Partridge is visibly uncomfortable engaging with both the upper classes and the working classes following his departure from his own upwardly-mobile home with the upwardly-mobile name of "Denton Abbey". Partridge's modest success means that he cannot sit comfortably with the working classes from whence he came -nor does he want to. Berberich writes of "Fleming's […] implicit and rather problematic call for a new sense of national identity that shows an awareness of waning British infuence in the world while also trying to maintain the myth of British -and, here, particularly English -superiority" (14). In Alan Partridge: Scissored Isle, Partridge similarly attempts to maintain the myth of a united Britain in his exploration of the "schism" and "chasm" which he believes divides the "haves" and the "have-nots" of the "once-United Kingdom" and which he renames using the portmanteau "schasm". Partridge's proclaimed endeavour in creating the documentary -to become "a better citizen, a better man, and a more sought-afer broadcaster" -demonstrates his conficted loyalty to country and self. Berberich describes Fleming's Bond as having a "character both at ease and at odds with his time' which lurks 'behind the façade of the suave secret agent" (14). Similarly, Partridge's not-so-suave characterisation presents a man at odds with his time because of his nostalgia for a "once-United Kingdom" that no longer exists and a desire to escape from his modest working-class background in his aspiration to become the stereotypical English gentleman embodied by Bond. Partridge's outsider status and re-assertion of Englishness prompted David Quantick to suggest that "there is nobody more representative of our times than Partridge, a man whose views chime with those of 52% of the British population who voted Leave in the 2016 referendum"

ALAN PARTRIDGE: SCISSORED ISLE
(2019, n.p.). It is in the Brexit era that "the British bulldog" (ibid.), Alan Partridge, has begun to approximate the heroic, Bond-esque status he has always aspired to.

THIS TIME WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE
Francois' choice of this extract led to his immediate mockery on social media and to one critic dubbing him "Mark 'Alan Partridge' Francois" due to him drawing on his knowledge of a Bond flm to assert his Englishness. However, the threat that M describes and that Francois so fears is the same: it is a threat to Englishness itself. Christine Berberich has argued that Ian Fleming's novels "comment not only on the state of Britain overall but help create a new notion of Britishness that continues to advocate for British dominance over the rest of the world" (24). However, Berberich notes that "the fact that it is a particular Englishness that the novels seem to celebrate is even more problematic […] as it also highlights not only a misguided belief in British supremacy but also one of English superiority over the United Kingdom as a whole" (ibid.). It should come as no surprise then that the Bond-obsessed Alan Partridge who prizes the "traditional" Englishness embodied by Fleming's sleuth should emerge as the comedic parallel to the pro-Brexit campaigners equally enamoured by this version of Englishness.