''Mid Morning Matters'' is a British digital radio show parody written by

Steve Coogan Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English-Irish actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. His accolades include four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Aw ...

, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons and

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...

, produced by

Baby Cow Productions Baby Cow Productions Limited is a British comedy television production company based in London and Manchester, founded by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. Since its establishment it has diversified into radio, animation and film. According to th ...

and funded by the British arm of Australian

lager Lager (; ) is a Type of beer, style of beer brewed and Brewing#Conditioning, conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be Pale lager, pale, Amber lager, amber, or Dark lager, dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially availab ...

company Foster's, starring Coogan as fictional radio DJ

Alan Partridge Alan Gordon Partridge is an English comedy character portrayed by Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, he has ap ...

. The first of twelve 15-minute episodes was uploaded to the Foster's Funny website on 5 November 2010, and then available on YouTube. Six 30-minute episodes titled ''Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters: Special Edition'', edited from the web series, began airing on

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group, Sky Group Limited that launched in 2011 and broadcasts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel airs original British-produced dramas like ''Fortitude (TV series), F ...

in July 2012 as part of a deal between producers Baby Cow and

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

. A second series consisting of six episodes premiered in February 2016.

Plot

The show is shot from the perspective of a

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in Videotelephony, video telephony, live streaming and social media, and Closed-circuit television, security. Webcams can b ...

in the studio of fictional station North Norfolk Digital. In ''Mid Morning Matters''

(

) is back working as a disc jockey, after the failure of his television career. He is usually joined by '

Sidekick A sidekick is a close companion or colleague who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to those whom they accompany. Origins The first recorded use of the term dates from 1896. It is believed to have originated in pickpocket slang of ...

Simon' (

Tim Key Timothy Key (born 2 September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, both as a solo act and as part of the comedy group Cowards (comedy troupe), Cowards, and plays Alan Pa ...

) who eventually leaves or is fired due to Alan's gradual dislike towards him. Alan is noticeably annoyed when he discovers that Simon has started guesting as a sidekick on another radio show (''Bedtime with Branning''). After Simon's departure, Alan recruits a new sidekick, Zoe (Pippa Duffy), and quickly develops a crush on her. In the final part of series one, Zoe reveals she is going travelling for three months, much to Alan's disappointment. Simon returns in series 2.

Production and TV airing

In August 2010, it was reported that Alan Partridge would make a comeback series online for lager company Foster's. On 8 October 2010, it was announced that the new show, entitled ''Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters'', would premiere on 5 November 2010 on Foster's comedy site, fostersfunny.co.uk. In a press release, Steve Coogan announced, in character:

"I am delighted to announce that after years as a regional broadcaster on North Norfolk Digital my groundbreaking radio segment, ''Mid Morning Matters'', will now be accessible to a potential audience of billions via the World Wide Web (www).

That it has taken Foster's to help realise my dream of joining the information superhighway is a damning indictment of the established broadcasters whose shabby treatment of me on Sept 10th 2001 was frankly shabby. I made dozens of calls the next day, all of which were ignored.

My appreciation must go to Armando Iannucci and Baby Cow for ignoring the lies, God bless them. In the meantime I look forward to 'hanging out 'n' chillin' with the MySpace generation."

The first six episodes aired online in December 2010, with the remainder released weekly from 4 February 2011 until episode 12 on 11 March 2011. Following the series, Alan appeared again as part of the Red Nose Day 2011 set for a one-off show akin to the ''Mid Morning Matters'' arrangement, and here Sidekick Simon reappears in his former capacity. Following a deal between

and

in November 2011, the first series was broadcast as six 30-minute episodes on Sky Atlantic, despite the public antipathy of Steve Coogan towards media mogul

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

and his former company

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was formed on June 28, 2013, as the legal successor ...

, who at the time owned a controlling 33% of BSkyB, following the News International phone-hacking scandal. Series two of ''Mid Morning Matters'' began airing on Sky Atlantic on 16 February 2016. As with the first series on Sky, series two ran for six 30-minute episodes.

Reception

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' called the show "endlessly creative".

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2 (2016)

Home media

The first series of ''Mid Morning Matters'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

first, in Australia on 1 March 2012 by 2entertain. It was released on 12 November 2012 in the UK, also by 2entertain. The second series was released on DVD in April 2016.

References

External links

* * {{Sky Atlantic 2010 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings 2010s British sitcoms British mockumentary television series British parody television series British English-language television shows Sky Atlantic original programming Television shows set in Norfolk