It's been 22 years since Coogan's Partridge first appeared on the BBC's On The Hour. More radio followed, then a stint on Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris' The Day Today, before moving onto what many Partridgians consider to be Alan's apex - the chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You and the travel lodge-set I'm Alan Partidge. Talk of a big-screen outing for Alan has been on the cards for some while - an Al Qaeda-plotted feature was touted, then dropped in light of the 7/7 London bombings, though I suspect much time has been taken up thinking if a 90-minute Alan Partridge film was a good idea in the first place. Alpa Papa, however, manages - by a bear's headth - to navigate the rocky shores of disappointment and proves a credible addition to Coogan's Alan canon. The problem is placing Alan Partridge on the back-foot; the character is undoubtedly at his best when allowed free reign to grandstand on his own terms, manifesting his own podiums and pitfalls - in front of a light entertainment audience, in the bedroom of a Linton Travel Tavern or static home, ruling the airwaves in a sound-booth in North Norfolk Digital (as in the wonderful Mid Morning Matters Fosters shorts). Upscaling the narrative to a siege-situation action-aspirationed blockbuster never quite works for the character. That is, of course, precisely the point of the film: "How does Alan fare in the larger world?" Alpha Papa isn't the Gervaisian laurel-resting we feared, nor does it warrant a second feature film, but a colon-rippingly funny title sequence cut to Roachford's Cuddly Toy aside, is an adequate big-screen outing for the Alan we know and love.