This Time with Alan Partridge BBC1, last night ****

ON being asked by an interviewer if he was ever tempted to stray during his marriage, Paul Newman famously inquired why he should go out for hamburger when he had steak at home.

In the same vein, is there a place for a new Alan Partridge series in a world where Richard Madeley and Piers Morgan exist?

The answer came with the first giggle raised by This Time with Alan Partridge, and for half an hour the yucks kept coming, like zombie apes queuing up to play monkey tennis. If we must have one borderline bonkers television presenter with an ego visible from space then it has to be the original and best. Sorry, Piers. Suck it up, Ricardo.

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When we meet Alan again he is filling in for a poorly colleague on a programme not a million miles from The One Show. His co-presenter, Jennie (Susannah Fielding, ace), steals his jokes and rolls her eyes at every opportunity, and there were lots. “I’m a married woman,” said Jennie as he flirted with her, live on air. “I was told you were separated,” was Alan’s attempt at a witty rejoinder.

There were some sharp jabs at the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants live television, with a mistake corrected by a tweet which was subsequently amended by an email. Mostly, though, the focus was Alan. His twitching. His chinos. His tie pin. The man is an emotional grenade.

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Some things did not work. The set was too big, though this did lend itself to a Spinal Tap-style walk by Alan in the world’s noisiest shoes. But for the most part, Coogan, plus fellow writers Neil and Rob Gibbons, were on top form. Sidekick Simon was back with a “digiwall” that he could not operate; Alan was heckled in traditional fashion while out filming (“Partridge, you w*****!”); his assistant Lynn hates Jennie. It is going to end in tears, but of the good kind.

“Do you think Paul McCartney is watching this?” Alan, needy as a newborn, asked Lynn. If he isn’t, he’s a mug.