Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 days ago

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Alan Partridge. I'm a busy man. One day I can be recording a TV show, the next I can be
00:10shuttling up to Harrogate to host a Get Motivated weekend for the Bostick Salesforce. But when I go
00:16back to Norwich, I like to relax by rambling. I switch off my mobile phone, put my pager on mute
00:21and enjoy the stillness of the Norfolk countryside. I always like to go for a walk on Christmas
00:29morning for two to three hours alone. I do ask the others, my wife Carol, son Fernando, he's at
00:35Cambridge, and Denise, but they always make their excuses. It's as if they know that I, Alan Partridge,
00:41require solitude. So I hop in the car and pop along the A47 to Swatham. Swatham was our stalking ground
00:49when we were young. We'd all pile into the back of a friend's mustard-coloured triumph dolomite,
00:55and we'd head over to Swatham and have a picnic and then drive home again. Great days. I'm not just
01:04Swatham. I don't want Swatham to get all the credit. It was the whole area. I'm talking about North
01:07Pickenham, Necton, Great Palgrave, Spall. We even went as far as East Walton. I mean, there was no
01:14stopping us. There's a caravan site there now. So it's quite a good one. It's not gypsies. I mean,
01:20it's proper toilets and proper amenities. We're actually on the grounds of Mike Oldfield's
01:31country estate. We're not actually on his ground. This is common ground. That's Mr. Oldfield's
01:37over there. Hergist Ridge, name of one of his albums. We did ask Mr. Oldfield if we could
01:41film there, but he said, being Christmas, he'd wanted a bit of privacy. It's understandable.
01:46Would have been nice, you know. A bit small-minded, really. A bit nasty. Anyway, on with the ramble.
01:53Can't go over there. I'll go over there.
01:56Oldfield hosts a celebrity clay pigeon shoot every Christmas. He invites around Paul Eddington,
02:02Adam Faith, Danny Baker, Moira Stewart, Edward Heath, and Mr. Motivator.
02:07And Francis Rossi of Status Quo.
02:17That was my watch.
02:19I just lost my blimey watch.
02:23Ha!
02:27Actually, keep that bit in. It's nice. I think it gives it a human touch. Nice. Keep it in.
02:32I used to come here as a child on my own. I would skim stones. On one occasion, I hit
02:40a duck, and it disappeared beneath the water. To this day, I don't know whether it was dead
02:44or just badly concussed. I love birds, and I like to come here and make bird noises.
02:50I'm no Dr. Doolittle, but there are times when I think birds are the only ones I can really talk to.
03:10Maybe that's because I'm a partridge. Alan Partridge.
03:13Someone should clean up these leaves.
03:23In the same way I'm having a Christmas ramble, 2,000 years ago, the Holy Family had a ramble
03:28from Nazareth to Bethlehem, in much the same way that I'm having a ramble from Norwich to Swatham.
03:35Although I'm not comparing myself with Jesus. I don't want to get bogged down in that whole
03:39controversy again. Right? So I'm not Jesus. I want to make that absolutely clear. Right?
03:45I am not Jesus.
03:48It's beautiful here. The nearest shop is over two miles away, which is a problem.
03:54Somebody suggested building a small snack bar, but there was a meeting at Swatham Village Hall,
03:59and the planning people said it would spoil the beauty of the area.
04:02So I suggested a compromise, which was to be a series of vending machines placed in hedges.
04:09It could give out Kit Kats, Mars bars, chunky soup, slices of ham, five-a-lives,
04:13but they voted it down, so you've just got to come prepared.
04:17I pack a finger of fudge, about the size of a slim panatella.
04:21I used to come here when I was at East Anglia Polytechnic.
04:27It weren't particularly happy days, but I'd come down here on my own,
04:32transistor, sing my favourite pop songs.
04:37I'm a one-man band
04:39Nobody seems to understand
04:43Is there anybody out there who'll lend me a hand
04:48I'm a one-man band
04:51Thank you for joining me on a Christmas ramble with Anna Portridge.
04:58I'm going to go back to my wife now. Thank you. Bye-bye.
05:00Bye-bye.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment

Recommended