This SPECTREd Isle James Bond, Alan Partridge, and Englishness GILLIAN GROSZEWSKI Like the Aston Martin car he drives and the Savile Row tailors he frequents, James Bond is an English cultural icon. ndeed, in !"#!, $aniel %raig, as Bond, was the natural choice to &act' as the securit( escort for )er Majest(, the +ueen, as she made her wa( to the o,ening ceremon( of the -l(mpic .ames in Lon/ don, itself a celebration of all things English. Although ap,roximating the iconic, Steve %oogan2s 3ctional character, Alan 4artridge, does not ,ossess the same cul/ tural cachet as 5leming’s international man of m(ster(. A self/,rofessed Bond su,er/fan, 4artridge attempts, on a regular basis, to achieve the im,ossible: to become an icon. 7here Bond and brand become inseparable due to their so,h/ isticated interdependence, 4artridge desperatel( seeks cor,orate ,artnershi, in an attempt to increase his ,ersonal wealth and social ,ro3le. )owever, while 4artridge ma( ap,ear, at 3rst sight, a ,ale imitation of 5leming’s iconic sleuth, both characters ,ossess a similarl( acute awareness of what it means to be Eng/ lish. %hristine Berberich has written of Bond that &behind the suave secret agent lurks a character 0oth at ease and at odds with his time' 8!"#!, #9:. Looking be/ hind the ,reoccu,ation of Alan 4artridge with all things Bond highlights the changing conce,t of what it means to be English in contem,orar( Britain. Like Bond, 4artridge frequentl( 3nds himself to 0e at odds with those that surround him ; not least due to his encyclo,aedic knowledge of the Bond franchise ; but Gillian Groszewski +e12hes Englis3 1+ -higwell S2hool. She wro+e her 53&$& on +he poe+r6 o7 8ed 9ughes: 1n, s3e is 2urren+l6 +he recipien+ o7 1 .e12on 8e12her ;ellowship 7rom Li<erpool 0ni<ersi+6 1nd +he Runn6mede 8rus+& Volume 2 · Issue 1 · Spring 2019 ISSN 251 !21"# DOI% 10&2 #""'(bs& * Dis+ribu+ed under -- ./ &0 0K also because he seeks relief from the multicultural heterogeneit( he associates with London through e1,lorations of ,rovincial settings 8<orfolk, in ,articular: in his attempts to rediscover and reassert what it means to be English. According to Berberich, this nostalgia for the &ver( national characteristics that had once made Britain great' is ,artl( what attracts us to the world, and character, of James Bond 8#=:. t comes as no sur,rise, then, that the mist(-e(ed Englishman, Alan 4artridge, is a Bond su,er/fan. “STOP GETTI G BO ! "RO G#$ 4artridge2s love of Bond was revealed in the ver( 3rst episode of Knowing Me, Knowing You in which 4artridge e1citedl( ,romises his audience an ap,earance 0( &James Bond, "">, Roger Moore' that never comes to ,ass. 5ollowing the death of Moore in !"#>, %aroline 7estbrook wrote that &Sir Roger Moore had no shortage of fans ; but we suspect few were quite as devoted to the late acting le/ gend as Alan 4artridge' 8!"#>, n.,.:. ?hat 4artridge ,refers the suave sophistica/ tion of the quintessential Englishman depicted 0( Moore over the shar,er-edged Sean %onner( is, in itself, a ,atriotic act. t would a,,ear that %onner(2s Scottish/ ness somehow diminishes his Britishness for 4artridge. 7hen one of the other guests on Knowing Me, Knowing You 8who hap,ens to be Scottish: claims that &Sean %onner( was a better Bond an(wa(', 4artridge immediatel( responds 0( stating that it is &interesting (ou take that ,osition ; the Scottish ,osition'. 4art/ ridge quickl( turns a ,redilection for a certain Bond actor into a question of ,at/ riotism and defends Moore vociferousl(. B( the episode2s end, however, 4art/ ridge is lef embarrassed and disap,ointed 0( Moore2s no-show and must e1 / ,lain to viewers that Moore has gone straight to his hotel from the air,ort rather than to the television studio. n My Word is My Bond: The Autobiography, Roger Moore recounted his father2s disa,,ointment at his non-ap,earance on 4art/ ridge2s show6 think it was around summer #AA9 when $ad called me in 5rance. B?hat was ver( bad last night, son.2 B7hat was, $adC2 B?here was a talk show on television and the( said that (ou were on the wa(, 0ut (ou never got there. ?hat2s not good, son. <ot good at all.2 2 In+ern1+ion1l =ourn1l o7 =1mes .on, Stu,ies · Volume 2 · Issue 1 · Spring 2019 B7hat show, $adC2 asked. B t was on the BB%,2 he replied. DEF t turned out to be Alan 4artridge Knowing Me, Knowing You chat show with Steve %oogan, a spoof show and the *oke in that episode was that didn2t get to the studio in time for the recording. $oris DMoore2s assistantF sent me a tape. t was a h(stericall( funn( send-u,. called $ad to e1,lain. BGes, 0ut it2s still bad, son, still bad,2 he said. 8!""H, =!#: 5ollowing his failure to a,,ear on Knowing Me, Knowing You, Moore2s father be/ rated him for a lack of manners which was unacceptable in a gentleman so ad/ mired 0( 4artridge who obviousl( revered him as a model of English ,ropriet(. 7hile 4artridge2s enthusiasm for Bond was declared in Knowing Me, Knowing You, it was almost a decade later, in the series two e,isode of I’m Alan Partridge entitled &<ever Sa( Alan Again' 8itself a ,la( on the title of the #AH= Sean %on/ ner( Bond 3lm:, that 4artridge revealed that he was a true Bond su,er/fan. )is e1clamation that his friends &sto, getting Bond wrong” comes shortl( afer a rapid e1change in which 4artridge corrects a succession of mistaken memories and misidenti3cations of Bond actors and scenarios including his girlfriend2s be/ lief that The py Who !o"ed Me begins in a forest in .erman( to which 4artridge replies: & t2s Austria. AIS?R A!” 4artridge announces that he has become &<or/ folk2s maddest man' afer he settles down to watch &the best 3lm ever made', The py Who !o"ed Me, onl( to discover that his friends have accidentall( recorded an episode of &America2s Strongest Man' over Moore2s third Bond 3lm. 4artridge2s outrage at the accident, however, seems secondar( to the afront that his com/ ,an( ,refer the American ,rogramme to the e1citement of another ""> instal/ ment. 4artridge hushes his friends with the shouted instruction that the( &stop talking about American things!” n u,braiding his compan(, 4artridge reasserts the im,ortance of Englishness, not onl( in terms of their entertainment inter/ ests, 0ut to their cultural lives as a whole. 4artridge subsequentl( goes on to demonstrate his detailed knowledge of The py Who !o"ed Me 0( re-enacting the entire title sequence because it would seem that, according to 4artridge, not to know Bond is not to 0e English. ndeed, Englishness and Bond are regularl( deemed to be s(non(mous 8in s,ite of Bond2s Scottish-Swiss heritage:. %hristine Berberich has argued that the &groundbreaking” social and economic changes G. Grosze4s?i · =1mes .on,, Al1n 51r+ri,ge, 1n, Englishness @ which took ,lace in Britain in the &Swinging Si1ties' ,rom,ted a reassertion of Englishness and the association of James Bond with &traditional' Englishness contributed to the initial ,opularit( of the franchise 8#9:. $iscussing the social u,heaval that took ,lace in the decade that s,awned Bond, Berberich notes that DwFhile man( ap,lauded these changes, for others the( had come too quickl( and at too high a ,rice, the loss of traditions, manners and morals efectivel( culminating in a selling out of those ver( national characteristics that had once made Britain great. 8i0id.: 4artridge2s disgust at his friends2 ,reference for &American things' over Bond suggests a character who mourns for a lost British identit( embodied 0( the man who skis of the side of a cliK con3dent that the Inion Jack will literall( save him as it is emblazoned on his ,arachute. ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA $espite his disap,ointment at Roger Moore2s no-show, 4artridge2s admiration of Moore2s Bond did not wane. n the e,isode of Knowing Me, Knowing You on which Moore is e1,ected as a guest, 4artridge claimed that6 & n the whole Roger versus Sean debate that2s been raging for the ,ast twent( (ears, have to sa( 2m #rmly in the Roger camp. believe that nobod( could wear a safari suit with the same degree of casualit( as Roger'. $es,ite his belief that nobod( does it better, how/ ever, 4artridge gave it a go. At the ,remiere for his !"#= feature 3lm Alan Par$ tridge: Alpha Papa, %oogan &took to the red car,et in character and a ,owder-blue safari suit that could have been looted from Roger MooreMs wardrobe circa #A>9' 8 Jones !"#=, n.,.:. ndeed, the ,lot and resolution of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa owes much to the Bond franchise. n high Bond st(le, 4artridge single-handedl( takes on a media su,er,ower and an rish terrorist in order to ,rotect local, British interests. Linda Raciop,i and %olleen ?remonte have identi3ed that6 &Bond 3lms and their ,re-title sequences frequentl( engage in narrativising the defence of the state and the global ca,italist world from serious threats that are increasingl( transnational in scope' 8!"#9, #N:. n the ,re-title sequence of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, this is ,recisel( the narrative that is ,resented. ?he 3lm2s 3rst shot is of a <orfolk ,ier with aged t(,eface identif(ing the location and sug/ gesting an old England under threat. ?he use of 4hili, .lass2 score for Koy$ aanisqatsi over this scene further accentuates the idea of an indigenous world un/ der siege 0( capitalist interests through the link made with .odfre( Reggio2s #AH! movie about the dangers of technological ,rogress.