British comedian and actor Steve Coogan brings his famed character Alan Partridge to the big screen in Alpha Papa

Have your wits about you, and be prepared to laugh hard and often as Steve Coogan brings the great Alan Partridge to life for the first time on the big screen

Steve Coogan in a scene from film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

3 stars

Director: Declan Lowney (Wild About Harry)

Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Felicity Montagu, Nigel Lindsay.

"We're coming up to the top of the hour here on North Norfolk Digital Radio.

"Later, we'll be taking dedications from anyone who's been denied council planning permission. We'll also be asking which is the worst monger: fish, iron, rumour or war?"

The natterings of just another nuff-nuff disc jockey? Hardly.

These words can only belong to Alan Partridge, a British character revered by comedy connoisseurs all over the globe for his exploits on TV, radio and the printed page.

Now, as he enters a third decade of inanity and insanity, Alan Partridge finally gets his own movie.

If you've never crossed paths with this fascinatingly facile creation of the celebrated British comedian and actor Steve Coogan, then you might feel on the outer of a great many in-jokes in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

(An efficient and entertaining way to make up some lost ground is to check out a few webisodes of the Partridge series Mid Morning Matters, very easily found on YouTube.)

The quick read of Partridge -n at least as it applies to the yarn spun by Alpha Papa - is that he is a washed-up talk-show host now making ends meet on a low-rating radio station.

When fellow DJ Pat Farrell (Irish actor Colm Meaney in a distressing mullet-perm) is sacked by North Norfolk Digital management and takes the entire station hostage, there is only one person the cops and the captor can trust.

That man is the bitter, twisted and supremely self-serving Partridge, who interprets the siege as a quick shortcut back into the public's affections.

The longer the stand-off goes, the better Alan looks. Until he loses his pants in an unfortunate and extensively broadcast tangle with a window latch.

Die-hard fans of the endlessly quotable title character ("I was just having a fascinating conversation with the proud father of Norfolk's most sun-tanned child") will be high on the plentiful supply of Partridge patter.

The unconverted should be warned the humour can plunge to dark depths very quickly if you're not on your guard.

So have your wits about you, and be prepared to laugh hard and often. Sometimes against your better judgment.