Happily Broken Heart
This is an unexpected duet of Elton John’s song, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” performed this time by Elton John himself and actor/writer Steve Coogan’s alter-ego Alan Partridge. It came at the end of the British Comedy Awards in 2020.
I’ve posted video of “Alan Patridge” in the past, a largely-untalented, thoughtless talk show host with an exalted view of himself that Coogan created with Armando Iannucci (who also created the series Veep, and wrote and directed the movie The Death of Stalin, among his vast credits) and has performed in many incarnations – a talk show, sitcom, even a movie and more. You may also recognize Coogan as the Roman soldier in the Night at the Museum movies. He also wrote and co-starred with Judi Dench the movie, Philomena, and starred as Stan Laurel in the film, Stan & Ollie, opposite John C. Reilly.
What stands out here is not just the song itself, but maybe even more the introduction conversation between Patridge and Elton John, and how some of it is clearly ad-libbed because Elton keeps breaking up. (Also worth noting is that at the 6:18 mark, you’ll see a quick shot in the audience of Rob Bryson, who has partnered with Steve Coogan on many projects, most famously the “Trip to…” fictional travel movies and TV series they did together.
Anyway, this is how the Awards show concluded –
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