I've never understood what was going on in Michael's house (was it Michael, the Geordie guy who worked in the Travel Tavern?). The house from which he offered Alan a cup of beans, and didn't have any cutlery. Strange people were going in and out. Any ideas?
People talking about how Michael having a spoon in his bathroom indicates he lives with junkies, but I always assumed it was just random nonsense from the finger tips of Iannucci
Very much disorganised crime in a very rubbish Norfolk way…not like those big bastards down in London
It’s definitely an IV drugs reference - Michael’s living with people who shoot up heroin or crack in the bathroom. Genius reveal of how different their circumstances and life experiences are.
He hasn’t got a spoon
Find it hard to believe Michael lives with junkies. He's so innocent and simple. I just thought he lived with some geeks, weirdos or doleys who didn't know how to cook or look after themselves.
It will be an HMO (house of multiple occupancy) which sadly are becoming more and more common in the UK (for older adults to have to share with other older adults due to the housing crisis). Sadly it looks like Michael shares with bad people
...let's forget about all this...fancy some cheese? 🧀
Sniff my cheese!
The bloke who came out looked like a rent boy, some dodgy shit going down in there no doubt.
https://preview.redd.it/ptr33qioxf8g1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a22c079b44b943a920d8c5487ae6cead00f7628
It strikes me as the kind of place “Keanu Reeves” from Saxondale might feel at home
Drug dealing, marijuana or cannabis.
Are you on an E?!
This is an Ecstasy pellet. The guys here tell me these change hands for 120 pounds each, although they sold me this one at a mate's rate of just 70.
Did you get a bit hot and couldn't stop talking about Lewis Hamilton?
That entire bit is so well done. Even that the little bit to-camera was filmed from the top of the stairs down really tickled me, shades of Brasseye, maybe.
And Alan saying 'mates rates', clearly copying the lads who've just done him out of 60 quid is gold.
“What do you want me to do with this cu-?” “Put on the step!” “..yeah, right..”
get the dog in
This scene was incredible. This was the difference when you had genius level people like Armando Ianucci and Peter Baynham writing it. It is so much more broad now.
That is literally the opposite of what I think. As brilliant as it was IAP (especially series 2) was much more focussed on big, broad laughs. Post Ianucci has a lot more focus on nuance and patho
That..that’s bollocks but go on…
Nonsense, North Nofolk Digital and some of the specials have writing as good or better than the sitcom.
I think Ianucci was still involved in Midmorning Matters. I agree it is brilliant. The stuff after for me, whilst still funny, isn't on the same level.
I always assumed it would inevitably be something completely innocuous but there's just something about Michael and Alan that means Alan can barely comprehend his life, it baffles and terrifies him. But he keeps coming back. He can't let go.
A cup of beans, Michael?
"You never had a cup of beans man oh you are in for a treat "
I can’t begin to describe how good this scene is. This was back when Partridge was an excellent character driven comedy.
The scene says so much. Firstly, Alan is at such a loose end that he’s gone to the home address of someone he only knows because of what their job is, first at a travel tavern then at a garage. Michael is so embedded in this relationship that his first words are “I can’t sell you any petrol.”
Then there is an awkward silence because Alan doesn’t really know why he’s there, and Michael breaks it by offering him some soup. Then we get the infamous cup of beans, and a bit of small talk. Then there’s possibly the best exchange in the history of Partridge:
“You haven’t got a spoon?”
“No. Well there’s one in the bathroom but I’ve no cause to use it.”
This one line tells us so much about Michael. The audience has to think. My assumption is that he lives with a bunch of junkies, and who knows who that bloke who pushes past is?
It’s surreal, brilliantly written and executed, and it says so much. Lovely stuff.
They're probably cuckooing. County line dealers using Michael's house as a base in return for free drugs or cash. Or potentially against a threat of violence.
The spoon is a definite giveaway; and I’ll bet the top of the cistern is covered in melted cigarette burns…
I imagine its the sort of place that middle aged detective Swallow would love to shake down. I expect that hardly any of them have the correct paperwork for their vehicles.
As a youngster, I thought that the spoon in the bathroom was toilet related. Something I'd understand when I hit forty.
Keeps it with the poop knife and the rest of the poop cutlery.
But he's got no cause to use it
He tries to maintain a healthy anus.
The spoon line and the healthy anus are the two oddest Partridge lines going.
Never had sausage in a cup of beans man
Ya can yuse tha sausage for a scoop tha beens wit
Lovely. It's like a savoury 99.
Almost certainly some kind of drug den.
Chasing the dinosaur in a squat.
"I've got a spoon in the bathroom just never had to use it" or something like that
No cause to use it he says.
Well done cjberra that was textbook
Smack pipes?
Off their mash on ecstasy pipes
No, it was that other character named Michael that Alan is friends with.
He does have 104 friends. Could easily be another Michael amongst them.
Moooooo
Nerys the 60 year old from Cardiff was down for full sex...
Randy McKnob
Aye, I can still smell you.
I thought it was Bob Dylan...
Aye, she looked a bit like him
shared accommodation.
Having lived in and visited a few shared houses, they can be like this, they don’t necessarily need to be based around heroin use, though often some sort of drug use is usually involved in houses like that where lots of people are coming and going.
I always assumed it was a drugs den
Yes it was. Someone's parents clearly didn't come into a bit of money, apropos being able to educate you privately.
Apropos?
Well it's Latin isn't it? I'd have thought you'd need a basic grasp of Latin if you're... posting on Reddit.
🤣
You ought to have a basic grasp of Latin if your posting on Reddit.
Due to the muffled shouts before he opens the door, I always thought he was holding a dog fight.
Yeah I always thought that as well. The best bit of the whole scene is when Michael looks through the glass at the end to make sure he's gone.
Took me ages to realise spoon in the bathroom is probably for heroin, which is why Michael had no cause to use it. Also that time he didn’t have a door and had to stay in the caravan with Alan was clearly the police breaking it down.
Alan's caller Mary is looking at herself in the back of a spoon in a bathroom naked. I always assumed that she and Michael live together.
I've heard that analysis before. Pretty dark stuff.
Not the sort of gritty realism i expect from noel's house party.
The only spoon in the house being in the bathroom is a clue...
Sex festival
Always figured it was like a halfway house for middle aged ex military men with mental health issues. Alan couldn't go in because the others would take the piss out of Michael for hanging around with a TV fruit.
That's funny as he'll. Made my day)