Valerie Cherish may just be the closest thing America has to its own Alan Partridge. Both narcissists clinging desperately to 1990s showbiz successes (starring in a popular sitcom and hosting a BBC chatshow respectively), they are also two rare examples of comedy characters who have returned sporadically over multiple decades: Steve Coogan’s alter ego made his television debut 32 years ago, while Lisa Kudrow first appeared as Cherish in The Comeback in 2005, returning for a second season nine years later and a third this week.
Yet the pair are most alike as prisms through which their creators can satirise the ever-evolving entertainment landscape. Thus far, Partridge’s career has been bookended by sports commentary and self-funded documentaries about mental health; in between we’ve had sendups of local radio, travelogues, podcasting, celebrity memoir and teatime magazine shows. The Comeback, meanwhile, began as a twin spoof of the studio sitcom and reality TV. Co-created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King (best known for directing and writing for Sex and the City and And Just Like That), season one revolved around the making of a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Cherish’s return to work in a trashy comedy called Room and Bored. In 2014, The Comeback – the name of both the actual show and the reality TV programme within it – was revived to chronicle another career renaissance; this time, Cherish won serious acclaim as the star of Seeing Red, a dark dramedy inspired by the real-life conflict between her and Room and Bored’s heroin-addicted co-writer Paulie G.
