The object of his crush is handsome Jake (Austin Taylor), a fellow pupil who works in the local Athena shop. Doesn’t that take you back? Anyway, Jake is a decent person who doesn’t join in the relentless mockery of Alan. At the same time, Alan is trying his best to fancy girls, but to no avail. “I thought women were a bit like olives: they turn your stomach at first but if you persevere, you’d learn to love them,” he sighs.
The writing is smart and the jokes are a mile a minute, but it’s Savell’s performance that seals it. His mastery of the character is total. He sounds even more like adult Alan than he did before, because now the character’s voice has dropped (“While my voice was struggling to find a biting point, my libido had gone full throttle”). Watch him in interviews and you’ll see that he looks and sounds nothing like Carr in real life, but is simply a gifted mimic.
