Originally Alan Partridge maybe pulling faces in foolish endeavour (1,4,4)
I believe the answer is:
a mugs game
'foolish endeavour' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'originally alan partridge maybe pulling faces' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'partridge' could be 'game' (game bird) and 'game' is located in the answer.
'faces' could be 'mugs' (mug is a kind of face) and 'mugs' is found within the answer.
A single letter 'a' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for a mugs game that I've seen before include "Something only fools would do" , "It's futile" , "competition one's likely to lose?" , "Foolish sport" , "losing battle" .)