Alan Partridge

Alan Partridge is a fictional character invented by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring and portrayed by British comedian Steve Coogan. Two radio and three television series have presented a spoof television and radio presenter through his career - as well as several TV and radio specials, plus appearances on BBC's Comic Relief.

According to the fictional world of Alan Partridge, he was born Alan Gordon Partridge, and spent his childhood in Norwich. Alan was bullied at school by a boy named Stephen McCoombe, who called him 'smelly Alan Fartridge'. Alan won an essay writing competition on the subject of sport (his first foray into the sporting world) and later went on to attend East Anglia Polytechnic.

After graduating, and working his way upwards from hospital radio DJ Alan garnered a slot presenting sports news on BBC Radio 4's On the Hour programme (1991) presented by Chris Morris. In On The Hour Alan suffered from a severe lack of any sporting knowledge. And it is here that he first developed his amazing talent for mixed and/or non-sensical metaphors.

Alan got his first starring role in 1992 as host of BBC Radio 4's Knowing Me Knowing You, a spoof chat show with fictional guests. Alan managed to offend people on his show who would then attempt to disgrace the host. During his tenure on the chat show, Alan hit a child genius, unknowingly took cocaine, lost his wife's car in a bet, was openly homophobic, forced the resignation of a (fictional) Junior Government Minister and had a guest drop dead on air.

There was also a one off spoof-documentary about the show called Knowing, Knowing Me, Knowing You, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at how the show was put together, and the antagonism between Alan and those who worked for him - and gave us a small insight into the problems with his marriage to his wife Carol.

On The Hour transferred to television as The Day Today in 1994, where Alan continued as the Sports Reporter. ('This is Sports Desk... I'm Alan Partridge') The transition to television was to be a success for Alan and was swiftly followed by a television version of Knowing Me Knowing You this time called Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. The format was largely the same as the radio show, with the addition of a 'house band' under the directorship of Glen Ponder (played by musical comedian Steve Brown). In reality, KMKYWAP was a huge success - but in the fictional world of Alan Partridge, it suffered from terrible ratings. In the end the show was taken off the air at the end of the first series - due to the fact that Alan had accidentally shot dead one of his guests. (He was later cleared by an official inquiry)

In 1995, Alan hosted a Christmas Special of KMKYWAP, humourously titled Knowing Me, Knowing Yule. One of his guests was the (fictional) Director of Programming at the BBC, Tony Hayers (later to become Alan's nemesis, played by David Schnieder). Alan, very unsubtly, could be seen probing for a new series of KMKYWAP. However, the show was an unmitigated disaster for Alan, as his product placement was blatantly exposed, and the show climaxed with Alan losing the plot altogether and punching both a man in a wheelchair and Tony Hayers (twice). As Alan cried at the end of the show, "I'll never chat again", while Simply Red played the show out. It was the end of his chat-show career at the BBC.

Partridge next appeared in I'm Alan Partridge (1997), a fly-on-the-wall look behind the scenes of his rapidly failing career. In this television series, he is seen having gained a slot on the fictional BBC Radio Norwich where he continued to offend, this time his listeners. Alan had by this stage taken up residence in the equally fictional Linton Travel Tavern, which was "equi-distant from London and Norwich". The first episode featured Alan meeting with Tony Hayers, begging for a new series on the BBC. Hayers was not impressed, and Alan had to wrap up his production company Peartree Productions, firing all its staff. During his time at the Linton Travel Tavern, we discovered more about Alan's failed marriage, his children (Fernando and Denise) and of course his obsession with Bangkok ladyboys. Alan was also nearly kidnapped by his 'number one fan', a crazed lunatic called Jed. In the final episode, Tony Hayers died after a fall from a roof, and one of Alan's old friends took over as Head of Programmes at the BBC. However, at the decisive moment when the new Head of Programmes was about to sign a five year contract, he keeled over and died, forcing Alan to forge the dead man's signature.

(Please Note:, in the fictional world of Alan Partridge - this was not a documentary, but actually a 'post-documenatry'. In the commentary on the DVD, Alan explains that all the events depicted in the series actually occurred, but everyone in the show apart from himself and his Personal Assistant Lynn Benfield, were actors hired to portray the events in the Linton Travel Tavern after they had actually occurred.)

Coogan was apparently reluctant to continue playing the character, but returned for a second series of I'm Alan Partridge in 2002. This time around, Alan was temporarily living in a caravan while waiting for his new house to be built. Desipte his five-year contract with the BBC, according to Alan there was "bad blood" between them and they were "shits", so they had let him go.

Alan was at this time still working on the radio, but this time he had secured the "third best slot on Radio Norwich", presenting as he does Norfolk Nights. A big leap from his former timeslot of 4 to 7am, when he presented Up With the Partridge. Alan also presents a military based quiz show called Skirmish on the (fictional) cable station UK Conquest, and has a deal with Meteor Productions to make the Crash! Bang! Wallop!... What a Video/Scum on the Run series of car crash videos, and has produced a poorly selling autobiography called Bouncing Back.

In the period from his time at the Linton Travel Tavern to his residence in the "temporary static home", Alan unfortunately suffered a severe mental breakdown and put on a lot of weight, or as he put it, he was "clinically fed up for two years". This collapse culminated in Alan driving to Dundee in his bare feet, while gorging himself on Toblerones. However, by 2002, his life was firmly back on track, save for the odd glitch. He even had a Ukrainian girlfriend called Sonja, who was 33 years old - 14 years younger than himself.

Memorable moments of this series include Alan dry-vomiting his way through a speech about fireplaces, Alan mistakenly getting involved in the world of swingers, Alan attacking a six-foot stuffed Beefeater bear, Lynn's Christening at her Baptist church and of course, the sad pulping of his autobiography which, despite him spending four weeks of his life writing, simply wasn't selling well. It seems the general public was more concerned with buying gangster autobiographies like Bad Slags.

In 2003, Alan again returned to our screen in a half-hour special of Anglian Lives, a fictional regional BBC show. This was presented Ray Woolard (Peter Baynham) and 'Digital Dave', and was basically a sycophantic look at Alan's career, past and present. This is the last time Alan Partridge has appeared on TV. It is unknown whether he will return, but writer Armando Iannucci says it is "doubtful".

List of Appearances

On the Hour (BBC Radio 4, series) 1991
On the Hour (BBC Radio 4, series) 1992
Knowing Me, Knowing You (BBC Radio 4, series) 1992
Knowing, Knowing Me, Knowing You (BBC Radio 4, spoof documentary) 1992
The Day Today (BBC, spoof news series) 1994
Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge (BBC) 1994
A Christmas Ramble (BBC, spoof documentary) 1994
Comic Relief (BBC, with John Thompson) 1995
Knowing Me, Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge (BBC, Xmas special) 1995
The Big Snog (Live show in support of gay rights) 1996
I'm Alan Partridge (BBC, series) 1997
Clive Anderson: All Talk (BBC, spoof interview) 1997
Election Night Armistice (BBC, political satire show) 1997
Brit Awards (presenting award for Best Video to the 'not unattractive' All Saints) 1998
Steve Coogan Live: The Man Who Thinks He's It (Live show) 1998
Comic Relief (BBC, with Bryan Ferry) 1999
Comedy Awards (performing a duet with Elton John) 2000
Comic Relief (BBC, featuring Peter Kay) 2001
I'm Alan Partridge (BBC, series) 2002
Anglian Lives (BBC, spoof interview) 2003

List of Appearances

External Links